What Do Opossums Eat?

Opossums are very energetic creatures. They scurry quickly when startled and become aggressive when cornered. They are alert and very observant of their surroundings. The American Opossum can measure 15 to 20 inches at full development and can weigh 10 to 13 pounds. For all these reasons, they have a very large variety of foods in their diets.

Main courses for the opossum vary based on the region and the season. Fruit is a mainstay for most. Fruit is seasonal and requires warm conditions to thrive. Opossums have also been known to eat certain grasses and some types of grain. These foods are high in fiber and carbohydrates. Quick energy is produced as a result of this regime.

Opossums are omnivorous and therefore large consumers of meat. Snakes are included in their diets. They are immune to every venomous snake bite except that of the coral snake. In certain areas they will eat large insects, snails and slugs. They are a great natural form of pest control.

Keep close watch on the henhouse. Opossums are also voracious egg eaters. While they may be instrumental in keeping mice and rats away from the feed and grain, opossums are notorious for munching eggs. Beware: the chickens are not safe either. An opossum that gets into your coop or run will target eggs and young chicks, but they are certainly known to kill adult chickens as well. Small bantams are especially at risk. When they kill adult chickens, they will take one or more, and leave remains quite similar to what a raccoon leaves: the body or bodies will usually be left where they were killed, rather than carried away. The birds will usually be killed by bites to the neck, and the opossums often just eat the contents of your birds' crops and occasionally some of the chest. Sometimes they will just drink the blood--ugh!--little vampires. In any case, they don't normally consume the whole bird.

Seafood is definitely on the menu. The opossum is known to eat fish, frogs, and crayfish. The skilled opossum will wait for a raccoon or other predator to finish its portion of a fish, then devour the remains. For this reason, leaving cat food outside is never a good idea when opossums are known to be in the area.

Opossums are naturally lazy and will eat from the nearest food source. Being omnivorous allows for the diet to be mixed from fruit and grain to all types of flesh. The bottom line is that “opossums ain’t picky.”

Oftentimes I get asked the questions what do possums eat? What is a good possum trap? What's the best bait to catch a possum? My answer is pretty simple: what do you have around your house? possums of learn how to adapt to an urban environment; this simply means that they no longer need to scavenge in the trees or dig up your lawn in order to find grub. What it means is that possums have learned what to eat around urban areas like cities and suburbs.

What do possums eat?

possums eat trash

possums eat garbage

possums eat cat food

possums eat dog food

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possums can eat just about anything. Their digestive systems have learned how to adapt given their changes in diet and changes in environment. If the possum is used to eating the trash out of your garbage, go ahead and take your possum trap and use the garbage as possum bait. In the back of the truck, load the bed with garbage, set the trap near your garbage and chances are next morning when you wake up you will have a possum in that trap. If the garbage in the truck didn't do the trick, for the best possum bait go ahead and try cat food. Cat food is a great possum bait to use when trapping possums in your general home and property. Every now and then you might capture a cat with cat food.

If you do, simply open the trap and let the cat out and reset the trap using another possum bait, I personally love using oatmeal cream cookies as possum bait; they are one of the best possum baits because they're made with marshmallows and sugar. Possums have a sweet tooth; possums like sweet baked oatmeal cream pies. Another great lure that works very well is marshmallows. Take a handful of marshmallows and lightly sprinkle them around the trap, in the trap and a lot of marshmallows in the back of the possum trap. The marshmallows will be a great possum lure.

Ultimately if you want to get rid of possums you need to start doing possum trapping. That is the first and best way to do so. In order to do trapping you need to know what possums eat. If you can figure out what your possum is eating and you can place that bait in the back of the trap, you will be able to get rid of possums in your attic.

Possum habitats changed largely over the past 25 years with a growing population construction and new development, the previous possum habitat is no longer the woods, in the wildlife or the in the wildland. Make sure you adapt your trapping methods to New Age possum removal tips in order to use the right possum bait in order to capture that nuisance animal. If you have any questions my name is Brendan Mangnitz at CenturianWildlife.com. Give me a call or shoot me an email at Brendan@CenturianWildlife.com if you would like me to help you trap that pesky possum!