So here's a question.
Are there any hard numbers anyone can find about how many sugar-gliders might be in the pet trade right now? And has there ever been any research done on how many are imported from the wild? How many are there in the wild?
Home bred? Mill Bred? How many of those owners come to forums like this for info, and how many are "Winging it"?
What is the average glider colony size that people keep?
Those kinds of things.
Curiosity...

Ahh...got the weekend and nothing I have to do. :-)

Let me talk to Karen about this and maybe we will do another poll.

Lets see if I can assist a bit.

Last time we had a 'number' it was over 1.1 million sugar gliders in the United States. That was about three years ago presented (April 2013)by Dr. Clare Holleley PHD. (from Australia)
That info can be found here

You can probably double that number just by mill bred gliders alone every couple years.

Imported gliders come from Indonesia, Papua. Probably less than 1000 a year.

Home bred? OMG!! There are so many breeders out there and so many that are not even on TPG database, I for one stopped using that data base years ago and use my own. I myself have had hundreds of joeys born to me over the years, and I am just a small breeder.

Many do not look online for info.

Colony sizes vary. In the wild the normal colony size is 6-9 some in captivity are larger than that, however, after a few years people start noticing wounds or some getting obese, others being petite, and this is because in the wild, gliders do NOT stay within a colony for life. In captivity, they have no choice because we do not give them one.

Posts like these are one of the huge reasons I love and recommend this site!

I do not think a poll on the forum would give answers to your questions because the active participants on the forum are a tiny minority of all glider owners.

Wow...
Great info, thank you!

It's hard to imagine a million gliders...or two or three million. (meal worm apocalypse!)

I only first heard about gliders on craigslist. (I'm always poking around on craigslist). And even then, all I knew is that they made "bad pets" and were frequently bought under the misrepresentation that they were easy to keep.

Since learning the real deal about gliders I have been reading everything I can, but it surprises me how few people even know about them. And...surprised at how many gliders are out there.
It feels good that we have developed a pretty much sustainable population of captive animals, and that we aren't just sucking them up out of the jungle with giant flying shop vacs.

Another thing I find interesting is the level of passion people have for these little guys. It's really great. People get emotional about them, and they talk about that emotion.

You know...I had to look a bit to find any glider forums (that weren't hosted by a vendor).
That's not a lot of forums...for a million glider people. So...a LOT more gliders than I had imagined are out there--living the Pocket Pets life.

Thanks for the responses!

with us up to 6 gliders, i think that 1 million is divided between 10,000 glider owners.