Sugar Glider Colors

Sugar Gliders are named after their ability to glide through the air and their sweet tooth. In the wild, sugar gliders eat sweet sap from the eucalyptus and acacia tree and glide distances of up to 200 feet. The little animal also makes an adoring pet that can also show off its gliding ability in the home.

  1. Sugar Gliders

    • Sugar gliders big black eyes and rare abilities make them a popular choice for a domesticated pet. The sugar glider's most exciting characteristic is the membrane attached to the front toe that runs to the hind foot. The membrane allows the sugar glider to glide through the air long distances, up to 20 feet in captive environments. The sugar glider's color variations are based on recessive genes and alleles that determine patterns. The animal comes in many variations of three basic colors.

    Gray

    • Color patterns and variation of gray are the most common of sugar glider colors. Gray sugar gliders can be all gray, gray with a white face, and mostly light gray with dark gray markings. The gray variation mixed with cream and brown is called mosaic or calico and is distinguished by different color patches all over the body. There is also a mosaic pattern called the ring-tail that has a multicolored tail like that of a lemur.

    White

    • The white sugar glider is the rarest and most expensive color variation. An all-white sugar glider is less common because the probability of offspring inheriting the two recessive genes necessary to produce all white is low. The white color variation includes two kinds of all-white animals. The albino is all white with red eyes, and the leucistic is all white with black eyes. Creamino, a light cream color with red eyes and a darker stripe down the back, is also a white color variation

    Brown

    • Brown sugar gliders come in different patterns and shades of brown, red-brown and tan. Brown sugar gliders have different color faces including auburn, cream, honey and reddish brown. They also have dark brown, red and black-brown stripes on the top of the head and down the back of the body. The lightest brown color variation is called lion, and the darkest color variation is called black beauty.