A handful of joy - a lucky possum's tale

This little ring tailed possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) was found on the grounds of Pembroke School in Adelaide back in March. The students handed her to the teachers who in turn brought her into our hospital. She weighed all of 40grams! Beth Foreman took on the task of her management and here she is 4 weeks later thriving, healthy & weighing over 100grams.

Raising a baby possum involves feeding a special milk formula round the clock, keeping her warm and attending to her toilet needs. Little "possum" was very gregarious right from the beginning. She fed very well, was very friendly and inquisitive. Her favourite place was to be curled up in someone's pocket.

Ring tailed possums are very common in forests and woodlands and many have moved into suburban gardens. They are very social animals and live in family groups consisting of a male and 1-2 females and associated young. Being marsupials the young are raised in a pouch until they are large enough to climb onto their mother's backs. This is about 4 months of age. They still drink milk from inside the pouch and will ride on mum's back until confident enough to climb by themselves at about 6 months. Ring tailed possums are usually born and raised in pairs and sometimes one of the pair will come to grief, either by falling off mum or being abandoned. If they fall to the ground they will quickly be preyed upon by a passing cat or die from lack of food. Once rescued they can be successfully hand raised and make delightful pets.

Beth has just passed "possum" onto one of her school friends and they have called her "Zippy". Possums can be kept in an aviary and will live well on a diet of fruit, vegetables and native flowers and leaves. They grow to between 700 & 1100grams.

Beth and Zippy