Sugar gliders banned in St. Paul

Richard Sennott, Jm - Star Tribune

Sugar gliders are small gliding or (flying) possums native to Australia.

By CHRIS HAVENS, Star Tribune

Last update: December 27, 2007 - 7:18 AM

Gwen Hovde is glad she and her sugar gliders live in Minneapolis.

With a half-dozen of the mini marsupials as pets, she would be a sugar glider scofflaw under a new ordinance approved Wednesday by the St. Paul City Council.

On a 6 to 1 vote, council members banned the nocturnal marsupials that hail from the South Pacific and have flaps of skin from wrists to ankles and a bit of a sweet tooth.

Although St. Paul isn’t teeming with the critters, banning their purchase, sale and ownership is a preventive measure, city officials say. The animals wouldn’t do well in this climate, and are high-maintenance, leading the city’s animal control department to fear frustrated owners would abandon their pets.

The ordinance stems from an incident in which a person was selling the animals at a trade show without a license. Animal control employees did research and found that sugar gliders take a lot of maintenance, make a lot of noise and can smell.

“I think they were misinformed about many things when they made their decision,” said Jeff Stein, who with his wife, Terri, breeds sugar gliders in Lino Lakes.

They have a room full of about 34 adult gliders, which sell for prices starting at $200. “They’re harmless little friendly things.”

He said the smell isn’t that bad if you feed them the right foods.

Critters have complex needs

The Australian government doesn’t generally encourage the keeping of sugar gliders as pets because they’re complex, according to an e-mail between St. Paul and Australian officials. The animals require space to jump around, eat specialized diets and constantly mark territory with their scent, the Australian official wrote.

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