Can Sugar Gliders Eat Rice?

As a sugar glider owner, you know how tempting it is to spoil them.  Those lovely little eyes seem to work better than the cliché puppy dog eyes! 

If rice is a staple of your diet, you have probably wondered whether or not it could be a staple or even a treat for sugar gliders too. 

You never want to feed your sugar glider something that isn’t good for them.  So always look into each new food you’re considering giving your furry friends.

So what about rice?  Can sugar gliders eat rice? The quick and easy answer is: Yes, sugar gliders can eat both white and brown rice as long as it is cooked first.   

Brown rice has more nutrients than white rice, with the exception of calcium.  Something most sugar glider owners like to monitor in their pets’ diets. 

Remember, your sugar gliders need a wide variety of different foods in their diets so don’t rely on rice alone to feed them.  They’ll need to save room for some fruits, vegetables and other foods too. 

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Both White and Brown Rice?

Sugar gliders can eat both white and brown rice.  Though there are some nutritional differences between the two.  Basically, white rice is brown rice with a lot of the good stuff stripped away. 

As with everything you feed your sugar glider, you need to keep track of their overall calcium to phosphorus ratio. The folks at Medical News Today have a good breakdown of the nutritional difference in this article. 

To see the nutritional information including calcium look at this article from Healthline. As you can see, brown rice has more of nearly everything, except calcium. 

Another important warning to heed when feeding rice to sugar gliders is to make sure your suggies only eat cooked rice.  While there doesn’t seem to be any hard data on uncooked rice being bad for sugar gliders, it is bad for other animals.  So, to be on the safe side, only allow your furry buddy to eat cooked rice. 

Other Things to Remember When Feeding Your Sugar Glider Rice

No single food source can replicate the complex diets wild sugar gliders eat.  So, a diet of just rice will not be good for your big-eyed buddy.  As you saw above, rice does contain a surprising amount of nutritional value though. 

If your sugar gliders do love rice, be sure not to over feed them.  They need to be able to be hungry enough to still eat other foods needed for a balanced diet.

If your sugar glider doesn’t like rice.  There’s nothing to worry about.  Some sugar gliders can be extremely picky eaters.  If you want to increase the flavor of the rice, feel free to mix up another sugar glider safe treat with the rice. 

However, don’t add salt, butter or any of the flavor enhancers we normally use on our own rice.  Most of these aren’t healthy for sugar gliders and have no place in their diets. 

Summary: Can Sugar Gliders Have Rice?

Can sugar gliders eat rice?  In a word: Yes!  Sugar gliders can eat rice.  Brown and white rice are each fine for sugar gliders to eat. 

Be sure to only feed your suggies fully cooked rice.  Don’t feed them too much because rice alone is not a sustainable diet for sugar gliders. 

And don’t add the salt or other goodies you might add to your own rice.  Not everything we eat is safe for our sugar gliders to eat.  If you want to make rice tastier for your sugar gliders, mix it up with another treat when you feed it to them.