Opossums are North America'due south only marsupial – they carry their babies in a pouch on their belly, just similar a kangaroo. They accept 52 teeth, 13 nipples, an opposable thumb, and prehensile tail that is capable of grasping.

These tiresome, non-aggressive animals take poor eyesight and are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night. An adult opossum has an average life span of approximately two years. They are omnivores and eat both plants and animals. Their diet includes slugs, insects (including ticks), worms, fish, small rodents, eggs, wild berries, basics, and rotting fruit. Almost 75% of the diet of urban and suburban developed opossum is carrion (dead animals).

Female person gives birth to the first litter of the season in late January through March, with a second litter in belatedly June through Baronial. The young are built-in about thirteen days from formulation in an embryonic form and crawl straight into the female parent's pouch.  They find and attach to a nipple and do not come off the nipple for the next 2 to three months. By that time, their optics are open up, and they are fully furred.  The immature opossum will travel outside the pouch onto the mother's back, clinging to her fur, going back into the pouch to nurse. They exercise this until they achieve independence at virtually five months.

Important: Non a Rabies Vector Species (RVS).

Many people call up opossum take rabies because they drool when scared. In fact, it is EXTREMELY rare, or even impossible, for opossums to go rabies, because their body temperature is too low for rabies to survive and replicate well.

Baby Opossums – To Rescue or Not to Rescue

Babies on Dead Mother

Most infant opossum are constitute when someone stops to check an adult opossum lying on the street or highway. They may see a babe crawling on the female opossum's belly or see something moving in her pouch. Any immature opossum found with a dead mother or in a expressionless mother'south pouch needs to contact OWL as before long as possible.

Important: Exercise Not effort to take the babies off the mother's nipple!

The nipples extend all the fashion into the infant's abdomen and often must be surgically removed. If forcibly removed, the nipple could completely detach, and the baby could swallow it.

Information technology may seem difficult or distasteful, but when bringing to OWL, information technology is critical to transport the babies (injured or not) still attached to the expressionless mother'south torso. Lay her in the trunk on a towel or trash bag in a box with the lid on or box airtight. We will remove the babies from her nipples, check for injuries, and provide cremation for the dead mother.

Baby Alone in Yard

If you run across a baby opossum lone in the yard and it is less than ix inches long from olfactory organ to the cease of its barrel (non including the tail), it is probably an orphan or has been left behind.

Sometime during the third calendar month, as the babies get bigger, they ride along on Mom's dorsum and sides, hanging on to her fur as she walks around. Occasionally one of the babies will fall off unnoticed by mom. It is not sometime enough to fend for itself at this age and can be preyed on, may exist unable to observe enough food, or may go dehydrated. These babies will need rehabilitation before they are fix to go off on their own.

Older Babe in Yard

A young opossum about nine inches long (not including the tail) has reached the independent stage and should be left alone unless it is showing signs of injury or disease.

Adult opossum tin often survive mauling past a dog or being hit by a automobile. However, they do need help recovering from these injuries. It is sometimes difficult to make up one's mind whether an opossum seems "out of sorts," because their normal beliefs is and then slow and odd. When in doubt, information technology'due south e'er all-time to bring the animal to OWL.

Signs of Injury

If you find any of these bug, contact OWL every bit soon as possible:

  • Cold and lethargic
  • Covered with parasites—fleas, ticks, ants or fly strike/eggs (looks like tiny grains of rice).
  • Dehydrated
  • Been in true cat's or dog'southward mouth.
  • Has a broken limb, abrasions, or bruising.
  • Gasping or gurgling when information technology breathes.
  • Has a head tilt or is walking in circles.
  • Bleeding.
  • There are puncture wounds, patches of fur missing, pus or abscess nowadays, and/or foul smell.
  • Unable to stand or motility without falling over.
  • Signs of frostbite on the feet, tail, or ears —red, white bluish-white or grayish/blackness peel and hard or waxy-looking skin.

Common Concerns

Opossum are scavengers and will rummage through trash cans/containers looking for food. The solution is uncomplicated: secure the lids of trash cans/containers with a heavy bungee string to prevent the opossum from removing.

Opossum are opportunistic feeders. Leaving pet food and water exterior overnight is an invitation for opossum and other wild critters to stop for a costless meal. The all-time solution is to bring the nutrient and water dishes in for the dark. To continue opossum out of the bird feeders at night, install a raccoon baffle (bachelor at any wild bird store) on the feeder pole. If you store bird seed exterior, buy a metal garbage tin and employ a potent bungee cord to secure the lid in identify. Remember, there are other wild fauna who would love to enjoy this special treat, and some take teeth that tin chew through a plastic container.

Opossums will vacate if they find the infinite irritating. Encourage their exit with loud music or a talk radio station. You tin can also bring bright lights into the infinite. Since babies travel with the mother, once she has moved out, it's safe to assume the babies went with her (unless ane has been left behind…quick inspection will verify).

If an opossum is found in a window well or dumpster and you can reach it, elevator the opossum out by the tail. If it cannot be reached, try angling a 2" ten iv" or other board, tree branch, footstep ladder, or rope into the dumpster/window well, leaving the animal to climb out on its ain.

If the creature has been stuck for longer than a day in farthermost heat, it may have heat exhaustion or be starving and dehydrated. Lowering a small saucepan, butter tub, or dish of water or Gatorade into the dumpster/window well will help it rehydrate. Since opossum are primarily nocturnal, it won't vacate until dark. Check the following day to see if it has been able to crawl out. If it has, close the lid of the dumpster so another animal does not become trapped.

For the window well, purchase and install a embrace to ensure it doesn't happen again. If, in 24 hours, the opossum is notwithstanding there and appears weak, wobbly or sparse, capture and call OWL. See above for Capturing Opossum and Send.

Opossum tend to be nomadic creatures. They spend time foraging within a territory of several square blocks. This is by and large true unless there is a plentiful and close food source or a particularly prophylactic and warm home that has petty people/pet traffic.

If opossum has made itself at home in your home, check during the solar day to find where the opossum is gaining access. This volition look similar a gap between the soil and the wall or physical, with perhaps a muddied smudged expanse around the archway.

Loud noises and bright lights volition make the area intolerable for this brute, who seeks peace and rubber during the daylight hours. One way to find if the opossum has exited is to sprinkle a half-dozen-inch ring of flour around the deck/shed/front porch during the mean solar day. When you check this after nighttime, you will see what appears to be little white handprints leading away from the area (and you can often discover the trace of the tail).

Once they have gone, identify ammonia-soaked rags in a plastic bag with holes to release the pungent odor. Y'all can too secure the entry with landscape timbers, cinder blocks or large rocks, or chicken wire/hardware textile wire fencing. They can't chew through wire fencing, dig nether or pull away the cinder blocks or large rocks, and they certainly will not like the smell of ammonia.

Many gardeners have learned to welcome opossum into their one thousand or garden. Farmers appreciate them since their diet includes slugs, potato bugs, June bugs, grubs, cabbage worms, squash worms, etc. They besides will eat the fruit from apple tree, plum, crabapple and mulberry copse, to name a few, that falls to the basis and lies rotting in the thou. They clean up (eat) expressionless animals that testify upwards from time to fourth dimension in the chiliad and drowned worms after heavy rains. Gardener often find that opossum are not menacing, troublesome creatures, simply rather are helpful, amiable neighbors. They do not assail their dogs or cats, and they do not chase their children. They have become a benign animal in their yard.

Opossum are generally not ambitious and when approached volition oft react similar a startled cat. Information technology volition bristle its fur, open its mouth widely, prove its teeth, hiss, and begin to drool excessively. This pose is intended to intimidate and then you lot will leave it alone. We meet this defense mechanism even in baby opossum. They have no other protection. They cannot fight, and they can't run fast.

To capture, corner the opossum, throw a bath/beach towel or small blanket over the its body, and choice up by the tail about midway and place in a suitably sized dog kennel, plastic/rubber tub, or cardboard box with the lid securely taped . Ever wear leather gardening gloves or winter gloves.

The opossum'due south other defense mechanism is the one for which they are well-nigh known …and the nearly common misconception nearly them – playing opossum. Farthermost fear will cause opossums to autumn over 'dead,' go stiff equally though in rigor, and emit a odor that fools a predator into thinking they are spoiled meat. The opossum has no command over this – it is a defense machinery resulting from a neurotransmitter, much like the human adrenaline rush we get when frightened.

When an opossum plays expressionless, information technology's in a semi-conscious state. It takes time for the neurotransmitter to metabolize and for the opossum to recover — about ten to 20 minutes. If it reacts like this, do not become alarmed thinking you lot have killed it. Merely pick information technology up past the tail, identify in the container you have chosen for transport, and secure the lid or kennel door. Certainly, practice Not stab it with a garden fork or other lethal means to motion it and dispose of it in a dumpster it will not be able to escape, thereby inadvertently causing its death.

The First Treatment for Stupor or Injury: Warm, Dark, and Repose

If you demand to bring an animal into OWL, the nigh important thing you must practise is to keep them warm and quiet.

Container

Young that are found off the female parent's nipple tin be placed in a knit or fleece cap or a pillowcase with a t-shirt or non-terry towel tucked inside for the babies to snuggle. Put them in a shoebox or other small container with several small air holes in the lid and a minor not-terrycloth towel, fleece fabric, or t-shirt in the bottom. Record the lid to go along secure.

Adults volition need to exist contained in a dog or cat kennel.

Heating Pad

If yous have a heating pad, set to low and identify the box one-half on/off the pad, and so babies can move away from the heat if needed. OR

Rice Pocketbook

You lot can also fill a sock or knee-loftier pantyhose with uncooked dry rice. Microwave the rice-filled sock for 30 to 60 seconds. This estrus source will last about 20 to 30 minutes. Place the rice sock in the container under the towel, and place the animal on or near it, merely not straight in contact with the rice sock. OR

Ziploc bag

Fill a Ziploc bag with warm (not hot) water, put it within another Ziploc bag, and identify under the towel next to the animal. The double bag guards against leaks and prevents the animate being from getting wet and chilled.

Food/Water

Practice not attempt to feed or give them anything to drink. The wrong foods can quickly cause enteritis (diarrhea) and death. It is more than important to go on the baby warm than to feed information technology.

Transport

Opossum babies can exist transported in the shoebox with a freshly microwaved rice sock in the box to keep them warm during the trip to OWL. Injured or ill adults can exist placed in a suitably sized suitably sized dog kennel, plastic/prophylactic tub, or paper-thin box with the chapeau securely taped. Always clothing leather gardening gloves or winter gloves.