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Opossum baby / tlacuache help!


Kia

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What made you think it was abandoned?  

https://opossumsocietyus.org/how-to-help/orphaned-injured/

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Is it really an orphan? Many opossums become orphaned after the mother is killed. Others become “orphaned” when they fall from her back or are somehow separated. These opossums must be raised by wildlife rehabilitators. However, many juvenile opossums brought to wildlife rehabilitators are not “true” orphans in need of care. They may be young juveniles on their own for the first time. While they may appear small and helpless, they are best left alone. Only opossums that are sick, injured, or too young to be on their own (less than 7 inches long from nose to rump, not including tail) are in need of immediate assistance.

If a young opossum is found then check the surrounding area. There may be more. Be very quiet and listen for “sneezing” sounds the young make to call the mother.

 

 

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Your opossum looks big enough to be on its own.  Just turn loose in a safe rural area.  Interesting fact,  Opossums eat up to 10,000 ticks a year.  At my farm I put out table scraps to feed one.  Every night it checks to see if I put any thing out. I now have a lot less ticks so I am glad to have it around.

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16 hours ago, rafterbr said:

Your opossum looks big enough to be on its own.  Just turn loose in a safe rural area.  Interesting fact,  Opossums eat up to 10,000 ticks a year.  At my farm I put out table scraps to feed one.  Every night it checks to see if I put any thing out. I now have a lot less ticks so I am glad to have it around.

On my farm we shot them. if you have a cow/calf operation they are a problem. Opossums cause/spread Leptospirosis which causes the cows to abort their unborn calves. The cattle pick up the disease by grazing on grass the opossums had peed on. It can cause permanent sterility in cows as well. In that type of farm operation once a cow fails to produce a calf for 2 seasons she was sold at auction. You can't afford to feed non-producers.

Dogs also get Leptospirosis from contaminated water or eating from a carcass that a possum ate from and it causes kidney and liver failure in the dog. 

The possums also kill many of your laying hens at night while they are sleeping in the hen house bu digging under and chewing into the hen house.

Although they taste like pork they will have to be thoroughly cooked as they carry parasites as well as disease.

 

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They also eat spicy corn nuts. Heard a noise on the terrace outside my bedroom one night and took the flashlight to check - full grown opossum on its hind legs, bright red eyes glaring in the light, and hissing with bared fangs! In retrospect, I'm sure it seemed bigger than it was, but disconcerting, to say the least, so I didn't argue about the bag of corn nuts I'd left out by accident, and discreetly retreated. 

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