Appropriate question.
In brief: Producing a single healthy glider for you can easily cost $10,000, and often more. Individual gliders start at an average of $250 and extend to over $2,500 with a $1,000 start-up cost. Every part of this cost is appropriately founded for the well-being of the individual glider and the entire species. Topics below include care and breeding expenses, rare gliders, buying cheaper gliders, rescues, & community support
Why do hang gliders cost so much, and lessons to learn how to hang glide solo cost so much? Those who want to hang glide, and find out it costs more than $50, do not give up. Interested glider people look into preparation and value their experience, and their team members met along the way. These are the glider people ending up with long term great and memorable experiences. We know it is best to not cut corners with something like flying a hang glider, or caring for sugar gliders.
Time, start up cost, proper care, and all of the resources in between cost massively.
Let's explain:
Explaining the price of sugar gliders starts with identifying a monetary minimum describing the lowest expense a breeder must handle. No breeder, hobby or professional, succeeds by utilizing below-minimum for their sugar gliders.
The minimums identified are approximate and bring attention to the significance of expenses a safe sugar glider breeder must be responsible for in order to produce healthy joeys. These numbers are averages, vary greatly from location to animal, and can not represent a breeding situation particularly.
These figures accurately represent the expenses of owning sugar gliders, and the sale cost of a glider from a reputable breeder.
It is paramount a potential owner can handle this and other expenses.
Those who can teach others, properly, spend thousands of hours educating themselves on husbandry, how to handle emergencies, and the best way to keep progress on track. For someone who could be earning minimum wage in that time, that is nearly $10,000 varying with state or country. With sugar gliders, this could be owners, breeders, or researchers who are spending their time educating others. Value the time and free information. Most reputable breeders are career professionals earning far more than minimum wage. This is some of the income lost to education only, which does not include glider care expenses.
Myth: Sugar Gliders make breeders money, that's why Sugar Gliders are expensive.
Fact: Breeders make no profit, the price of sugar gliders directly reflects their quality and care needs.
In sugar gliders, healthy and safe breeding stock can cost in excess of $1,000.00 per animal, it takes two, and most breeders have more than one pair. While some breeding gliders are less, some can be over $2,000.00. (Total: $1,000+)
A proper enclosure can be an average of $200.00 or more, supportive enrichment and dietary needs can come to well over $200.00 per enclosure, from glider-proofing to designing play areas, to materials and space to create and store their meals every day.
Cost: $1,400+
Adults are retired after a short few years of breeding. To continue developing lines, a breeder must add in new animals, or maintain younger safe pairs in new breeding cages. Joeys must move to their own enclosures before they reach sexual maturity to prevent inbreeding. Enclosures are replaced as they wear out over time. Cages may cost in excess of $200.00 each.
Cost: $2,800+
While a breeder may have the time and skills to craft their own toys and cage sets, one toy is usually over $20.00 in materials, shipping, or purchase cost. Smaller enrichment objects may cost less and some cost significantly more. Obtaining or manufacturing one sleeping pouch is usually in excess of $20.00, and there are many of each inside every enclosure. A breeder will most likely use bonding pouches, which are made slightly differently. Many owners and breeders manufacture toys for other glider parents or make their own. Consider the cost of materials from craft stores – it is alarmingly easy to drop $200.00 at Michael's. It is worth noting the dedicated time and passionate energy goes into creating these toys, and many vendors will make them custom-tailored to your gliders or cage setups. A proper running wheel costs in excess of $50.00, often there are more than one in each cage. Some cost a little bit less, and others cost quite a bit more. The best wheels are hand made by approved vendors, and no wheel available in a pet store is safe for sugar gliders.
Cost: $3,350+
Cage cleaning occurs daily. Safe cleaning supplies take time to mix, there is start-up cost to purchase ingredients, time to spend cleaning, and disposal, water and electric contribute to property expenses. This varies weekly and is cumulative. For ease of calculation, we add only $100.
Consider air purifiers for odor ($300+), humidifiers for respiratory health ($50+), safe heating or cooling elements ($100+), and the variety of safe flowers, herbs and produce to grow for sugar gliders. The cost of plants is not included. Expenses of gardening materials, starter plants, organic supplements, time and space vary too greatly.
Sleeping pouches and travel carriers for gliders going to new homes must be arranged for beforehand, some include toys, bonding pouches, and treats with their gliders for comfort. Next, consider delivery and shipping expenses to each new home, wear and tear on breeder's transportation, and personal risk – those expenses also vary too greatly and cannot be estimated accurately. ($4,000+ and add expenses every 4 to 6 months to account for new joeys.)
Neutering for a joey may cost $100.00 plus initial exam, recovery care, follow-up care and recheck appointment fees. More or sometimes less depending on where.
Neutering retired breeding males will cost the same.
Cost: $4,200+
Hospitalization and medical care for wounds from breeding have no limit of cost. Sometimes a male or female will be injured and cannot breed again, a breeder must replace the glider with the new and safe breeding individual. Emergency cages are on hand if a pair needs separating. Often a breeder will stay up all night watching over their animals, or spring into action at the first sign of a problem (usually around 3 A.M.) and managing issues such as injuries can cost all night and a trip to the emergency veterinarian. Sometimes this will go on for days, or happen a week later in different gliders.
Reputable breeders do everything in their power to keep their animals safe and healthy. Accidents can happen.
Sometimes joeys get rejected. The breeder must raise the joey for weeks by hand, feeding every hour, or the joey will die. Sometimes there is more than one. Sometimes the joey will still die under proper care, which is heartbreaking after many, many hours of constant nursing.
Breeding diets are more complicated than normal sugar glider diets, and sometimes a mother can be stressed, requiring intervention and nursing care or the mother and joeys may die.
Sometimes a joey may die or get sick while still inside of their mother's pouch. The mother will cannibalize her joey to save herself. Sometimes the joey isn't small when this happens. Sometimes there are unpleasant remains.
Necropsies including same-day shipping can be over $200. Cremation and a memorial can top $200.
Cost: $7,600+
Note: Two females kept together or in a trio may fight, kill each other, eat or kill each other's joeys, switch joeys– requiring attention to maintain pedigree accuracy– or they may breed just fine for a while. This is regardless to their relationship. Non-breeding females will also fight over dominance. Male/Female or Neutered Male/Female is the most complimentary pair. It's not "if" something happens, it's "when," and nothing can predict the severity or when it happens again.
A veterinarian on-call demands in excess of $150.00 for medical assistance after-hours, and being nocturnal, sugar glider problems happen almost always after-hours. Medication, hospitalization, out-patient materials and care, recheck appointments, another after-hours emergency visit, laboratory diagnostics, radiography (x-ray), dental or orthopedic emergencies, etc. very quickly add up.
For reputable breeders, emergencies rarely happen. When it does, no one can predict the severity or recovery potential. Breeder and veterinarian must begin the next day of their normal work, exhausted and still attending to their ill gliders, for many days and the glider may never fully recover. Recall the costs of replacing breeding gliders, hospital enclosures, time, transportation costs, and potentially separating one colony into two.
Cost: $8,600+
Sometimes there are hookups for fresh food available to breeders, oftentimes not. Protein staples like quality meat and eggs are regularly market price. Manufactured ingredients are often name-brand for safety, quality, and dietary accuracy. Fresh, raw honey is a significant expense. There are import and/or shipping fees for required ingredients breeders order from distant providers, on top of the purchase cost.
Cost: $8,800+ and $200+ per year for proper food
Here we are... At least $9,000* of cost to produce one or two healthy, friendly sugar gliders just for you.
Subtract $10,000.00 from breeder's income, per year, to educate others. Reputable breeders care deeply about sugar gliders. They will provide other homes with their own time for the owners to enjoy these little creatures to their fullest, for a lifetime.
* This number is an absolute minimum and is unrealistic. Countless costs were omitted. The legitimate expense can be significantly more, some costs may be less, and how much more or less will vary over time depending on many factors. In most cases, the realistic expense for an experienced breeder is always greater than this.
It is not possible to estimate an average cost for all sugar glider breeders in general. Costs vary too greatly from the number and type of animals they care for, to the number and type they sell, to accidents and acts of nature, and how much time and money they put into slaving for their beloved sugar gliders.
Someone raises healthy sugar gliders to improve the species as a whole, and they share the incredible marsupials with those who bring love and respect for experiencing life with them.
These are some of the expenses of a reputable breeder. These are also some of the expenses any owner must cover. New owner minimum start-up cost: $1,000
Do you believe $200 or more is "too much" for one sugar glider?
When a normal, standard color pet-only glider who must live with other healthy gliders in a proper environment, with proper diet, and receive proper veterinary attention is listed for sale, the price is for the Glider.
This number is the average minimum cost of a lineage bred glider and hardly reflects the level of care an owner must be responsible for, for any glider's lifetime. A level of devotion and investment into the animal, to care for them and work with them to provide both glider and owner with a long-lasting, meaningful and very special relationship.
Myth: It's bad business to sell rare colors of sugar gliders for more money.
Fact: Rare colored gliders cost more to produce.
Other gliders who are much rarer phenotypes are, appropriately, more cost to sell. These animals are simply more valuable because significantly more time and cost goes into producing them healthily, safely, and ethically.
The number of gliders able to always produce rare colors is lower, and it takes professional breeders many years of cross-breeding and breeding-out heterozygous gliders to raise offspring that genetically carry or physically express rare colors. Most importantly, these carefully-bred animals are genetically healthy and can promote their unique traits in future generations.
It is very costly to properly ensure unique dominant or recessive colors are passed into healthy offspring. It is time-consuming and expensive to pair these offspring with other healthy sugar gliders to reproduce the color with respect to improving genetic diversity in the limited pet population.
The cost of a glider of standard or rare color reflects the cost of producing that glider.
Most breeders sell gliders at the most affordable amount possible, while ensuring it is appropriate for the individual sugar glider.
The price is for the glider.
The price is not for the breeder, or for anyone to make money.
For those saying "don't pay more for another color," they must look at what goes into properly breeding for healthy phenotypes, and exactly why those colors are rarer.
If a potential owner cannot afford the lowest price for one glider alone, they may want to reassess why they are asking a reputable breeder for sugar gliders, and if they can care for these special animals long-term.
It is not okay to buy gliders without documented lineage off Craig's List, from pet stores, or at the fair hoping to save money.
In this article, we discuss why gliders without lineage are more expensive to their owners, reputable breeders, and every other sugar glider on the planet.
This fact is not to do with encouraging breeding and discouraging rescues. This is to do with raising healthy animals that will experience long and meaningful relationships with human families and further the future of all sugar gliders.
Consider these thoughts about why reputable breeders take on so much for the improvement of the species:
Why do breeders need to be so careful?
Why are unhealthy or unethically bred gliders cheaper?
Yes, sometimes you can find gliders who need to be re-homed for cheaper than sale price online, or sometimes through other advertisements. If they were from a breeder, for whatever reason they cannot go back to that breeder. Take this into consideration.
Many re-homed gliders found in unscrupulous online markets are not in the best health or are not properly socialized. Consider that senior single gliders who have lived with the same owner for their whole life are known to die when left to a new home or a rescue. The glider loses the only partner it has ever known, it is difficult to introduce them to another glider, and stress/depression often becomes fatal very quickly.
Note: Some breeders will re-home older, retired pairs and they have done well in new families. From one loving home into another and with a bonded mate, this situation is more conducive to happy gliders and happy humans. Two gliders together are much better off going to a new home, and older gliders will bond with a new family the same as any other age.
Rarely, someone is in an emergency situation and must re-home their healthy animals, and they may lower price so that new owners can pay for the sugar gliders immediately and take them home right away. Potential homes must be in a better, permanent situation to ethically take these animals. Nobody wishes for this.
Rescues are not a good idea for a new owner. Sometimes there is a good fit to be found in a rescued sugar glider. In these matters, consult a reputable breeder or reputable sugar glider community members (several) beforehand. It will do all parties good to be prepared and know what they are getting into. This is for the betterment of all pet sugar gliders we have today.
We work with payment plans here. Many other sugar glider providers will work with you, too. Understandably, $1,000 or more start-up cost is big. Monthly income isn't usually open to that much at once, and it's okay to need some time to save for setups, gliders and future vet bills.
Take your time preparing and before long you will have your sugar babies with you at home. We will always take back any glider an owner can no longer care for. They can come home to their first family in an emergency time of need. Many other hobby or professional breeders will do this also, as well as offer a health guarantee alongside their carefully bred joeys.
If anything happens, a reputable breeder is there for the owner.
Understand this is not a leasing, or "buy with birthday money then dump when they lose their charm" scenario. Naturally, if cared for right and bonded with properly, owning sugar gliders never loses its charm.
Moreover, every year together creates new memories and experiences between sugar gliders and their families, lasting a lifetime and extending across all generations.