Short Tailed Opossum Babies

[BorderKelpie]

They are really cool. I love opossums, I have just never seen these kind before.

How do you care for/manage them and where could I find one?

Neat, a little tiny house 'possum!

 

[2cool4you]

They are easy to care for. Some people keep them in 10 gallon tanks but I like to give mine more room. Oscar lives in a big indoor rabbit cage that I covered with hardware cloth so he couldn't squeeze out of the bars. He has a bird house he lives in and pvc pipes he crawls through for fun and I mounted a big Chinchilla wheel on one side because they LOVE to run in the wheel.

I feed a diet of high quality cat food like blue buffalo dry kibble, sugar glider mix and hedgehog food. I offer fresh insects like superworms and crickets. They really love eating insects. I also give them wet catfood once a week, the blue buffalo duck formula, fresh fruit, and boiled chicken. Some people also feed theirs pinky mice but I just can't do that. It would be sooo messy the way they eat so I stick to superworms and crickets. They can also eat Dubia roaches but I don't keep those because they repulse me but Oscar does love them.

They are nocturnal so they are more active at dusk and through the night but I never hear them unless I'm awake. Their wheels are quiet. You can only keep one per cage because they are solitary and will try to kill each other. That's why breeding is so hard. The female has to be with a male to come into heat but if he's in there too long they will fight and can really hurt each other. It's common for them to rip the ears off or blind each other. Thankfully mine didn't hurt each other. Oscar is a very gentle breeder.

They can be hard to find but there are some breeders out there. Some exotic pet stores carry them and I know there's an exotic animal dealer in Texas that was breeding them at one point. I'd do a search in your area and see if you can find some. Ironically I found Oscar by accident on Craigslist for $65 but Germs I paid $250 for. Go figure.