Can Sugar Gliders Eat Celery? [What About The Leaves?]

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Can sugar gliders eat celery? If you’re here, this is probably the question you want to have answered. I was wondering the same thing so I decided to do some research to find out if this vegetable is healthy for your glider to consume. In this overview, I will cover everything you need to know before giving celery to your sugar glider!

Since sugar gliders are exotic pets it’s always a very good idea to double-check before you feed them any new food, and that includes celery. You never know if a certain food can have adverse effects on your glider. We’ve all heard the horror stories of pet owners that fed their pets the wrong foods and that’s definitely something you want to avoid.

Luckily, celery is not dangerous to your pet glider. They can eat celery without any issues. As long as it’s part of a balanced diet there’s no harm in feeding your glider some of this vegetable. Celery is very low in calories so there’s not much risk of overfeeding your glider. Also, it’s a great source of fiber, antioxidants, and vitamin C.

Before you run to the kitchen to grab some celery for your glider, I recommend reading the whole article. That way, you’ll be armed with all the knowledge you need to feed this veggie to your glider safely.

can sugar gliders eat celery

What’s in celery?

a photo of celery

Let’s begin by taking a look at what exactly is in celery to determine if it contains anything that could be considered harmful to sugar gliders.

Celery is a marshland plant that has been eaten as a vegetable since antiquity. In the wild, it grows all around the world but it’s believed to have been first cultivated around the Mediterranean.

The plant consists mainly of water and is therefore very low in calories and fat. Nevertheless, it contains many crucial nutrients for your glider.

This vegetable is a great source of antioxidants such as vitamin C and beta carotene. This prevents DNA damage in your glider. In addition, celery can prevent inflammation.

It also aids digestion in your glider due to the relatively high fiber content.

Overall, there’s nothing in celery that’s harmful to your sugar bear but it does contain a lot of essential nutrients which makes it a good food to give to your glider.

Can sugar gliders eat celery?

Now that we’ve taken a look at what’s in celery we can determine that it is indeed safe for your glider to eat. Nothing in the plant is harmful to your glider and it does contain a good amount of nutrients making it a good vegetable for them to consume!

There’s also not much risk of overfeeding when giving this vegetable to your glider since it’s so low in calories. A cup of this food only contains 16 calories which is the lowest in almost any food. The reason for this is that it’s almost entirely made up of water (95%), which of course contains 0 calories.

Can they eat the leaves?

Like many plants, the celery stalks have leaves attached to them. Gliders can eat these leaves just fine, it doesn’t contain anything that’s harmful to your glider.

Raw, steamed, or boiled celery for sugar gliders?

Sugar gliders can eat this vegetable in all 3 forms: raw, steamed, and boiled are all safe for them. It’s up to you and your glider to decide how to give it to them. I will outline some differences between them though to help you make a decision.

If you feed your glider raw celery make sure to wash it properly to remove any pesticides that may be present on the plant. This is more important if it’s non-organic – if you have organic this is less of a problem. You should also cut the celery in small pieces when feeding it raw; if you do not, the “stringy” parts of the plant can get stuck in their teeth.

If you do not want to feed it raw the best way to go is steaming. Steamed vegetables lose less of their nutrients than boiled vegetables and this is especially the case with celery; steaming allows it to retain 83% to 99% of its antioxidants while boiling removes up to 41% of the antioxidants (source). Since steaming allows it to retain so many more oxidants it’s the healthier option.

Do sugar gliders like to eat celery?

Now that we know that celery is safe for sugar glider consumption you’ll probably want to know if they like eating it. After all, there’s not much point in buying food that they will not eat.

Unfortunately, I can not give you a definitive answer to this question. Gliders can be quite picky in what they will eat, and what they like differs wildly from one glider to another. Some will absolutely love this food while others will not touch it with a ten-foot pole.

The only surefire way to find out is by letting them try it. Luckily celery is not a very expensive vegetable and if they do not want to eat it you can always eat it yourself!

Alternative foods

Sugar gliders can be very picky. They won’t eat everything you give them and to make it even more difficult all sugar gliders prefer different kinds of foods. It’s very possible that your glider is not interested at all in eating celery. If that’s the case, try feeding them some of the foods from the list below instead.

If you’re interested in learning more about the best diet for your glider on a daily basis I’ve written a guide that covers exactly that. It contains a complete list of foods that your sugar glider can safely eat. Also, it covers all the foods that sugar gliders can not eat. I recommend you give it a read because it will teach you a lot about which foods are good, and which foods are harmful to sugar gliders which is crucial information.

How much celery can sugar gliders eat?

The ideal diet of a glider is made up of 25% vegetables and fruits. However, that doesn’t mean that you can make 25% of their diet consist of celery. They need a diverse diet of many kinds of vegetables and fruits.

Celery should only be given to your glider on occasion and as part of a healthy mixture of many different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Refer to the list of alternatives above for other fruits and vegetables you can give your glider.

By giving them a good balance of different kinds of fruits and vegetables they will have more nutritious diets. After all, no two plants are the same and they, therefore, do not all contain the same nutrients.

ThePetFaq Team
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