Baby possums can become orphaned because of a number of reasons, the main reason is that the mother was hit by a car. Orphaned baby possum season starts in March and carries on until August. If you’ve found a baby possum and need help knowing how to feed them, this article is for you

Feeding a baby possum involves using a syringe or an eyedropper to pour formula directly into it’s mouth, this feeding needs to be done very frequently. The baby needs to be warm before feeding

How to feed a baby possum

Knowing what to feed and how to feed baby possums can be quite complex. It is recommended that these animals be taken care of by wildlife rehabilitators.

However, if there are no wildlife rehabilitation centers near you, or available, you can give that animal care before you can get the possum to a rehabilitation center

Precautions:

The first thing to note is that newborn possums need frequent feedings, you need to make yourself available to give them attention and feedings around the clock, if they are not fed on time, or correctly, they can die

Never give the baby possum any form of liquid if it is chilled, wait for its body temperature to be brought back to normal.

You can warm the baby up by using a hot water bottle on it or holding it against your body to share warmth. Do not use a human heating pad because these can cause the animal to become too hot

What to use:

When feeding baby possums you will need to feed them diluted animal milk replacement and feed them frequently. 

Preparing formula for baby possums entails adding one part formula to 3 parts water, this ratio is a good starting point. Start feeding the baby every two hours making sure that the previous meal has been fully absorbed in their bodies before feeding. 

You can use a one cc syringe to feed the animal making sure that it has a medical silicone rubber tubing placed on the needle end. You can also feed them using eyedroppers. 

If the baby is larger, you can use 1 mL lab pippets. If the animal is smaller these can be hard on the end, you can make the end smaller by heating the tips using a cigarette lighter and mold, or draw, the tip down to create a finer end

How to:

Feed the animals slowly by injecting or dropping small amounts of the formula directly into the babies mouth

Holding the infant in the correct position is important, this keeps the possum from aspirating. The best way to hold the animal is to have its head elevated and ensure that there is no pressure on the baby’s chest or abdomen.

Feed the baby slowly and take frequent breaks in between

You’ll know that the baby has had enough, and that you can stop feeding it, when its level of greediness for the formula decreases, this decrease can be slight, stop feeding when this happens. 

There are a variety of factors that will determine how much formula you can give the animal, but an average amount of formula for a 10 gram possum is 0.5 cc. If the possum that you’ve found weighs 25 grams, you can give it 1.0 cc of formula.

If you find a possum that is larger than 7 inches long, from nose to tip, then it is not a baby, it is old enough to survive on its own

Warning: Do not try to force-feed a baby any food, if you try to force-feed the baby food the animal can aspirate. This can also happen if you feed them improperly

Note: Feeding baby possums at the right time is very important. If the animal is malnourished or dehydrated then feeding them incorrectly can shock their system and kill them

What to feed a baby possum:

Foods that you can give your baby possum include PegAg product, Esbilac, reconstituted puppy milk replacement, or Fox Valley Day One Line

All of these animal milk replacements need to be refrigerated and need to be bought in small quantities as they become rancid before the expiration date indicated on the container arrives

Avoid overfeeding these animals foods that have not been designed for them like kitten milk or puppy milk, kitten milk, and puppy milk are designed for kittens and puppies, they deliver all the nutrients that these animals need to grow but this is not what marsupials drink.

Giving possums this milk over time can cause them to become malnourished.

Also, avoid giving these animals goats milk, honey, cows milk, and or eggs

Possums have a very specialized diet, you need to be feeding them exactly what they need or else they can develop conditions like metabolic bone disease.

The best thing that you can do for this animal is to call a wildlife rehabilitator, these people have had an intense amount of training on how to take care of possums properly

Do baby possums drink water?

Baby possums do drink water, you can either feed them water through a syringe or let them drink the water out of a shallow bowl. You’ll know that the animal is able to drink water by itself when it can lap up the liquid without your assistance.

What foods are bad for possums?

Once possums are fully grown they can eat a variety of foods, they are scavengers and will eat almost anything they can get their hands on.

However, one food that experts recommend not to feed possums is dairy, some say that small amounts of cheese and yogurt can be given to older possums, but if you want to be on the safe side, avoid feeding them this food group 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, the best way to feed a baby possum is by using a syringe or an eyedropper. The possum needs to be fed with its head up with no pressure being applied on its chest or stomach.

The amount of food that a baby possum can be fed depends on its size, the animal needs to be fed every two hours. However, the best thing to do for the baby possum is to take it to a rehabilitation center.

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