Fill-out your name & email address below for a FREE subscription to our newsletter.


Click Here to Read More>>
Exotic Nutrition Archive Page
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Welcoming a pet skunk into your home means accepting all the responsibilities that come with this furry creature. Skunks are generally hardy pets that can live 6-8 years or longer. By the time a skunk begins to show signs of sickness, the illness may already be in an advanced stage and difficult to treat. This is why it is important that you remain vigil toward your pet's health and provide it with the attention and care it desires. Medications and vaccines have not been developed or tested specifically for skunks, but educated veterinarians can help provide your pet with the care it needs. The Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians lists veterinarians with expertise in exotic animal medicine.

While some health issues are genetic and cannot be controlled, you can control the most important factors that help insure that your skunk can live a long and happy life: diet, housing, environment, exercise, social enrichment, and health care. Many skunk illnesses are a result of improper diet. Exotic Nutrition provides a Premium Skunk Diet that is nutritionally balanced and contains all the essential nutrients your pet skunk needs. As a skunk owner, you should be aware of the four most common health concerns for pet skunks: obesity, cardiomyopathy, fatty liver disease, and viral diseases.

1) Obesity is caused by eating a diet too high in fat or by overeating. Look for signs of obesity shown by physical appearance, lethargy, and difficulty walking. You can prevent obesity by not overfeeding, providing a diet that is high in protein and low in fat, encouraging activity, and by weighing your pet weekly to ensure it maintains a healthy weight.

2) Signs of cardiomypathy, or heart disease, include shortness of breath, coughing, weakness, lethargy, lack of appetite and eventual weight loss. While no cure exists, treatment can help improve the quality of life and help prolong life.

3) Fatty liver disease, or hepatic lipidosis, is another common illness seen in skunks. Signs of hepatic lipidosis include anorexia, rapid weight loss, lethargy, vomiting, weakness, and jaundice. Treatment options include a supportive diet and possibly fluids and supplements.

4) Skunks are susceptible to many viral diseases like rabies, canine hepatitis and more commonly, canine distemper. We recommend vaccination against canine distemper with Purevax, especially for skunks that travel with you outside of the home. Signs of canine distemper include weight loss, hardening of the footpads, pus discharge from the eyes and nose, fever, seizures and other nervous system problems.

While many of these health issues are related to weight, it is important to remember that crash diets are dangerous and must be avoided. Any dietary changes for your pet should be slow and gradual. Always remember that the best healthcare you can provide for your pet is preventative health care. Preventing problems is much easier and less expensive than treating them.

See our website for more nutritional Skunk Diets and Supplements!


by: Exotic Nutrition

Monday, March 2, 2015

Introducing new foods to Sugar Gliders


How to introduce new foods into your Sugar Gliders diet.

Sugar gliders can be, and typically are finicky eaters. Not all Sugar gliders will adapt to eating new foods the first time they are offered. The Sugar gliders age, and present diet can be determining factors. Most Sugar gliders adapt to new diets immediately, but if your glider is reluctant, we list several techniques to make the transition.

First ... it is important that you do not allow your Sugar glider to 'fill-up' on treats, fruits or vegetables. Although the fruits and vegetables are quality foods, they do not contain the necessary proteins, fats or other essentials that a Sugar gliders will need in their diet. If your Glider fills up on these other foods, they will not be hungry enough to eat a balanced diet. Many times Sugar gliders will not show interest in new foods when they have plenty of treats and fruits available to eat. Withhold these 'sweet' treats for a few days ... allow your Glider to get hungry, then they will be less reluctant to try new foods.

Sugar gliders are hardy animals, they typically will not starve themselves. When they are hungry enough, they will eat the foods available, if you do not allow them to get hungry enough, then they will just wait for you to offer something different. If you are continuing to supply foods that they 'like' to eat when trying a new diets ... then your Glider(s) will wait for you to bring them the food they are used to eating, rather than be willing to try new foods. You have to be persistent and withhold all of the old diet, supply only the new diet for 2-3 days. When they get hungry enough, they will try the new foods and get used to eating them on a regular basis within a week.

How to introduce Exotic Nutrition foods to your Sugar Gliders' diet.

Suggested Method: Offer Instant-HPW along with the present diet. Instant-HPW is a great tasting, highly nutritious Sugar glider food that can be offered along with the pellet diet, it is flavored with honey and pure vanilla beans (sugar gliders love these flavors). Typically, Sugar gliders will immediately take to a pellet diet when it is offered in conjunction with Instant-HPW.

Gradual Method

Over a 7 day period fill your Sugar Gliders food dish 1/4 full several times a day maintaining the following proportions of the old and new diet.

Day 1 - 90% old diet & 10% new diet

Day 2 - 80% old diet & 20% new diet

Day 3 - 70% old diet & 30% new diet

Day 4 - 50% old diet & 50% new diet

Day 5 - 25% old diet & 75% new diet

Day 6 - 10% old diet & 90% new diet

Day 7 - 0% old diet & 100 % new diet

Sweetening Method

Add 1/2 teaspoon of honey to the pellets, each day cutting back the amount of honey added until you are feeding with-out honey. Gliderade nectar supplement can be used in place of honey if desired, but Instant-HPW is recommended over Gliderade due to it's higher nutritional value.

Please remember .... Just because your glider may not eat a new food the first day that you offer it, doesn't mean that your Glider won't adapt to the new diet in a short period of time. Do not replace the new food with another food .... until you have offered the new food for a 48 hour period. Let your Glider get hungry ... then see if they try a new food.




by: Exotic Nutrition

Home