Why Neutering is important!

[Marie]

It seems that people can't appreciate a Sugar Glider for what it is - they need to breed them, but with breeding comes certain responsibilities like finding a good knowledgable home for the joey's.  Either that or keep all the joeys but then you'll end up with THAT many suggies you won't know what to do with them.  In the UK the Suggie market has already dipped, when I first looked into getting some they were £600 a pair!  Now they sell on the classifieds for a pittance. It is such a shame, they're wonderful animals and deserve (and need) the best care.  They shouldn't be in shops or with wholesalers it's just not the right environment for them.

Have a look at the numbers below, how long is it going to be before the UK is saturated with unwanted Suggies?  Getting your male/s neutered is important to the quality of life future Suggies will get, it's important to keep the gene pool clean, so far our Gliders are healthy, but how long will it take for them to become riddled with genetic disorders and immune system weakness because every man and his dog are breeding them and not keeping them properly?

These numbers were calculated by a lady called Cyndie in the USA.  A suggie can have more than 4 joeys in a year!!!

1 male glider lets say he has 4 babies a year look what happens in lets say just 5 yrs of breeding

1x4= 4 add babies and dad 4+1= 5 at end of yr 1 (5)
5x4= 20 add babies and dads 20+5=25 at end of yr 2 (25)
25x4= 100 add babies and dads 100+25=125 at end of yr 3 (125)
125x4= 500 add babies and dads 500+125=625 at end of yr 4 (625)
625x4=2500 add babies and dads 2500+625=3125 at end of yr 5 (3125)

So ... that's 3125 joey's to find GOOD homes for ...

© Shropshire Exotics 01/01/07