This little guy stopped by to snag what he (?) could from what the birds and squirrels left behind. (That's from under one of the bird feeders.)



I posted this and some other photos on a photography site for criticism & comment. First response was "[P]oor guy, they have no natural defense against the cold."

My wife did some research last night. Turns out their toes are normally more a white-ish colour, and the guy on the photo forum added "... they often get frost bite on their feet -- look it would be like us walking in the snow bare foot."

It turns out they're also very tame. Never get rabies (too cold-blooded). One Youtube thing my wife was watching showed how you can turn them into a pet in five minutes. It seems they actually make pretty good pets, and can even be litter box trained.

So we're wondering: Is there anything we can, or should do for this little guy? Maybe find out where he's made his home and put some cat crunchies out for him? A bowl of water? Find a way to improve the insulation at his place?

Some people think they're butt ugly. My wife thinks they're adorable. I'm kind of taking a shine to them, myself.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ensigmatic,

It may sound harsh, but it’s a wild animal. Leave nature alone. It may be different if you found it tangled in some trash, but what I see is a possum in its natural habitat going about its business.

That's a good picture and I think they're cute.

As far as what to do with it, if you want it as sort of a pet I think I'd just keep tossing out some seed and whatever else opossum's like under the feeder for it to encourage it to hang around.

Nice to learn they don't carry rabies.

When my grandmother was 100, a baby possum fell off his mother as she was transporting her litter across the yard. Grandma picked him up and took him inside. He used a catbox by instinct. She fed him fruit and vegitables. “Wylie” was very tame and would eat out of your hand. Walked around the house much like a cat. Once he got adult size, she opened he door to see if he would leave. He rejoined the outdoor environment and seemed to make the transition OK. My gandma was a farm girl born in the 1800s to a pioneer family. She raised “wild” animals as a girl. She didn’t find the incident unusual.

They love dry cat food.

They also love to get in your attic and shit everywhere. They're so cute when they do that.

He's good. He's not suffering from frostbite and won't unless he's injured badly. Wild animals are not people. They can and do tolerate things much differently than people. When it's super cold they won't come out. Cold and snow they deal with all the time. That coat is super warm. If he was noticeably injured then you might want to do something but he looks to be fine.

They are wild and very prevelant arond here.
Hasn’t been much above freezing here for awhile he will be fine.

The Critter Control guy came to the house and said he loved opposum calls because they were the easiest to catch.
Said they put up a loud hissing game and that is all he just walks up to them and grabs them by the tail. They play dead. He said he has been doing it a long time and never had one do anything more than hiss.
Coons on the other hand are biting and scratching little bugger especially when in a have a heart trap.

We feed several cats outdoors and in the barn. The Opossums come to "share" the cat food in the night and then leave. The cats back off to a respectful distance when the Opossums arrive. We had one that came to the back porch every night for years. He was missing his left ear and my daughter named him "Vincent".

They are generally not harmful or aggressive unless cornered. They are not as docile as you may think-they are mortal enemies of skunks and will kill and eat one if they think they can best it. Sometimes they get the skunk, sometimes the skunk gets the Opossum but both are pretty ferocious in a fight.

Careful. The varmint will bite ya!

Its a wild animal. Wild animals are not tame. Animals become tame because we make them or they just see us as a non threat. I'm no expert but any mammal can get rabies.

Just let it do its own thing.

Looks different than the ones I see around here.

Ours are usually squished somewhere near the middle of the road.

I have had horses almost all my life. Rabies in opossums is often said to be highly unlikely which is not the same as "no". Opossums also carry a disease fatal to horses for which there is no reliable cure: The EPM protozoa Sarcocystis neurona is spread to horses in the feces of opossums. Horses can ingest the protozoa from contaminated feed, hay, water or pasture. Limiting opossum access to the barn and pastures is one preventative measure. Living in the country it is pretty difficult to keep an opossum off of your property as a solution.

opossums do make quick pets, the down side is people feed them cat food which kills them pretty quick and also that tend to go blind pretty fast in captivity since they are mostly nocturnal and people like to keep them awake during the day. But they are great at keeping rats away!

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
It may sound harsh, but it’s a wild animal. Leave nature alone. It may be different if you found it tangled in some trash, but what I see is a possum in its natural habitat going about its business.

I agree. Let it get on with its possum life.

You can leave out some lil opossum wool sockies for his lil feetz...

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
Looks different than the ones I see around here.

Ours are usually squished somewhere near the middle of the road.

There can be many dead in the road during mating season. They are attracted to the warm pavement at night.

Many years ago, I was coming back from a friends place in Williamsville in Bath County and there were possums every where, live ones and dead ones in the road.

Years ago my son brought a very small baby Opossum home, it was about the size of a mouse.
A neighbor found it in his garage and through it out into the alley were my son retrieved it.
I went through the motions of helping to nurse it but expected it to die, It didn't.
When I saw that it was going to make it I built a cage and we kept it in the house.
When it got much bigger I built another cage and moved it outside were it lived till we finally released it.
It NEVER got friendly and would arch its back and hiss every time I would put food and water in its cage.
I ALWAYS felt uneasy reaching in the cage, certainly NOT a pet!

For all your opossum needs, from poetry to psychic services, go here.

http://mepearl.com/

whoah

He's a young one. He will bite. You can pick him up by the tail, and they can't reach up and get you.