Can Sugar Gliders Eat Honey?

There aren’t many foods more versatile than honey.  Whether we use honey to flavor drinks, eat it on the comb or sweeten up our Thanksgiving ham or Sunday morning breakfast, it is always a treat. 

For humans, the health benefits of honey are vast.  Do sugar gliders get the same health benefits from honey that we do?  No doubt, as someone who loves to spoil their sugar gliders, you’ve probably considered giving them some honey. 

Before you offer any new food or treat to your suggies, always be sure to look into whether or not they can have it.  Sadly, not all of our healthy food is also healthy for our sugar gliders.

So, what about honey?  Can sugar gliders eat honey?  The quick and easy answer is: Yes, sugar gliders can eat honey.  Honey is an excellent treat to mix in with your sugar gliders’ meals.  Though sugar gliders can have honey, it should be a rare treat.

What Kind of Honey Can Sugar Gliders Have?

Sugar gliders should not be fed honey on the honeycomb.  For that matter, no honeycomb should be present in the honey you treat your sugar gliders to.  The beeswax can cause problems with digestion for your sugar gliders.

There is a great debate that seems to be raging among sugar glider owners as to whether or not sugar gliders can eat raw honey.  The argument against raw honey is that there are many more impurities.  These impurities, including spores can make your sugar gliders ill.

While it is true there are more impurities in raw honey, the odds of these impurities making your furry friends sick is very low.  So, when it comes to feeding raw honey to your sugar gliders, it really comes down to your risk tolerance.  Likely, they will encounter no problems. 

The caveat is, do not feed raw honey to baby sugar gliders.  They need to have a full immune system before they can eat raw honey.

Commercially available honey is usually cooked and should be labeled as such.  While cooked honey (and to an even greater degree cooked and filtered honey) will have most of the impurities neutralized, a lot of the benefits of honey will also be neutralized. 

Of course, cooked honey is still sweet, so it does still make a tasty treat for your sugar gliders.

How To Feed Honey To Sugar Gliders

Sugar gliders really should not have a lot of honey in their diet.  So, portion control is very important. 

Honey, by itself, can be used as a treat.  Honey, by itself, can be used as a treat just because.  But, it is an especially good treat to use to distract a biting sugar glider!

Some sugar glider owners like to hang a honey stick up to make a game for their suggies. 

Because you need to monitor your sugar gliders’ honey intake, it is better to mix a little honey in with their meals rather than give it as a stand alone treat.  Honey can be especially useful to get sugar gliders to eat the foods they are ignoring but should eat. 

Depending on the diet they are feeding their sugar gliders, some owners like to put a little honey on the pellet food they feed to their sugar gliders.  This is a great way to liven up an otherwise dry and sometimes boring meal. 

Honey can also be used to get your sugar gliders to eat more calcium dense vegetables.  Sugar gliders need to have a calcium to phosphorus ratio of 2:1. This isn’t always easy to achieve, but with some honey put on some key greens, it becomes much easier.

Summary: Can Sugar Gliders Have Honey?

Can sugar gliders eat honey? In a word: Yes!  Sugar gliders can eat honey, but you should treat them to honey rarely.  There is a debate about whether or not sugar gliders can eat raw honey, but it really comes down to your risk tolerance.  Remember to avoid feeding raw honey to baby sugar gliders.

Honey is an excellent way to improve the taste (and therefore how much your sugar gliders will eat!) of the foods your suggies are avoiding.