WEBSAILOR!!!! question!!!

[ForteKitty]

My sister just found a baby possum... it''s the size of her palm. We''re taking it to a wildlife rescue org. tonight, but in the mean time, should she try to feed it anything? it looks dehydrated, and she has class until 7pm tonight... help! i''ve never seen one so small before!!

 

[websailor]

It probably fell off it's Mom.... That's about the size we would get them when we were raising them. I wouldn't worry about feeding it - we only did that twice per day (morning before work and evening after work). You could put a SHALLOW bowl of water in with it. Put some towels in with it too in case it is cold. We used to build little hammocks for them.

Best thing is get it to the animal wildlife center - they should be fully equipped to check it out and take care of it.

They are actually pretty hardy little things.

 

[ForteKitty]

Thanks!!! Right now it''s sitting in my sister''s sweater, in a box, in her classroom. I dont know how long it was lost before she found it. Should she try to feed it some water with a dropper?

 

[websailor]

Here is a link that has a tiny bit of info, and I posted it all below... See the last paragraph

Opossums

Opossums are nocturnal, and need a quiet and dark place during the daytime. They are attracted by pet food, ripe fruit, water and snails. They are generally not destructive or predatory. They are usually solitary.

They are marsupials, carrying their babies in a pouch, often not making a nest until the babies are several months old. Their breeding season begins in February and can go through November. Opossums can have 3 litters a year. Litters average about 8 young, but can be up to 13.

It is not good to feed opossums, either intentionally or unintentionally. Don''t leave pet food outside at night, keep ripe fruit picked, keep garbage cans securely covered.

Opossums may "play dead" when startled or confronted; they may lie there for up to an hour before coming to and scurrying away.

Under House
Find the entrance, usually a loose vent cover. Wait until the opossum comes out, then securely close the hole. Make sure there are no babies still under the house.

If there are babies under the house, allow the babies to mature until they are old enough to join the mother outside, then close the opening when they have left.

Sprinkle flour or corn starch on the ground around the opening so you can more easily check for foot prints to see if the opossum has come out.

In Attic
Find the entrance, usually a loose vent cover. Wait until the opossum comes out, then securely close the hole. Make sure there are no babies still in the attic.

If there are babies in the attic, allow the babies to mature until they are old enough to join the mother outside, then close the opening when they have left.

Leave the hole open and make the area unpleasant by lights and noise. The mother will move her babies to another nest site and you can then safely close the hole.

Wrap metal guards, 18" or wider, around tree trunks five or six feet above the ground to keep opossums from climbing trees to get to roof tops.

Eating Pet Food
Don''t leave pet food outside at night. Feed pets indoors or put food outside only during the daytime.

Coming In House
Close the door. If coming in through pet door, close the pet door (hopefully keeping the cat indoors).

Hit By Car
If it can safely be put into a secure container without touching the animal, it can be brought to the museum. Otherwise call Animal Services.

If you find a dead opossum check to see if it is a female with babies in the pouch. If it is, bring her to the museum; do not attempt to remove the babies from the pouch.

Young Opossum Alone
If the opossum is 8" from nose to base of tail or larger, leave it alone unless it is injured.

If it is less than 8" long or is injured, place it in a secure container and bring it to the museum as soon as possible. Keep the opossum warm and do not feed it.

 

[ForteKitty]

oh no.. i think she might have put some bread into the box... now she''s not picking up her phone!

 

[websailor]

They will eat most things - we fed them a fruit mixture plus a little watered down mushy dog food like stuff.

I wouldn''t do the water dropper unless it looked really bad (and I wouldn''t recommend it then even). If it is thirsty, it will drink on it''s own.

 

[ForteKitty]

my sister said it came out from her sweater, drank some water, then snuggled back inside! sooooo cute!!! i can''t wait to see it!!!!

 

[MINE!!]

You know.... If he looks very dehydrated.... My parents used to raise rodents and mice. You can buy some pedialyte (childrens) and (clear)_ and water it down. You can offer him something to drink through a dropper, but not force him if he does not want to drink. But it is important to keep him in a warm, dark place.

I hope this helps

 

[ForteKitty]

My sister just came home... and it actually looks pretty good. My sister said it looks a lot better now than it did this morning.

It is SOOOOOO CUTE!!! I took a ton of pictures! it''s dark charcoal grey right now, and sooo soft. I stuck my hand in the box and it climbed right on, then i was holding it against my chest, and it fell asleep! So adorable! It looks like a fancy rat/hamster mix, but much softer. It didn''t even hiss or anything, and its cute little ears kept moving around. Ahhhh!!

But it''s off to the rescue organization so I had to say g''bye.

 

[belle]

oh fortekitty! let''s see some pictures!!

 

[Kaleigh]

Fortekitty,
You and your sister have such kind hearts, please share some pictures with us we''d love to see them. I am a huge animal lover and take care of all kind of creatures!!

 

[ForteKitty]

look at that face!!!

 

[ForteKitty]

sooo cute!

 

[Kaleigh]

OMG, what a sweetie pie!!

 

[ForteKitty]

Here's me and the baby... btw, that double chin's normally not there!

 

[ForteKitty]

one more!!

 

[belle]

oh how CUTE!! he is so tiny...adorable! i''m so glad you guys took care of him

 

[Kaili]

I''m dying... he looks so cute. Reminds me of when I was a child and the mommy opposum would bring her babies into our back yard to eat the cat food.... I''m so glad you guys are taking care of the little sweetie!

 

[Kaili]

Yikes!! Just read websailor''s post about not feeding them pet food... hope we didn''t harm any of them.

 

[websailor]

ForteKitty,

Once I read that it came out and drank some water I thought it would be alright.

Boy, it''s a lot bigger than I was picturing!!!! I thought it was maybe half that size....

Glad you found a "nice" one, or maybe it''s because it was by itself - while they look pretty harmless, possums have a jaw full of sharp teeth. When we raised batches of them, when they got this size you couldn''t put your hand in the cage without some pretty serious threatening displays. They are suprisingly fast when they want to be too!

He looks like a real cutie - we did not handle them hardly at all because you don''t want them to get used to humans. In addition you don''t want to get bitten or scratched. These are wild creatures and need to be treated as such.

Kaili - cat food is fine - they (and raccoons and skunks) love those free feeding stations!

It looks almost large enough to release on it''s own - our rule was when the tip of the nose to the base of the tail was 1 foot, we could release them. The hard part was trying to measure them - especially without getting bitten!

I looked on my PC for some pics I know I have of raising possums, but I guess I haven''t scanned them in yet... Your pictures are great!

Oh, by the way, we tried to release the animals back into the same area they came from when we could...you might be seeing this guy again!

 

[ForteKitty]

He's only about 3.5 inches long... not that big. Smaller than my palm. His tail's about 3 inches long. The pictures make him look much bigger!! (Of course, i'm short too so maybe that's why...)

 

[websailor]

I used to volunteer at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, working in the Wildlife Hospital. Mostly we would feed the hundreds of baby birds that came in. But we also got some unusual animals at times.

One night, fairly late (probably around 9pm), this person brings in a cardboard cat carrier - since I was hot and tired, not thinking too much, I started to open it to see what was inside, expecting another baby bird. Instead a good sized fawn unfolds itself and stands up! How the person got it into the box I don''t know! Let''s just say I woke up pretty fast!

The tiny baby raccoons are really cute (BUT leave them alone - they CAN carry rabies). When they are six inches in size or less, the Staff members (the only people allowed by law to handle them) would feed them - you stroke their tummies and give them an eye dropper to suck from. They make tiny cooing noises while feeding. Their eyes are still closed and they move their feet, complete with tiny hands, experimenting just like a human baby does.

I have fond memories of those days....

 

[ForteKitty]

Date: 3/11/2005 1:11:34 AM
Author: websailor

I used to volunteer at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, working in the Wildlife Hospital. Mostly we would feed the hundreds of baby birds that came in. But we also got some unusual animals at times.

One night, fairly late (probably around 9pm), this person brings in a cardboard cat carrier - since I was hot and tired, not thinking too much, I started to open it to see what was inside, expecting another baby bird. Instead a good sized fawn unfolds itself and stands up! How the person got it into the box I don''t know! Let''s just say I woke up pretty fast!

The tiny baby raccoons are really cute (BUT leave them alone - they CAN carry rabies). When they are six inches in size or less, the Staff members (the only people allowed by law to handle them) would feed them - you stroke their tummies and give them an eye dropper to suck from. They make tiny cooing noises while feeding. Their eyes are still closed and they move their feet, complete with tiny hands, experimenting just like a human baby does.

I have fond memories of those days....

Fawn... as in Bambi?? in a cat carrier?? Awwwww!! those baby coons sound sooo cute!!

 

[websailor]

Yup, a not so little Bambi!

I just had to look for the album with the possum pics..... it was box 4 and of course the last album in the box! LOL.... I''ll see if any are worth scanning in and posting....

 

[ForteKitty]

Date: 3/10/2005 11:44

2 PM
Author: kaleigh
Fortekitty,
You and your sister have such kind hearts, please share some pictures with us we''d love to see them. I am a huge animal lover and take care of all kind of creatures!!

Thanks!

Just yesterday I rescued a wild bird. It was flying and hit a building... then fell to the ground in shock. I had to pick it up before a car ran it over, and almost got hit myself. It recovered after a few hours on its own, so I released it. It felt soooo good!

My mom said it''s my brother''s turn to bring home a wild animal tomorrow!

 

[ForteKitty]

Date: 3/11/2005 12:18:15 AM
Author: Kaili
I''m dying... he looks so cute. Reminds me of when I was a child and the mommy opposum would bring her babies into our back yard to eat the cat food.... I''m so glad you guys are taking care of the little sweetie!

I have some in my backyard right now.. they live in the other dog house, and eat our dog food. They were born in our yard (we think) but their mom got hit by a car, so they never left. We put an old sleeping bag into the dog house for them to sleep in, and when my mom waters her roses they''ll come out and watch her! Those are wild tho... they were quite large when we discovered them. Much bigger than the cutie above!

 

[websailor]

Okay I scanned in 5 pics... Here is one batch we raised in their little hammocks...there are actually four of them in there! They loved cuddling together in the towel. These guys are big enough to release as you''ll see....

 

[websailor]

A pic of their cage...see the mushy food bowl. There is a lot of fruit (some of it from our yard) mixed in it. We''d also put in whole plums, etc for them, but they usually made a mess of that.

The yellow tags are their IDs, when we got them, and where they were brought in from.

 

[ForteKitty]

AHHHhhh!!! I love them! Especially that one on the top right! he''s going, "Neigh, i''m squashing you and there''s nuttin you can do about it!" Soooo cute!

 

[websailor]

Almost big enough to release!

Note the broken ruler - I did that when one of them turned and tried to bit me! Look at those claws on the feet too! About one more inch and he''s outta here!