How to Provide Adequate Housing for a Pet Opossum

Providing adequate housing for your pet opossum has to strike the perfect balance between offering them the sort of freedom that allows them to thrive. Preventing them from destroying your home and driving you crazy with their nocturnal behavior. With a few easy adjustments, both you and your pet opossum should be able to co-exist peacefully. Read on to learn more.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Aquarium
• Nesting materials
• Branches or perch

Provide Adequate Housing for Your Pet Opossum

1. Design or build an enclosure that will be comfortable for your possum and be difficult to destroy. Traditional building materials used to make ordinary cages, such as chicken wire and wood, can be easily taken apart by opossums, since they are notorious escape artists. A large aquarium is best, one with a lid that is secure yet allows an ample amount of ventilation.

2. Provide adequate nesting materials for your opossum, such as bits of paper, tissue or corn cob litter. Cedar shavings are generally not recommended for opossums. Put them into one corner of the aquarium enclosure and allow your pet opossum to arrange the nest as they see fit.

3. Offer some sort of perch or branch-like structure, either in or out of the enclosure, that approximates the branches of a tree. Opossums love climbing in trees, and they will feel safe and happy there. Perches and similar devices designed for large birds such as parrots and cockatoos often work well in this situation.

4. Keep no more than one opossum in each enclosure, with the exception of a mother and her babies. Opossums are both territorial and solitary animals, and they will fight with each other unless you provide an adequate way to keep their housing separated.

5. Design an area around their enclosure where you can take them out and allow them to roam safely. Opossums will become both bored and anxious if you keep them confined for too long. And remember that they are the most active at night, so you may have to adapt your life around their routines.

6. Housebreak your opossum the same way you would a dog, since they respond to the same types of methods. Set newspapers down in corners to encourage them, or, if they have already picked a spot of their own, set the papers there.

Tips & Warnings

• While opossums are known to get along with cats (they generally ignore each other), they cannot exist with a dog in the same house. Dog attacks are the leading killers of opossums.

[jades976]

on 5/3/2008 I have to disagree with the statement that opossums and dogs don't get allong. I have a 1 year old opossum and a 10 year old female pit bull. They are close friends. I also have a 5 yr old female and a 2 yr old male that don't bother the opossum. It all depends on how you raise the dogs.