How Rare Are Albino Sugar Gliders?

Sugar Gliders are a top pick for pet lovers due to how adorable and low maintenance they are. You must have seen them many times as pets as they can easily be litter-trained and don’t require grooming as often. Again, if you’re looking for something unique and special Sugar bears have some rare species that you can consider. For example: Albino Sugar Gliders.

Pigmentless skin and a unique pair of red eyes make them the most attractive sugar gliders. And their genotype is the reason why they’re so rare. So if you’ve seen pet stores charging more for Albino Sugar Gliders, don’t get baffled.

Are Albino Sugar Gliders Threatened?

Habitat destruction and fragmentation are a massive threat to other Animals as well as Albino Sugar Gliders. A lot of destruction has been happening where Sugar Gliders used to nest in Australia and New Guinea making it a little difficult for them to survive. However, according to IUCN, it has been classified as “least concern” on their red list for a long time.

That was the story until 2019. Then a devastating wildfire occurred in Australia that lasted for almost six months. Sadly, it burnt a huge part of forests where Sugar Gliders used to habitat.

So this Wildfire caused a lot of harm to Sugar Gliders including Albino Sugar Gliders. If this kind of natural disaster keeps attacking us, and habitat destruction turns into a permanent problem, the existence of these little creatures will be threatened. But for now, thankfully, it’s not a big concern.

Genotypes of Sugar Gliders

Photo: Needpix

Genotypes matter how a sugar glider is going to look like. Depending on the species, two types of genotypes are seen in Honey Gliders. 

• Dominant Traits:

  If only one of the parents carries an allele that can be shown on the produced offspring’s look, it’s because of the dominant traits. Both parents don’t need to carry the gene in themselves to pass it down to their joey. But one parent has to visually display the allele; only carrying it in his/her blood isn’t enough.

• Recessive Traits:

  Recessive traits are different from Dominant traits. Here with recessive traits, parents need to carry the same alleles to pass on to the next generation. For this, the Sugar Bear parents don’t need to visually display the traits for their offspring to get it.

Just by having the gene in their blood can do the job. So apparently, this is the more difficult one between the two genotypes and that’s why the Sugar Gliders who are recessive are rare.

How Rare Albino Sugar Gliders?

Albino Sugar Gliders are recessive. That’s why you need to keep a pair of non-Albino Sugar Gliders together and each of them should carry an Albino gene.

Sounds like a lot of work?

Yes, this is why the Albino species is considered one of the rare Sugar Gliders although there are a lot of Sugar Gliders inhabiting the wild and this marsupial isn’t even close to extinction. In the large population of Sugar Gliders, Albinos are the most demanding. Are they really? Keep reading to find the answer.

Is Albino Sugar Gliders the Rarest?

It’s not. Many species of Petaurus Breviceps have the same genotype as Albino’s. Because of the recessive traits, Some species of Sugar Bears are rarer than those with Dominant traits. Some other rare Gliders are–

• Ruby Leucistic:

  This is the rarest Honey Glider. The breed is a mixture of both Leucistic and Cremeino and both parents carry the gene for both variations. They have pigmentless white skin from the Leucistic and bright red eyes from Cremeino.

• Albino Sugar Gliders:

  With an overall white body color, Albinos have eyes varying from pink to red. It may look weird to some people, but in the pet world, it’s considered to be very unique and adorable. With the recessive genotype, Albino Honey Gliders are less seen as pets.

• Cremeino Sugar Gliders:

  With a skin color that varies from white to cream, Cremeino Sugar Gliders have a faint line that crosses their forehead to tail. Their eyes are always misunderstood as black whereas they’re dark red when they come in contact with light.

• Red/Strawberry Sugar Gliders:

  It’s not usual to have reddish-to-strawberry-colored fur in Sugar Gliders. They have eyes that resemble Ruby because of the red colour(Red fur, red eyes, everything is so red, right?). It’s assumed that the mixture of Cremeino and Albino genes has resulted in the red color of this species.

• Ruby Platinum:

  The name says it all. It’s a very rare breed and has been bred recessive to recessive to attain this species. These babies are Platinum and Cremeino combined but look exactly like Albino Sugar Gliders. White fur and red eyes are the traits that make them Ruby Platinum. But it’s not Albino because they refuse to carry the Albino genes.

• Piebalds:

  The darker color of fur patches on a Mosaic Sugar Glider best explains this species. It’s a rare Honey Glider and is a unique-looking pet to have. The little patches make it more adorable and attractive.

Where Can Sugar Gliders Be Seen?

These little creatures used to be seen both in a large area of Australia and New Guinea. But recent analyses are breaking the hearts of nature lovers since it has been reported that marsupials haven’t been seen as before. The devastating 2019/2022 wildfire has burnt a massive area of forests that used to be the shelter for Honey Gliders. Since then tourists have stopped sighting them where they used to be.

Anyway, there are still some spots to watch Sugar Gliders running here and there, and sometimes even gliding from one tree to another. The best places to spot them are Southeastern Australia, Southern Queensland, and New South Wales. Other than that, you can peek inside zoos that have Sugar Gliders and watch them as long as you want.

How Much Do Sugar Gliders Cost?

It totally depends on the age and breed of how much a sugar glider is going to cost. Typically, you may have to spend around $350-$1500 for a Glider baby that may also come litter-trained. The price for adults is a little less than for offspring, making you spend from $150 up to $1000. Sometimes your location can manipulate the price but hopefully, there shouldn’t be a huge difference.

Sugar Gliders are highly social, so living alone can disrupt their mental wellness. Keeping them in pairs or buying a group means an increase in budget. You can consider buying an inexpensive species with an expensive one to keep it budget-friendly.