I caught a possum!

[MRNpoultry]

They do look like a rat but I know they ain't, my coop has got hardware colth to fence in the run the fence goes underneath the bottom. I know if an animal wants to get in hard enouth he chould but it whould be hard. Is a squirel skin and a possum skin about the same because I have got squirels with my 22. before. There are alot of other food sources around here.
My naighbor saw a coyote yesterday that whould cause a promblem.

I don't think I won't one has a pet.

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
Not wanting to start a debate, I'd just like to point out that they are marsupials, not related to rodents.

If your coop is predator proof, you have nothing to worry about.

If you must kill one, one well placed shot with a .22 will do the job. If it takes more than one, you're doing it wrong.

to the non debate oh yeah 1 22 right between the eyes does not kill them and as far as the coop they just keep chewing and scratching the wood to make another hole,up here in minnesota where it is cold they will do anything to get a meal,i never said they were related to rats just that theyare really an oversized rat which they pretty much are to me ugly nasty and full of diseases

Their skull is thick between the eyes, through the ear there is no bone to get in the way.

 

[MRNpoultry]

If he is in a trap it whould be easy to aim for what your trying to hit. They have got mean looking teeth.

 

[newnanchic]

We caught anthor one yersterday!!! That is 3 in just 2 weeks. We have been taking them down the road about a mile and letting them go but... do you think they wil find their way back??? Maybe that 22 sounds better and better...

 

[MRNpoultry]

This is the second one we have caught lately. I don't wan't to shoot him if he ain't going to cause trouble, but if he is I whould probly shoot it. Some people have told me to shoot them and others say he won't cause a problem. So I don't know what I am going to do withthem right now.

 

[mountain man]

just take it a mile away and let it go i get them in my barn and all they eat are the eggs i just let them go back outside no need to kill it if you dont have to.

 

[Cocky]

THEY WILL KILL CHICKENS!

I live right beside my Great Grandpa's...(RIP)... house and he lost a whole flock to 2 opossums. The pen was predator proof or atelast it would not allow the opossums to get in so they would reach through and pull the chickens heads off and eat them along with any other part they could pull through the fence like legs. The pen was a cube mad out of some sort of iron mesh and you really would believe that a opossum could reach through but it did. Once he trapped and killed the opossums the chickens stopped being killed.

One last thing....it only takes one shot from a 22 to kill a opossum....I know from personal experience that one shot to the head (even from 15 feet away) is all it took for a opossum that tried to get a free meal off of the chicken pen behind my house.

 

[MRNpoultry]

I don't want to kill them a less I have to but I don't want for them to kill my chickens because I didn't get rid of them. But for sure the next one I catch I am going to take him far away if I don't shoot him.

 

[Oblio13]

They make great pets. No kidding. And if you have to shoot one, they also make great dinners. Don't anger the gods by wasting one.

 

[MRNpoultry]

My gradpa was saying possum is good I didn't belive him at first. You can keep a wild possum as a pet?