Learning the hard way…

In the wildlife section of book stores there’s no 1st time parent's baby manual called “The Baby Possum’s first days” or “Bringing Baby Possum Home” so at home the learning curve is, by necessity, very steep and fraught with danger.

We learned most of these lessons through trial and error... mainly error and we were lucky that no 'major' mistakes were made as Ollie turned out fine (at least we think he did....)



Lesson #1 - never leave possum in his pouch, on the feeding table and turn your back, or your baby possum will get scared and take a flying leap towards his ‘mum’ al la sugar glider style... splat onto the carpet! Because, as Ollie found out; 1/ a baby possum's perception of distance is not yet developed, 2/ there needs to be a certain amount of grip to provide a decent jumping platform and 3/ brush-tails definitely cannot fly!

Lesson #2 – Don’t wear ½ decent clothes whilst giving a baby Possum attention… as they have no etiquette and will wee whenever startled or scared... copious amounts... normally down your arm, over your shoulder or in your lap.

Lesson #3 – when transitioning from feeding by syringe to lapping from a bowl, be prepared to clean possum’s face regularly as they’ll invariably dive face first into the milk. Again their depth perception is not yet developed.

Lesson #4 – always remember to close both doors on the cage, otherwise an adventurous possum will end up on top of the cage or climbing up your curtains, or worse still wee-ing from the top of the cage onto your curtains when he gets scared of you climbing up to capture him again!

Lesson #5 – wear your beanie when handling a possum… especially one called Ollie, as they’ll always try to find the highest place when frightened … ie: the top of your head! It also pays to keep your mouth shut if possum does get on top of your head… [see Lesson #2]


 
Lesson #6 - If you have hyper sensitive hearing... wear ear plugs. 1/ if you want a good night sleep as a possum jumping from branch to branch in a cage or aviary can be quite noisy. (You might also consider where your aviary is situated so your neighbours are not disturbed) and 2/ a possum eating a piece of apple or sweet potato an few cm from your ear is very loud.