Sugar Glider Color Varieties

Sugar gliders are small marsupials that are kept as exotic pets in the United States. They have small flaps of skin on their arms that look like little wings which allow them to glide through the air when they jump. Sugar gliders are available in a number of different colors varieties.

  1. Shades of Gray

    • One of the more common colorings for a sugar glider is gray. In the gray colorings, there are a number of known mutations that provide different markings on a sugar glider's body. One common mutation is the white face. Generally, a typical gray sugar glider has a stripe of darker gray coloring located underneath both of its ears. With a white face sugar glider, this stripe is missing and replaced with a white patch. These gliders often have lighter circular marks around their eyes than other gray gliders.

      Another gray variation is the white tipped glider. These gliders have tails that vary from the standard markings. Instead of a solid-colored, dark, almost black tail tip, the white tipped gliders have tails with white tips. These white tipped markings can vary from just a few white hairs to up to 2 inches of white hair extending up the tail.

      The third major variation of the gray colored sugar gliders are the mosaic gliders. These gliders have areas of white on their bodies where other gliders do not. The most common is white banding which occurs on the gliders' tails.

    Shades of White

    • Aside from the standard gray sugar glider, gliders in shades of white and cream are also available. Leucistic, or black eyed white, gliders are solid white and have no color on their bodies. They are similar to the albino variation in coloring, except the albinos have pink eyes and the leucistic sugar gliders have black eyes.

      Unlike the leucistic and the albino sugar gliders, the creaminos do have markings. They are generally a light creamy color with markings that are faint and sometimes hard to see. They also have red eyes. Platinum sugar gliders also have visible stripes, yet they are nearly white in color.

    Reddish Browns

    • Among the reddish brown variations is the champagne. Champagne gliders are light brown in coloring. Their stripes and other markings are brown or red in color and generally narrower than the gray varieties' markings. A more reddish colored variety is the cinnamon. Their markings can either be red or brown in coloring. While the buttercream sugar gliders have a brown coloring, their fur seems to have highlights of light yellow or cream coloring. The stripes and other markings themselves are brown or red.