Sugar Glider Questions

I've been thinking about getting a sugar glider for awhile and was wondering if anyone else had any?

If so, can you tell me what the experience has been like? How difficult the care is, their temprement, etc. Also, do they stink? I had ferrets before and they were so freakin smelly regardless of how much you cleaned after them.

I have 6 sugar gliders currently. All are essentially rescues. Two girls lived in a home where they were kept in a back room in a tiny cage and fed beans and baby food for 4 years. One of my males lived in a tiny cage and was fed hamster food (hamster food!), not to mention I was his 3rd owner in less than 6 months. My most recent male was actually kept pretty well. His owners just moved to Washington though and found a vet that knows jack about sugar gliders and recommended that he be fed nothing but an insectivore kibble diet (a good staple food but by no means a complete diet).
Un-neutered males can be really really smelly, think 5 times smellier than a ferret and more urine scented, so thats something you'll probably want to do if you get males haha. Females and NMs don't smell much at all, my glider room is kept at 78-82 degrees and I didn't notice the smell till I got my newest un-neutered male. They can have a bit of a musky smell, but you can't smell it unless you actually put them up to your nose. Their cages can get a bit smelly, but weekly cleaning keeps it down to a minimum.
You'll want to clean/wipe down their cage once a week, and give it a good hose down or deep clean every two weeks to once a month or so. Seed guard work wonders for them. You'll definitely want to use some sort of substrate in the tray of their cage, I use Carefresh and it works really well for odor. Their cage can get really sticky really fast, from food, them peeing/pooping all over the bars etc.
Their temperament varies from glider to glider and is affected by previous care/lackthereof, time spent with them/bonding, where you got them etc. With enough time put into bonding and hand taming most gliders can be really sweet. Also, if you don't have hours every single day to play with one glider, you should definitely get 2. I think 99% are much happier with buddies, though there are exceptions. A few of mine were alone when I got them and they were perfectly happy, but they all (except for the new guy so far) have buddies now.
The most important factors, in my opinion, of owning sugar gliders is diet and a vet. There are many, many diets out there. There are many, many more people out there with advice about diet. My advice to you is to get in contact with a glider knowledgable vet and ask what diet they recommend. Even better you could get a hold of a Australian wildlife rehabber, through email would be easiest I think, and ask what they feed. I currently feed Leadbeaters mix in combo with Reliable Protein Products Insectivore diet, as recommended by my vet.
And the most important, a vet. If there isn't one within a distance you're willing to drive, then a sugar glider(s) isn't for you. I'm not trying to say you wouldn't do that, but it seems like there are a lot of people that don't take this into consideration when they get any new pets. Sugar gliders are much harder to find a good vet for than most pets. On sugar glider boards (take advice on them with a grain of salt) there are threads that pop up with people that get a sugar glider or two for the cool or cute factor, either with research or not, and end up with a sick or injured pet that they can't take care of. So they end up asking how to treat a pouch infection or broken arm at home, and get offended when people tell them to give the animal to someone who can care for it. But I digress.
All in all, they make pretty good pets. Not as high maintenance as a lot of people say IMO, but up there in terms of attention needed. I've only had gliders since August, so I'm not entirely knowledgable but I hope this helped haha. Good luck on your sugar glider endeavors!

Oh, and on another note, if you do get a male or males that need to be neutered, assuming you found a good vet, ask how they are going to go about it. I could link to a disturbing (not graphic except for seeing a glider's manly bits) video on Youtube of how a sugar glider, or any animal for that matter, should NOT be neutered. I've only had one neutered so far, another one that needs to be neutered, and I'm not sure how the actual procedure went down but he was sutured up and I had to give him pain meds and antibiotics twice a day for a week afterwards, unlike what was done/recommended in the video. I don't know if the actual procedure in the video is standard practice, but like I said it's pretty disturbing.

That's a lot of great info, thanks a bunch! I'll check around, talk to some vets and visit some forums. Again i appreciate the advice

I had gliders and loved them, unfortunately they are nocturnal and I am not so they went to a gentleman who loves gliders as much as I do.

There are a lot of glider nazis out there who will try to tel you that their way is the only way especially in dietary matters. These biddies can get militant, so be prepared.

I studied hours and days and weeks and came to my own conclusions and my gliders were happy and healthy.

Good luck!!!