Even if the cuteness factor is high, sugar gliders do not belong in the living room or children's room at home. The German Animal Welfare Association points this out. Sugar gliders, as they are known in German, are a subtropical marsupial species that is originally native to Australia. The German Animal Welfare Federation has just taken in three of the animals, which require complex care, at its Weidefeld Animal Welfare Center.
“The fact that exotic animals such as sugar gliders can be bred, traded and kept without restriction in Germany is a huge animal welfare problem,” says Dr. Henriette Mackensen, Head of the Pet Department at the German Animal Welfare Federation. Keeping them in captivity would not do the wild animals justice. “Sugar gliders are nocturnal animals that originally live in the forests and bushlands of Australia and New Guinea. In their territories, which can be up to one hectare in size, they glide between the trees at heights of up to 60 meters. These animals belong in their natural habitat; they are completely unsuitable as pets,” says Mackensen.
Nevertheless, exotic wild animals are acquired without much thought because they are something special or because, like sugar gliders, their large eyes make them look like children. The cute sugar gliders are also popular petfluencers on social media, even if filming during the day means extreme stress for the nocturnal animals. As sugar gliders feed on nectar and tree sap from eucalyptus trees as well as insects, which is almost impossible to capture in captivity, they often suffer from malnutrition or obesity, skeletal and dental diseases as well as vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Many exotic animals vegetate in inadequate husbandry conditions.
ANIMAL SHELTERS ARE ALSO OFTEN OVERWHELMED WITH EXOTIC ANIMALS
Time and again, exotic animals end up in animal shelters or are abandoned because the owners cannot meet the high demands of the animals, feel overwhelmed or cannot afford the costs involved. However, the vast majority of animal shelters are not equipped to house and care for exotic mammals such as sugar gliders, marmosets and flying foxes, or reptiles such as snakes, lizards and tortoises, either structurally or in terms of staffing. The German Animal Welfare Association recently adopted three sugar gliders for its Weidefeld Animal Welfare Center in Schleswig-Holstein. After the death of their owner, Merry, Pippin and Rosie were initially sent to an animal shelter in southern Germany, which was unable to cope with the complex care of the animals.
“We also have to improvise when animals like these come to us in need of help,” says Patrick Boncourt, a specialist at the Weidefeld Animal Welfare Center of the German Animal Welfare Federation. “We have to invest money, convert premises, train staff and sometimes travel long distances in search of a qualified vet - and we have to do this again and again for every single one of these exotic species that are now traded in large numbers. The three sugar gliders now live in the Weidefelder Reptile House, where the German Animal Welfare Federation can best meet their temperature and humidity requirements. Also because there is no comprehensive concept for the professional housing of such animals in Germany, the German Animal Welfare Federation is calling for breeding to be stopped.
