The opossum is an amazing creature! A large portion of society spreads negligent misinformation about these beautiful creatures!
The opossum is the only marsupial in the United States. It gives live birth to 8-16 babies that cannot suckle but are attached to the teats inside the mother’s pouch. Opossums do not catch or carry rabies; their body temperature is to low for this disease to become active in its system. Without opossums we would be over run with ticks and many more humans would contract Lyme disease. The juveniles (each one) eat over 30,000 ticks as they grow to maturity. I call the opossum the buzzard of the mammals because it’s primary diet is dead and decaying animal carcasses, with an occasional appetite for live chicken heads and eggs. They sleep upside down, usually in trees hanging on with their tails.
Baby Opossums
Newborns do not suckle, you must tube feed them. It’s scary the first couple of times, but once you get use to it, you become a natural. Newborns can survive on kitten milk and should be fed every 2 hrs. Before feeding the first time, they must have a normal warm body temperature and if they are dehydrated a little pedialite should be added. If you have an incubator these babies need to be in it! They are tougher than you think, but at this age they are also fragile. On the supplies needed page there will be companies listed to aid you in caring for all wildlife.
Juvenile Opossums
As you can see, they get cuter with age! Juveniles may still lap milk, but should be weaning over to human baby foods. The basic rule for feeding juvenile opossums is orange, yellow and green baby foods. Once they start chewing it’s time to give them things to eat such as crickets, worms, fresh veggies (yellow, orange & green) and small chunks of raw beef, chicken or liver. Once they are all fattened up and eating crickets naturally it’s time to release them, which they say measure the opossum from head to tail and at 8 inches release them, but most folks want to give them more time to grow bigger. Be aware the opossum’s life span is under 2 years, so don’t keep it for to long if it’s going to have a natural happy opossum life! All releases should occur in a non-hunting zone where water and food is abundant.
New Issues in Caring for Opossums
Approximately 10 years ago I ran across an opossum at the river. Originally, I thought it was dead, but it wasn’t. I picked it up and brought it home, not noticing what was on it eating it alive. The fur is a natural cream color. Maggots, particularly young ones are also a cream color. I was looking it over when I noticed what I thought was the fur, moving. I took my hand and swiped the area and hundreds of maggots came off of it. They had covered his body and was eating him alive. He died. There was nothing I could do to save him. I made a frantic video for my vet seeking advice but I’m not going to share that because it will freak many people out and possibly not allow them to go further in this field. I will share a few pics of what they did to him after I spent an hour getting them off of him. Be warned, these pictures are hard to look at. This animal lived for approximately 1 hour after these photos were taken.
Originally, I thought that he was seriously injured and that they had been eating the infected tissue. Since then, I no longer believe this.
I never saw another case such as the original, but since then I have seen approximately 1 dozen more cases. This issue is so easily over looked. A woman had saw an opossum get ran over. She stopped, determined that mom wasn’t making it, so she searched the pouch and pulled out 8 babies. She kept them for 3 days and then called me. She thought 1 had an infection and didn’t realize they don’t suckle. When I got the babies we went inside and she claimed it was a pollen ball in its eye and was afraid to get it out. I heated up a tissue and began washing the eye and explaining to her it wasn’t pollen. They were freshly hatched maggots. I received a juvenile opossum that I saw a white thing scamper up its nose. I did a necropsy on it and found live maggots in its brain after it died. I performed the necropsy immediately upon death. So there is no doubt in my mind this is a new issue plaguing opossums and other vulnerable pets and animals. I know of 2 dogs that had flies lay eggs inside their ears- 1 had surgery and lost its hearing, the other 1 died within 2 months. They were not my dogs.
Animals that have maggots, particularly opossums in their ears, nose or brain cavities will go in circles, nip at the air and will show signs of severe distress by aggressive behavior. I have not successfully saved an opossum with this issue, so I believe the most humane thing you can do is to euthanize that creature so it does not suffer due to being eaten alive.