Grace the sugar glider, 15, still makes her home at SC-CARES

Grace is a sugar glider that was rescued from a breeding mill in California. These adorable little creatures are bred in situations such as “puppy mills” to be sold in pet stores across the nation.

Even before the beginning of SC-CARES, we started taking in animals that had nowhere to go, and Grace and three of her friends were among those we moved to South Carolina with us. A breeding mill was raided and ordered to be shut down, and Animal Control had made a decision to euthanize the gliders. A fellow rescuer purchased an airline ticket, flew to California and brought back four of the gliders set to be put down.

Gracie, Will, Bob and Sherrie came to live with us. Sugar gliders normally live eight to 10 years in captivity, and to date, Grace is the last glider still living from this group. At 15 years old, we’re amazed that she’s still hanging in there. She does have cataracts but seems to get along fine with the help of her friend Squirt.

There are breeders selling the infant joeys to make a profit while we’ve turned away gliders that we didn’t have room for, and currently, there are sugar gliders on petfinder.com that are up for adoption. These breeders market them as “Sugar Bears” or “Pocket Pets,” which makes them even more appealing.

What they may not emphasize is that they are nocturnal and prefer to be left alone during the day. They also have a musky smell naturally, can be messy to clean up behind and should live for at least eight to 10 years. Please consider adoption instead of buying and continuing to support the breeding mills.

Sugar gliders are very similar to our flying squirrels found here on the North American continent, but these little babes are in the wild in Australia. Sugar gliders are marsupials, which mean females have a pouch in which to carry their young, like kangaroos, koalas and opossums. They also have a prehensile tail (able to grasp or hold), which allows them to hold onto branches like primates do when moving through treetops. Creatures that live in trees are called arboreal.

Sugar gliders are very social creatures and, in the wild, live in colonies and share finding food and watching for predators, such as owls, snakes and feral cats. Gliders are omnivores, which means they eat plants and animals. In the wild, one of their favorite things are eucalyptus leaves, but they also would eat nectar, seeds, bird eggs, fungi (mushrooms) and fruits and bugs of all kinds.

Here at SC-CARES, our gliders get a variety of pellets (formulated especially for glider nutrition), cereal mix, all sorts of fruits and veggies, plus mealworms, which they really love! Every Sunday, we give them yogurt drops (also formulated for gliders), giving them a calcium boost, and they gobble them up. Who could blame them, as the drops smell like cake batter — umm good!

Sugar gliders, being arboreal and living in the treetops, are very agile at getting around. This is due in part to a flap of skin between the front and back legs called a patagium. They can’t technically fly, but when they stretch their legs out while jumping, the patagium extends and looks like a hang glider, giving them the effects of flying.

When they launch themselves from one tree to another, the patagium enables them to glide 150 feet or more. They do all of these acrobatic feats in the dark, since being nocturnal, they sleep during the day and are active at night. Their large eyes give them the ability to see better with little or no light. They are really amazing creatures and should not be held captive for human entertainment.

This story was originally published September 2, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Grace the sugar glider, 15, still makes her home at SC-CARES."