Opossum living with my feral cats!

Agh... Been seeing an opossum in the backyard when I feed the cats. Thought nothing of it as I have seen them occasionally before, Now it is a bit lighters later and I got a good look at it. It seems very small, it's ears are raggedy like it was in the cold too long. It stood there looking back at me for a while, then ran under the table where I have the cat houses I made! Should I be worried at this point? I thought they lived in trees, maybe it's just hanging out because the weather has been so terrible this year? I am hoping that it ran under the table because it was scared not that it lives there now. The cats accept it and are not bothered at all.
Any advice on the subject?
Thank you!

I care for several colonies myself, have for years.

What I have learned is this. Opossum and cats do very well together, they are non threatening and not aggressive at all.

Gentle creatures, they need food and shelter the same as all the others out there, and are well accepted. I see them eating side by side all the time.

They also do NOT carry rabies! I had spoke with the National Wildlife Foundation to ask about this, they informed me that they are too cold blooded for the rabies virus to survive.

So all in all, you have an extra hungry mouth to feed is all, they are simply harmless.

They are not a danger in any way. They have teeth for protection if they are cornered, otherwise are calm, gentle critters

At a Santa photo with your pet event, a woman brought a possum she had rescued. With some training the opossum became an ambassador of sorts, she takes the opossum to schools to educate children about wildlife. This opossum can be petted for short periods of time. The same Santa runs a low cost spay and neuter clinic; they spayed the opossum. So I agree, opossum and cats can coexist peacefully. You might want to try to trap to spay/neuter.

See? Poor things get such a bad rap......

I am a bit relieved! Thank you! I'm still hoping that he isn't sick or anything. This little one is tiny! I wonder if she (actually looks like a girl so I am switching to she) lost her mom somehow and then wound up here. She has a full set of teeth as I can hear that crunching a mile a way! Well, I will continue to shelter and feed her for now. She is awfully cute.

They are SO cute when they're that little! And yes, they're a rabies barrier species.

We get possums at the feeding stations this time of year. They move on - they roam. They may stay a little while, but I've never had them stay for any length of time.

JIL05 said:

 
I am a bit relieved! Thank you! I'm still hoping that he isn't sick or anything. This little one is tiny! I wonder if she (actually looks like a girl so I am switching to she) lost her mom somehow and then wound up here. She has a full set of teeth as I can hear that crunching a mile a way! Well, I will continue to shelter and feed her for now. She is awfully cute.

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I'm so glad you feel some relief and we were able to help with your concerns.

Poor little thing, just wants what kitty has )!!

I am glad to hear that possums don't carry rabies. We feed a cat colony on our back deck and I've surprised possums many times at the feeding table. The cats just ignore them.

We have also had a whole family of skunks. The first we saw was a little one that had crawled inside an empty bag of cat food. All we could see was a bit go the tail sticking out of the bag. One night the whole family showed up. There were a couple of big ones and four or five others of various sizes. The cats paid no mind to them either. I think they can tell which animals don't want to eat them.

I think most of my cats probably think I eat cats when they first know me. I always want to pick them up to kiss and snuggle with them. I can only imagine what I would think if something so much bigger than myself came up, picked me up and put me to its mouth. Eeekd!!

sweetthangtx said:

I am glad to hear that possums don't carry rabies. We feed a cat colony on our back deck and I've surprised possums many times at the feeding table. The cats just ignore them.

We have also had a whole family of skunks. The first we saw was a little one that had crawled inside an empty bag of cat food. All we could see was a bit go the tail sticking out of the bag. One night the whole family showed up. There were a couple of big ones and four or five others of various sizes. The cats paid no mind to them either. I think they can tell which animals don't want to eat them.

I think most of my cats probably think I eat cats when they first know me. I always want to pick them up to kiss and snuggle with them. I can only imagine what I would think if something so much bigger than myself came up, picked me up and put me to its mouth. Eeekd!!

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Now skunks on the other hand are mean to cats, they do not co-exist at all. The skunks will hiss and growl and act aggressive towards the cats until they back off and the skunk gets to eat first.

Same as raccoons.

Cat woman, bless you for caring for so many cats.

My outside colony has stabilized at about 15. We have six house cats as well. It is all we can do to keep them in kibble and toys!

I think the reason the skunks and the cats don't fuss is two fold. First, our colony is very passive and gentle, for the most part. Secondly, the skunks can't get to the food unless it is spilled on the deck . We feed on a table on the deck. The skunks are not good climbers and we keep it away from anything they could get on to get onto it. We have to keep the table legs in buckets of water 9 months of the year to keep the ants off of the food.

Sometimes I wish my crew would not be so passive. When we do get a cat in that is more assertive they tend to bully the others. I have two of those now. They both came immediately up to us to be handled but neither of them has the correct cat social skills. Has anyone got any ideas on how to manage that?

I've had possums hanging around for a couple of years now.  The little ones leave Mom very young and are very independent (learned that from a rehabber).  Last year when the weather wasfould, the large possum slept in a cat tree on the porch.  This year, what is probably her daughter decided to come in the laundry room and sleep where my feral Grey Boy usually slept at that time.  (He has since moved into the main part of the house -- Grey Boy, not the possum, whom I've named Blossom.  They are gentle shy creatures and just put on a fierce pose when startled, opening their mouths wide and hissing, to show their sharp teeth.  They are not terribly bright which is why you see them dead by the road so often.  I live next to a state park, and driving through it one dusk, I saw a possum in the road.  It stopped and faced down my car, hissing at it.  I stopped, but most people don't.   I just tried to make an album for Blossom the Possum but the photos ended up in my "default" album.  Oh well, I have no idea how to change it so just go there to see her.

Opossums co-exist with my feral, Muffin. Once I saw a large opossum chasing Muffin's girlfriend down the road in broad daylight in the summer, it was the strangest sight ever. I assume the cat must have ventured too close to a mama opossum's den and litter, or perhaps they were playing. An opossum has sharp teeth but will only attack if it is cornered and threatened and playing dead (possum) hasn't worked.  Wildlife in an area do get to know each other and learn to co-exist because it's mutually beneficial. If your cats have accepted this opossum's presence, then you don't have anything to worry about. But dang....they sure are ugly! The first time I saw an opossum eating out of my feral's food bowl, I thought it was a large, mutated rat, I almost peed myself, lol. Their tails are so....rodent-like!  

I've had possums stop and eat our cat food several times. They usually move on after a while and have never caused a problem, I feel sorry for all the hungry creatures! Raccoons are a different story, they are aggressive, charge at the cats and such pigs they wipe out the food very quickly, I have to bring in the food at night. I had one cat that was killed by the food, he had his stomach slashed wide open. After talking with the vet we determined it was most likely a raccoon that did it, a dog or coyote would have tore him up more, and for a cat fight to be fatal there would have been signs of a savage fight, and there was nothing. Since then we are very careful not to try to encourage the coons to hang around. I have seen the raccoons eat side by side with the cats, so something happened to anger one of them. Your poor little guy is most likely very young and having a hard time finding food. They do get pretty good sized. Good luck!