Baby Opossums

Some reasons for a baby opossum to be found by humans and what to do

  1. The baby fell off the mother. Usually happens after the mother was frightened and takes off in a hurry. Usually happens after the mother was frightened and takes off in a hurry. Mother opossums do not retrieve their young, so the baby is left alone.
  2. Mothers are injured or killed and babies are still in the pouch or leave the pouch and begin to wander. Many times, very small opossums are unable to leave the pouch of the dead or injured mother and will continue to nurse her. Babies can be gently pulled from the mother’s nipples and can still be saved if they are not too young. The mother can have up to 13 babies.

Wildlife Intake Form

Providing Us With the Information Concerning The Circumstances in Which You Found This Animal is Vitally Important to Both Providing Medical Care and Getting the Patient Released Back Into Its Proper Home and Environment

All injured opossums should come to a rehabber.  

  • Obviously broken skin from bird, cat, or dog bites 
  • Contact with a cat’s mouth 
  • Swollen bump on the head 
  • Tilted head, walking in circles 
  • Bruises on the body especially on the abdomen (can only be seen if the baby does not yet have fur) 
  • Bloody nose 
  • Difficulty breathing. 
  • Broken limb, dragging back legs 
  • They are very thin and dehydrated. Very tiny opossums, or “pinkies”, naturally are quite wrinkled, so it is difficult to determine if they are dehydrated. Infant or even juvenile opossums  can be tested for dehydration if the caller pinches the skin on the back of the neck, pulls it up,  and lets it go again. This is called “tenting the skin”. If the skin readily snaps back to the body,  the baby probably is not severely dehydrated. But if the skin stays up in the “pinched” position,  even after the skin is let go, it most likely is already orphaned and has not been nursing for some time. 
  • They have maggots, off-white fly eggs in the fur (often very hard to see), and lots of fleas or ants on their body. Look for white rice-shaped forms in the nose, mouth, ears, groin, or any place on the body that may have a sore, bite, or other open wound. Maggots will hatch from eggs that an adult fly deposited. A mother opossum would have licked the eggs off before they ever hatched,  so the presence of eggs or maggots usually indicates that the baby is orphaned. Maggots must be dealt with immediately by a rehabilitator. They can enter the body very quickly and damage the lungs, heart, and brain. 

Important: Most all young healthy opossums that are less than 9 -10 inches from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail should come to a rehabber. If they are found alone and not near the mom then there is no way to get the young baby back with the mother.