An adult sugar glider is approximately 11 inches long from his nose to
the tip of his tail, but most of that (6 or 7 inches) is tail. In shape
and size they are very similar to our American flying squirrel.
The fur is very soft, and gray in color, with a white belly and a black
stripe from the nose over the head and down the back. The last two
inches or so of the tail is also black. The gray of the body meets the
white of the belly right at the edge of the webbing between front and
back legs, which creates a striking ripple effect at their sides when
the webbing is not stretched taut. They also have smaller black stripes
that run down each leg.
The ears are hairless and on the largish side, and turn toward sounds
like a cat's ears. Their eyes are very large, as you would expect in a
nocturnal animal, and black.
The tail is very long, so it can be used as a rudder and for balance as
they glide from tree to tree. Their hands and feet are very deft and
capable and they use them as well as any monkey. Their hands are shaped
much like our own, with four fingers and an opposing thumb. The feet
have four toes and a nailless "thumb". The first two toes almost look
like one toe split down the middle, and all the fingers and toes have
little pads on their undersides.
The female's pouch opening is a vertical slit, about a half inch long,
in the lower middle of her abdomen -- about where you would expect to
see a belly button. The male's testicles are located in a furry little
lump at that same spot on his belly, and the genitalia (two of them,
actually) is farther back, at the base of the tail. Baby sugar gliders
are easy to sex before their fur grows in, by the presence of either
the pouch opening in females, or the testicles in males.
