Can Opossums Be Good Pets?

In general, opossums are regarded as natural pests, but many people choose to keep them as exotic pets. Unlike other creatures, opossums are not aggressive in nature. Instead, they have a very peaceful and friendly temperament, which means they are highly unlikely to cause any damage to your home or harm your children or other pets.

As a scavenging marsupial, opossums are skilled at adapting to the wild. Fully grown adults tend to be roughly the size of a house cat, weighing around 15 lbs. at full maturity. This makes them significantly lighter than other mammals, so they can easily be picked up, even by children. From snout to tail, an adult opossum can be between 21 to 36 inches long. Like kangaroos and koalas, opossums rear their young, called joeys, in pouches, and they are the only mammal in Canada or the United States to do this.

Opossum As Pet

Opossums are easy to recognize in the wild, with an iconic pointed snout, grey fur on their bodies and white fur on their faces, and dark, round eyes.

They also have a hairless, prehensile tail that takes up more than a third of its total length and allows it to grasp onto objects like an extra arm or leg. This makes them especially good climbers, which is one of their main defenses against predators.

Like some pets, it is best to keep only one opossum as they have a tendency to fight their own, especially if kept in cages. Male and female opossums make equally good pets as they both have gentle and inquisitive personalities. In terms of diet, opossums are omnivorous, meaning they will eat meat as well as plant matter, and a hanging water bottle should always be available to give them a clean and fresh source of water.

However, there are some downsides to opossums as pets. For starters, they are nocturnal creatures, so they are more likely to be active whilst their owners are asleep. They also startle easily, which can trigger their unique “playing possum” defense mechanism where they go completely rigid and appear to be dead. Additionally, some states require a wildlife permit to have wild opossums as pets, and opossums can carry pathogens that can be harmful to humans, so there can be a health risk to having an opossum as a pet.

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