What do u feed a baby possum
What Do Possums Eat? Can You Feed Baby Possums?
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If you find a baby possum abandoned on the side of the road somewhere, you probably shouldn’t pick them up before calling animal control. But what happens if you have no choice but to take them home to nurse them back to health? You might find yourself with an adorable conundrum on your hands. You might even find yourself wondering a few things about possum biology and behavior. For instance: can you feed baby possums? Should you feed them? And either way, what do possums eat?
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What kind of possum are we talking about?
If you’re from Australia, a possum is a very different animal from the one Americans keep referring to as possums. What we are talking about is the opossum, America's only marsupial, and one that possesses very few similarities to its Aussie cousin. There are 65 different species of opossum in North America, according to the Opossum Society. The most common of these many marsupials is the Virginia opossum, which is the one we shall focus on today.
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What do possums eat?
Frankly, when it comes to the opossum, the question “what do they eat?” doesn’t really seem appropriate. It might be more appropriate to ask “what don’t they eat?” Opossums have always had a bit of a bad reputation among suburban residents for being scavengers — which, of course, they are. But that doesn’t mean we should hold it against them. Especially because their versatile diets actually help us get rid of carrion (decaying dead animal bodies).
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According to pest control company Terminix, opossums eat everything from dead animals to insects, rodents, birds, frogs, plants, fruit, and grain. They don’t just feed on the flesh of carrion or roadkill either.
Possum diets require a high degree of calcium, which they can get from eating the skeletal remains of rodents and other dead creatures. Opossums will also eat cat food, dog food, and table scraps from our garbage cans. Unfortunately, it is this “taste for trash” that makes them more of a pest than a helper in the eyes of many.
How do possums eat so many different things?
Opossums are scavengers by evolution and opportunity. They are nocturnal but possess poor eyesight, which doesn’t really help when it comes to trying to find food. Luckily, they make up for this with great hearing and a very keen sense of smell. This has made them fairly successful opportunists, especially when they find themselves living in and around suburban and rural communities.
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These remarkable marsupials possess other positive traits as well — though we will admit that most of these also have to do with them finding food.
Opossums don’t just find food well, they can also remember where it is located for the next time. According to Landscape Architecture Magazine, possums scored higher than rats, rabbits, cats, and dogs in laboratory tests meant to recall where food was placed. That’s why it’s so hard to get rid of possums on your own — they remember where you keep the goods!
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What do baby possums eat?
Adults may be great at scavenging, but baby opossums are not nearly as well-equipped. Like all marsupials, opossum mommies lack a placenta, so their young must grow and be kept in a pouch. Newborn opossums are about the size of a honey bee and will stay in their mother’s pouch for around 80 days before they are mature enough to begin scavenging on their own.
What to feed baby possums?
Once they are big enough to leave the pouch, baby possums can eat just about everything.
You can feed them dog and cat food in moderation. You could also feed them insects like cockroaches, worms, slugs, and snails (one of their favorite foods). This is only pertinent if the baby is old enough, of course, and with an orphaned opossum, that isn’t always known.
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According to the blog WildHeart, baby possums do not thrive on milk. For one, marsupial milk is very different from cow’s milk or formula. On top of that, baby possums don’t suckle like other animals, so attempting to bottle feed could cause them to aspirate and die. The point we’re trying to make here is that you, reader, are likely ill-equipped to feed or care for a baby possum on your own.
Should I feed a baby possum?
No, you really, really shouldn’t — not without some guidance, anyway, If you find a baby possum, either alone or attached to their deceased mother, you should contact your local animal control, veterinarian, or animal rescue right away.
If the baby possum is alone and walking in the wilderness and you can’t help yourself, get a box with towels or old shirts, along with a wrapped heating pad or water bottle, and get them to an animal expert as quickly as possible. That is the best way to help them.
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Care Sheet - Baby Possums
From "Raising Baby Animals" by Donna Roell, OAAO Trustee
Formula: A. 1 can evaporated milk, 1 can water, 1 large egg yolk
B. 1 cup 2% milk, 2 egg yolks, pet vitamins, 1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt (always use same flavor)
Always add calcium supplement. Possums frequently have calcium deficiencies which cause deformities.
Baby cereal (oatmeal/HiPro/rice) to thicken formula.
Tip: Babies have difficulty sucking from a pet nurser; a medicine dropper or latex dropper is usually better.
46 days or younger, a monoject glue syringe is better (can get at craft stores).
Feeding: Almost impossible to feed if less than 46 days old, mouth is sealed too tightly to allow a feeder to penetrate.
46-56 days: 1/2 - 1cc every 2 hrs around clock
56-68 days: 1-2cc every 3 hrs throughout day
68-76 days: several cc's every 4 hrs.
After they are all fed, offer them food again. When full, they will stop fussing and settle down. As they start on solid food, baby food fruit or mashed fruit may be added to cereal; but fruit should never exceed 10% of diet.
Also, start adding dog food
Housing: Need to be kept warm. I keep mine in a plastic garbage can as long as possible. If you use a cage with a wire bottom, put towels on bottom to snuggle in and protect feet from wire bottoms. Very clever about opening doors, keep good lock on it! Boxes don't last long and they are out of them.
Favorite foods: Dog or cat food
Bananas
Apples/applesauce
Cheese/cottage cheese
Chicken
Watermelon
Tip: If they get out in the house, they will usually find their way back to where they are fed after dark.
FIRST AID:
If baby is cold to the touch when you receive it, do not try to feed it; the body has shut down and it cannot digest food. Warm it up in a box lined with towels placed on top of a heating pad. When it is warm and you feel it's time to eat, feed it a little Gatorade first, this will replace the electrolytes (essential body salts) that were lost. Then every 1/2 - 1 hr, start with eyedropper and then start formula.
Most common causes of diarrhea are overfeeding; better to underfeed than overfeed. If you are feeding prepared formula such as KMR or Esbilac, do not add vitamins; it may cause vitamin toxicity.
After each feeding, animals stomach should appear to be gently rounded and feel soft when pressed.
Constipation: A. Dilute formula for few feedings
B. Add drop of cooking oil to formula
Diarrhea: Drop of Pepto Bismol in animal's mouth
Sometimes, baby will refuse formula at first because it doesn't smell or taste like Mom. After about 24 hours, he'll realize that's all there is and will start to drink.
Remember, these are only guidelines and each baby has a mind of its own; so a lot of what we try to do is by trial and error until the baby tells us it's right.
Esbilac recommends usage for: dogs, squirrels, chipmunks, opossum, rabbit, ferret, groundhogs.
KMR: cats, raccoons, badgers, skunks, bobcats.
House Possum | zoo-ekzo.com- Exotic animals
Monodelphis Domestica
is not available
House Opossum ( Monodelphis Domestica
grade
000 000 0002 000 0002 000 0002 000 0002 000 0002 000 0002 – bare-tailed opossums
Appearance
Height 6-8 cm, body length – 28-25 cm, tail 7-8 cm.
Weight of males 90-150 g, females 80-100 g. larger, more muscular than females, males' fur is thicker, longer, more wavy. nine0003
Hairline short, dense. The coloration is dark gray, lighter on the abdomen. The muzzle is elongated and pointed. The eyes are small, protruding. The tail is not very long, prehensile, almost completely devoid of hair, except at the base where it is thickened with deposits of fat. The limbs are shortened, five-fingered; the rear ones are slightly longer than the front ones. The bag in which the cub develops in other marsupials is absent. The twelve nipples are arranged in a ring.
Habitat
The species is distributed in eastern and central Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Opossums inhabit forests of various types. They lead a terrestrial lifestyle. They can climb trees quite well. Nests are built in shelters, inside empty hollows, in the trunks of fallen trees or among stones, and, as a rule, near water. nine0003
In nature
Activity mainly in the evening and at night.
Opossums are solitary animals. Animals do not tolerate the presence of individuals of the same species nearby and enter into a fight. Conflicts rarely end in serious injury.
The diet of house opossums includes insects, small rodents, succulent fruits, seeds and carrion. In a human dwelling, animals hunt rodents and insects - therefore they are welcome guests in houses. This is a fairly active predator and a very skilled scorpion hunter. nine0003
Warning and threatening sound signals are typical: “Cican”, hiss; chattering teeth.
Breeding
There is no breeding season. Females bring no more than four litters per year. Pregnancy lasts 14-15 days, there are usually 5-12 cubs in a litter. Only the female takes care of the brood. Since the possum is not developed in house opossums, unhooking from the nipple, the cubs end up in the nest, where the female leaves them. She returns only to warm and feed the cubs. At the age of 4 weeks, the cubs can already move independently.
Sexual maturity is reached at 4-5 months. The ability to reproduce remains in males up to 39-months of age and up to 28 months - in females.
Captivity
Opossums are easily tamed in captivity and become completely undemanding. They like to sit on their hands and on their heads - an instinct from childhood when they traveled on their mother's back.
The cage in the house must be mandatory, first of all, to protect the animal itself. A personal house and a cage is their territory, which they will protect and feel at ease on it.
Opossums are solitary animals that in nature meet with a partner only during the breeding season. Long-term joint keeping of males and females excludes the birth of cubs, and keeping with a pregnant female can cause the death of a male. Therefore, in captivity, heterosexual animals live not only in separate cages, but even in different rooms, so that they cannot smell each other.
Potty training for possums is no more difficult than for a cat or a ferret.
Place the tray next to their sleeping place, as well as in those rooms where you release the animal. nine0003
Opossums do not require frequent bathing. A healthy opossum has no odor. Opossums are quite clean animals and they themselves monitor the cleanliness of their skins.
The animal should be kept away from warming means (battery, microwave oven, refrigerator), protected from drafts, as well as from direct sunlight.
The life expectancy of opossums directly depends on their diet. Possums will not live long if they are fed only factory-made food. The diet of the opossum should consist of natural fresh or frozen foods, but in no case from prepared foods. Also, the opossum should not be fed beef and pork. nine0003
In captivity, the animal is given chicken meat, insects, eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, bone meal, a small amount of fruit and newborn mice.
The cage should be cleaned as often as possible (at least once a week). Opossums need constant access to water.
Possum is a nocturnal animal, they sleep during the day. True, domestic opossums often adapt to the rhythm of the owner's life.
Also, opossums have a low body temperature - and because of this, they do not get fleas. nine0003
Life expectancy in captivity is 5-8 years.
How to "play possum"? | Animals
Moreover, during the entire time of their existence (beginning from the Cretaceous period - the era of dinosaurs), opossums even outwardly almost did not change. The same rat-like appearance, disheveled fur, bare pink paws, ears and tail, and a wide mouth with sharp teeth. Like rats, possums are tenacious, cunning, and thieving creatures. Suffice it to recall the desperate and impudent brothers - Crash and Eddie - from the film "Ice Age-2". Opossums are practically omnivorous - their diet includes fruits, worms, insects, frogs, even chicks. Those of us who are not particularly squeamish may find that the meat of the opossum itself is quite edible. nine0003
Mine Reed "The Headless Horseman":
"Damn it, you're a black man! Next time, Pluto, when I wander into these parts, I will give you an opossum with meat as tender as that of a two-year-old chicken.
But one quality of this animal deserves special attention. In the vocabulary of Americans, you can find the expression: "Stop playing possum", which in our opinion sounds like "Stop pretending to be a felt boot, pretending." nine0003
The fact is that when the animal is in immediate danger (like being attacked by a dog), it often uses a proven technique - it pretends to be a corpse. At the same time, he pretends to be very convincing: his eyes turn glassy, his tongue falls out, foam flows from his mouth, and an unpleasant smell flows from the anal glands. Scientists are still guessing - what is it: a skillful "acting" game or a stressful state of catalepsy, in which even the heartbeat slows down? nine0003
It is said that if necessary, the opossum can imitate the finale of Hamlet for up to several hours.
As soon as the danger disappears, the animal begins to “come to life” - it turns over, carefully looks around with its black eyes, after which it gives a goose.
P. G. Wodehouse “Keep it up, Jeeves!”:
“One of the great lessons of life is that when a man hears a fight between two females, a man should go into a corner and curl up in a ball, better yet, use the clever tactics of the possum, who pretends to be dead as soon as the air smells of fried, and sometimes goes so far as to gather around his friends and make them lament over his body. nine0092
D. Harris "Uncle Remus Tales":
"- Tell stories, Possum Brer. As the dog touched you, you immediately tumbled and pretended to be dead.
— So I tell you, Brother Raccoon, that it is not at all from fear.
There is only one thing I am afraid of in the world - it is tickling. And when this dog poked its nose into my ribs, I laughed, and the laughter made me laugh so much that I couldn’t move my hand or foot! Of course, it's her luck that I'm ticklish, otherwise a minute more and I would have torn her to shreds. I'm not afraid of any fight, Brother Raccoon, but tickling is another matter. I agree to fight with anyone, but only - mind you - without tickling. nine0003
F. Krivin:
“The opossum pretends to be dead so cleverly that he even falls from a tree and can no longer tell whether he is dead or alive.
What do you think, is it so easy to figure it out? When you've been faking all your life, all you know is that you're faking, how can you say with certainty - are you a possum or no longer a possum? nine0003
Since Australia was discovered much later than America, it was the opossum that became the first marsupial that European civilization met.
The Columbus expedition delivered an unusual animal directly to the royal palace. The Spanish monarchs - Ferdinand and Isabella - personally made sure that the female opossum had a bag and did not even disdain to put their hand in it.
Ciez de León Chronicle of Peru, 1553:
“…there were seven cubs near her, and as she heard a noise, she opened the bag placed by nature on her own abdomen, and she very quickly gathered the cubs, running away with great agility, so that I was afraid for her existence - being so small, to run with such a burden - and still run away. They call this animal Chucha. nine0003
As in the case of kangaroos, for a long time people could not believe that tiny premature opossum cubs are born in the usual way - from the genital opening, and only then get to the pouch.
Among the local residents of America, there was even a belief about the "immaculate conception" of these animals - they say that the male and female simply rub their noses, after which the embryos immediately grow in the bag directly from the nipples. nine0003
In fact, premature opossums do the same marathon as kangaroos - clinging to the wool, crawling from the birthplace to the feeding area. There are only thirteen nipples in the bag, so if more cubs are born, only the thirteen most agile get the right to live.
When the cubs grow up, they leave the pouch, but at the same time they do not leave their mother for a long time. The kids just ride it like a tram, clutching the wool with their paws (and the paws of possums are very dexterous, similar to a human brush).
nine0003
D. Attenborough Life on Earth:
“In the early 18th century, a famous painting appeared in Europe depicting a female South American possum with cubs, whose tails are neatly wrapped around the outstretched tail of the mother. The picture was copied many times, each time making changes, until, in the end, it turned out that the mother lifted her tail over her back, and the babies hang from it in a row on their tails, like passengers on a tram. When stuffed possums began to be stuffed in museums, then, naturally, they consulted from books and gave the exhibits just such a peculiar position, which further supported the widespread version. But this is just a fairy tale, of which many are told about these extraordinary creatures. nine0092
Possum tails are indeed prehensile, but not as prehensile as people think.
The cubs can still hang on one tail for some time, but it is not so easy for grown-up adults to do this, so they use the tail as a useful bonus. nine0003
It must be said that when describing opossums, I was guided mainly by a portrait of one - the most common species - Virginia. But there are other types that are no less remarkable.
For example, the water opossum, or swimmer, is the only marsupial adapted to an aquatic lifestyle (it is not for nothing that its hind legs are webbed). Even a female swims with a bag full of cubs. True, the bag is special - able to "tighten" with the help of a special muscle. nine0003
Even more original is the woolly opossum. The fact is that this marsupial bag just doesn’t have it.
