For those who live in more rural kinds of settings, it is not uncommon to find an opossum that is living in and around your home. It could be possible that this animal will have babies and start to see those babies grow in the nest that she has built. This happens all the time.
Sadly, another occurrence that is quite frequent is that the mother may be killed or abandon her young, meaning that the baby opossums are forced to fend for themselves. Many simply die off, either unable to care for themselves or because predators kill and eat them, but some manage to survive and appear in people’s yards.
While these animals are kind of ugly, they are cute in their own way. They look so helpless, and the natural instinct is to want to assist them. This leads many to think that an opossum would make a really great pet.
Before deciding to take this step, don’t! These are not good pets at all.
First, understand that these are wild animals. Wild animals are meant to be wild, and no one has really domesticated an opossum. This means that they will be combative with you and could injure you, a family member, or your pet. They will bite. They will scratch. They will claw. These will hurt and so the answer should be no.
But it goes a lot further than this. Many of these animals carry some very serious diseases. This includes such things as rabies and distemper. Coming in contact with them may lead to you being infected, and the treatments for these things can be quite painful. If you were to get bit and contracted rabies and were not treated within the first 24 hours you could die, and this is an agonizing death. You surely don’t want that.
Actually, there is very little about the opossum that is safe for you to decide to make it your pet. Even the feces and urine can be dangerous. There are many parasites that can be found in the waste of these animals. If you step on it the parasites will burrow into your skin, enter your blood stream, and infect you. Clearly, not something you want.
Even the dry particles to it are dangerous. As the feces and urine dries the particles become airborne. The parasites go with it, and when you breathe it in you can become sick. That is not worth it whatsoever.
You clearly want to be a nice person and help a poor long, lost possum, but this is not a good idea at all. The best thing to do is to call the animal control and have them remove the animal or tell you where to take it. You will be very glad you did.
Read more:
Opossum Control,
How to Get Rid of Opossums,
Opossum Feces.
