New to diets and need input

I was told that I need to change my gliders diet. I went to adopt a new glider and when I told them what I was feeding my glider, they couldn't believe it. When I purchased my first glider, it was 3 years ago and I was given pellet food and vitamins. I was told to give him a small amount of fruit every other day and sprinkle the vitamins on top but make sure he eats his pellet food mostly. Now I am seeing that I was given the wrong information. I have noticed that lots of people on here are cooking for their gliders and that is fine but I don't always have the time. Is there a diet that I can work with? Please help, I want my glider to be healthy.

Jennifer,

I have moved this post here as one of its own so that others will see it and respond to you. I want to make sure you get the answers you are looking for.

Having said that.....
Diets are a controversial subject here in glider world. LOL.
But, what those of us most concerned about glider health and well being are in agreement about is that a diet that uses a dry pellet as the main ingredient is not the best we can do for the babies we love so very much.

You are not at all alone in believing the things you were told from the people who sold to you at the fair. Many people have followed that path and have found themselves right where you are right now. I think that every one of them would tell you now that they are thrilled that they changed their glider's diet and that they would not turn back. Hopefully some of them will come forward and tell you their stories too.

So, in response to your question:

There are many diets that are readily accepted as safe for feeding your glider. Many people with gliders do not have time to prepare something every day. Most of the diets are created such that a staple food is mixed in a blender and then stored in the freezer. This staple mix would last you a long time with only a few gliders. And they are pretty quick and easy to make. I made 8 batches of my staple mix today and it took me less than an hour to do so.
Once the staple mix is made up, if you are short on time, then you can serve it with frozen fruit and frozen veggies. Just be sure to provide a variety of these foods. Others make up some fruit and veggie relishes when they are making their staple mix and freeze these as well. That saves time on the actual day of feeding and allows you to use a whole lot of different fruits and veggies. Davie (BindiandScrubbie) has a lot of great relish recipes and I know she would share them with you.

You will find that once you do it once or twice, it really does not take much time at all and it really does make you feel better knowing you are doing a good thing for your baby.

Diets that you could use include: HPW, BML, Priscilla Prices' diet, HPW plus, PML
You can find those recipes listed right here in this section - they will be listed at the top of the forum list.

I don't have only a few gliders, so I can't give you an approximate time, but I bet if you use simple fruit and veggie plan, then I bet it wouldn't take more than 5 minutes of your time each day. You certainly do not have to cook for them. Cooking for them is something that some of us do out of love, not out of necessity. If you don't have time, then that is not something that you have to do at all.

Others will be along to give you their input.

My gliders are on HPW with some green juice added. They love it. It takes me maybe 10 minutes to make a batch and that lasts several days, even with 13 gliders. A lot of days, I like to cut up fresh fruits and vegetables for them, but some days I am lazy and just scoop out frozen veggies (I usually have a mix sitting in the freezer of 1 bag of Bird's Eye mixed vegetables and 1 bag Bird's Eye cut green beans and just scoop out a tablespoon for each) and frozen fruits (blueberries or a berry mix that I don't feel I have to chop up). On the days they get fresh, these are the fruits and veggies they may get, some days they get a bigger variety out of these than others:

Vegetables:
Sweet Potatoes
Carrots
Broccoli
Sugar Snap Peas
Cucumber
Spinach
Collared Greens

Fruits:
Apples
Grapes
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Honey Dew
Strawberries
Raspberries
Cherries (sometimes frozen, too)
Mango (sometimes frozen, too)
Avocado (very rarely as it is fattening and I have some chunky monkeys here)

I'm getting more and more "daring" for lack of a better word, and we are trying new stuff here and there.

You can also take and cut up vegetables and fruits once a week or so and freeze them or store them in the fridge to make it easier on the days you don't have as much time.

Good luck! Take a look at all of the wonderful diets and pick the one you believe works best for you and your gliders.

i have 3, stitch innie and audi, i feed fresh fruit every night with frozen veggies and HPW. if you count the time it takes me to wash three food cups, a knife and a cutting board it takes all of 10 minutes to feed.

my grocery store kind of sucks at veggie selection, so i choose to buy the frozen, i used to feed fresh veggie and fruit, but i've found that my gliders like more of the veggies in the frozen mix, than what is availble fresh.

a question i've had for awhile and just forget to ask, those that use frozen fruit and veg, do you allow them to thaw before giving to gliders? or do you give it frozen?

I do have some great relish recipes that I can email you here if you want, just pm me your email address as it's a Word document.

I have to say though that I only use these relish recipes now and then, not like I used to as I primarily cut up fresh with some frozen. Those relish recipes are good though if you want to just plop frozen cubes out every night with their staple. Very fast for nightly feeding.

Like last night, they had:

Honeydew - fresh
Watermelon - fresh

Everything else came from a bag in the freezer that I chop up, mix up, and store.

Blueberries
Papaya
Bok Choy
Carrots (finely grated as for some reason mine eat them grated but not chopped)
Green Beans, Peas & Corn
Edamame (very sparse amount)

And Will....I thaw mine out before serving. Mostly on the counter but sometimes in the microwave. I am a baby and don't want my babies getting a brain freeze. LOL

i worry about a chipped tooth with frozen i usually pariatlly unfreeze mine so it will stay cold, and be good later in the night.

I feed them frozen, the gliders don't seem to mind. Although, sometimes they do pass it from hand to hand and I wonder if they do that because it's so cold. Either way, it usually thaws out pretty fast.

i've heard mine bang frozen ones against the side of their cups, i don't know if they are trying to break up or what but i don't think they like it lol

Will
Their teeth are created to rip bark off of trees. They are not going to chip a tooth eating a frozen piece of corn or pea.

IF you feed it frozen, it thaws so fast that it is not going to do them any harm.

Thank you all for your help. I am looking forward to trying some of this stuff. Your responses are appreciated.