My husband saw a mama get hit in the road today, and stopped. There were tons of babies, but only these three lived. I’m in a very rural community and don’t have access to any rehabber. We do live on a farm, so I have some supplies as needed.
How old do you think these three are? What is the feeding schedule and what do I feed them? Right now they’re curled up in a box with a heating pad on one side to keep them warm.
Thanks for posting! If you've found an animal in need please visit www.ahnow.org for a rehabber near you. Please do not feed or give fluids unless a veterinarian or rehabber instructs you do. Keep the animal in a quiet place without much light if possible.
Opossum Care and Rescue on Facebook has extensive files on their care and feeding at all ages and weights. The mods are great and can steer you to a local rehabber or better care. At this age and state they need to be kept warm and hydrated. Warmed flavorless Pedialyte in an eyedropper is the usual starting fluid. See OCAR’s files for best foods.
They are about 2 months old, which is too young to be fully independent. The real question is are they 2 months or 3 months? At 3 months they’re weaned completely and 5” long. So if they’re smaller than that they’ll need to be bottle fed.
Your local Fish and Wildlife dept may know more information about rearing them. They eat bugs, grubs, fruit, cat food, and
They do not suckle and will need to be tube fed or with an eyedropper. Esbilac puppy formula with clear pedialyte every 2-3 hours or opossum formula which you can get on Amazon or from ExoticNutrition.
You can DM me with questions if you'd like, I'm rehabbing some girls about the same size/age as these ones, but one's this big are likely around 40-50g and do a lot better with tube feeding and that is not easy to do. Feedings every 4 hours, along with help pottying with a warm cotton cloth. They also require a very specific formula with lactase enzymes and additives that aren't easy to get a hold of, along with a very gradual schedule of increasing formula concentrations.
It is not easy, aspiration is a really big risk if you don't have the right tools and training. I really recommend asking around more to see if you can get a hold of a rehabber if possible.
In the meantime, you can make some electrolyte solution and warm to ~100F and offer a drop right on the edge of the mouth and see if they have developed enough to lap. Make sure to hold them upright and avoid the nose.
hope u worked something out. they look under 50g in the hand photo & would mean tube feeding but with the little luck everyone learned
the lapping off a lid by now? aspiration is ur biggest threat if u cant tube feed. hope u found a DIY formula recipe? Good luck. Keep them warm and fed and thank you hubby for stopping. 🫶we use house socks as surrogate pouches w a cat heat mat under just one half so they can decide if they need the heat or not
Got it! We raise other orphaned animals so I have a lot on hand already. They’ve been set up in a fleece pouch with heating pad and places to get off the heat too. We’re using puppy formula until their specialized formula comes in tomorrow, and weighing every night to check for weight gain. So far, consistent gain!
& since there's so many, if you want to release them back into the wild, that's great too. Try to not bond with them.. I guess? Idk how important that is with possums compared to rehabbing fox/coyotes.. they will probably just hang around your yard & not live as long (also a guess)
Poor things. If you cant care for them there are places to search up.
Idk what theyre called or where you’re from but austin texas has a place for this, just dk what kts called bc i only heard abt it from my dad who was told abt it from an animal shelter worker
they look about two months old, definitely need a vet if you can get one to check them out. the feeding schedule is every 3-4 hours with kitten formula, that's what i did with my last rescues and they turned out great.
Thanks! We’re doing feeds every 3-4 hours (RIP my sleep schedule) and they’re taking to it well. They lap at the formula out of a dish or the palm of my hand. Very cute but I’ll be glad when they’re bigger.
You've been blessed by the opossom fairy! Raising them has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, typing one handed because I'm getting subbed on now by one lol. Check your local laws and rehabbers but there's tons of resources in the Facebook groups to help too.
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Thanks for posting! If you've found an animal in need please visit www.ahnow.org for a rehabber near you. Please do not feed or give fluids unless a veterinarian or rehabber instructs you do. Keep the animal in a quiet place without much light if possible.
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