Can Sugar Gliders Eat Kale?

Kale, those beautiful, curly leaves, they are tasty whether raw, steamed or juiced.  On top of that, overall, kale is super healthy for us.  Kale really does seem like a super food. 

If kale has such great health benefits for us, it must be healthy for our sugar gliders as well, right?  This is likely a question that has crossed your mind.  As a responsible sugar glider care giver, it’s best to always look up whether a new food is healthy for your suggies before you give it to them.

So, what about kale?  Can sugar gliders eat kale?  The quick and easy answer is: Yes, sugar gliders can eat kale. Thoroughly rinse the kale well before feeding it to your wide-eyed pals.  You need to remove all traces of pesticides before giving kale to your sugar gliders. 

And, unlike most treats, kale does not need to be regulated to a few days a week or less.  Kale makes an excellent daily addition to your sugar gliders’ meals!

How to Prepare Kale to Feed to Sugar Gliders

Just like any other type of produce, kale is best served to your sugar gliders either fresh or frozen.  Absolutely avoid feeding your suggies canned kale.  The canning process uses preservatives that are not healthy for sugar gliders to eat.

Kale, unfortunately, is known to have high amounts of pesticides on it.  So, when feeding fresh kale to your furry friends make sure to wash it extremely well before you give it to them.  Even trace amount of pesticides can be very harmful to your sweeties. 

If you can, go even further than washing kale well and buy organic kale for your sugar gliders.  This will remove the chance of you accidentally feeding harmful chemicals to your tiny buddies. 

Every sugar glider seems to be picky about food in different ways. Some sugar gliders prefer kale raw and crunchy.  Others seems to prefer it softer.  You can freeze kale to really soften it up, or if you only want to remove some of the crunch, you can steam kale leaves for a few minutes. 

Don’t be alarmed and worried if you sugar gliders don’t like kale the first time you give it to them.  Often times sugar gliders need to be offered a new food more than once before they even decide to try it!

With the different ways of preparing kale mentioned above, your sugar gliders will likely enjoy eating kale at least one way.  So, give them all a few tries before giving up on feeding your sugar gliders kale. If your sugar gliders do end up enjoying kale you’ll have found a very healthy addition for their meals.

How Often Can My Sugar Gliders Eat Kale?

Kale makes an excellent addition to your sugar gliders meal, and can be fed daily.  As omnivores, wild sugar gliders eat a lot of different foods to get all of the vitamins and minerals they need. 

So, while kale is great for sugar gliders, it alone does not contain everything a sugar glider needs for a balanced and healthy diet.  Be sure that your sugar gliders eat more than just kale. 

Sugar gliders need their overall diet to have a calcium to phosphorus ratio of 2:1. Kale has an excellent calcium to phosphorus ratio of 2.4:1.  This means kale can be used to offset treats that have a calcium to phosphorus ratio that is less than desirable for sugar gliders.

Summary: Can Sugar Gliders Have Kale?

Can sugar gliders eat kale? In a word: Yes!  Sugar gliders can eat kale as part of their daily diet.  Be sure to rinse all of the pesticides from the kale before giving it your suggies.  Even better, buy organic kale!

You can lightly steam kale for your sugar gliders if they prefer it that way. Just be sure to keep the salt and other spices you might use on your own kale away from your sugar glider’s kale.

Since kale has more calcium to phosphorus than your sugar glider needs, it can be used to offset treats that have high amounts of phosphorus.