zoologicallyobsessed:

No they are not suitable pets. I’m Australian so sugar gliders are native from here and I’ve never heard of them being kept as pets until recently. It seems to be a thing in America and other countries. So I was pretty shocked.

I am against any wildlife being kept as pets. Because they’re wild animals, they are not domesticated. As wild animals, people who aren’t professionals or are educated in animal science or handling are not equipped to properly care for these animals. Even people who are professionals won’t be likely to keep wildlife as “pets” because they understand that these animals are next to impossible to care for in a personal home, compared to actual animal facilities. 

There is not one non-professional person that will be able to properly care for wildlife:

• VET – wildlife will need specific and specialised vet professionals which will be very expensive plus there’s having to transport the animal to said vet which will likely be far away
•  DIET- wildlife need specific diets and these can be very expensive. Sugar guilders for example are 

  insectivores, omnivores and nectarivores. This means they need insects, meat, vegetation and tree sap / nectar.

• ENCLOSURE – sugar gliders would require a massive amount of space. I’m not talking about a few meter cage but something as big as what an animal enclosure at a zoo would look like. This cage would need to be filled with vegetation, branches, nesting boxes, places to hide, ect. And would have to regularly be cleaned out and replaced which I imagine would take more then a few hours.
•  – sugar gliders are also social animals. Most of the stories i’ve heard of people keeping them as pets, I’ve only hear of them keeping one. Sugar gliders live in family groups consisting of up to 7 adults + the young. So these pets would need to be kept in at least groups of 6-7 to give them proper care

The above care is attempt to replicate the wild animal’s natural habitat as opposed to with domesticated animals. This is because domestication is the result of selective breeding over 100′s of generations that changes said animal for human benefit. 

It seems that a lot of people don’t actually seem to understand 

domestication. There’s this attitude of “well we’re breeding this animal for domestication! So its okay to have them for pets!”. I’ve heard this in regards to foxes as well as wildlife like sugar gliders. 

That’s not how it works. Domestication is a process over centuries. Dog’s were domesticated over 30,000 years ago, hence why we see so much difference between breeds and dogs from wolves. 

The foxes in Russia are therefore not domesticated, they are tamed and have been bred for friendlier traits, but they are not domesticated.