>>Cherie...do you know anything about opossums? I raised a male years ago and >>had non issues, but this young female is becoming aggressive and I am >>wondering if she might be reaching sexual maturity?
>>Any thoughts? >>Mary, LVT Mary, I've raised five opossums. Three males and two females. The males are definitely slower and mellower. The female I had in WA. for school programs was more hyper and harder to hold but never aggressive. We had a female at Turtle Bay in CA that was there when I took over and was three years old was very easily handled as long as you woke her up slowly. Another female we raised later was a bit more sensitive about being handled because she had been run over by a car, had her jaw wired together and needed daily medicine for a several weeks. If one of our volunteers picked her up when she was still half asleep or if they didn't support her feet she'd grab with her feet and sometimes her mouth to get support! A little disconcerting, so we clicker trained her to climb into a basket that we'd place in her enclosure when we wanted her to be in one of our school programs. It worked well. We'd pet her until she woke up, present the basket and when she climbed in, she got clicked and received her favorite reward-banana! As far as the sexual maturity part goes..they have such short lifespans in the wild, I think they can breed at 6-8 months, but they are spontaneous ovulators, so don't ovulate until they meet a man! So I wouldn't think she'd get cranky for that reason. How old is she? My friend Karen, who has rehabbed many opossums, said that if you get them too far past the time where they've just come out of the pouch they can be pretty aggressive. Cherie
