I was a small town kid, so I’ve seen all manner of animals be tamed. At least to some extent. Squirrels, rats, crows and other wild birds. But never a possum. I’ve encountered a lot of them, but they tend to ignore people unless you really mess with them. Then they’ll politely (haha) ask you to let them go on their way.
So. Have you, or has anyone you’ve known, ever tamed a possum?
BTW; “tame” doesn’t mean it’ll eat food you leave out. It means the critter will interact with you, and actively try to get you to supply that food.
Also, I know possums are good to eat. That’s another subject.
Peace,
mangeorge
They’ve never struck me as either very bright or very gregarious.
There are certainly enough around, even with the frequent need for replacements, so they must have something going for them But I don’t think it’s personality.
I know all that, but cuteness is in the eye of the beholder. I’ve tamed a house mouse or two in my life. I don’t reccommend it, though. 
BTW; mice will fight over a handout.
I never have, and I too have seen many wild animals inadvisedly taken as pets. (Yes, I realize baby squirrels and raccoons are cute; they are wild animals and will tear your house up even if you ever do get them relatively tame.) I think they’re just not very social animals at best. Also they’re ugly, so it’s not like it’s a raccoon where you know it’s a bad idea but the animal is very cute. I’ve seen baby possums at wildlife rescue places, and seen people keep them for a bit to “clean 'em out” with bread and water before they eat them, but never a tame one.
No no, Zsofia, never brought 'em in the house. :eek: Even back then my dad knew better than to allow that. We would toss them food, outdide, and then only sometimes. Even the crow my buddy “tamed” was still leery of strangers, and completely wild. He would come right down to us, and eat food (meat) scraps from our hands. Loved hot dogs, which we called weenies back then. Crows are pretty bold anyway, at least where they’re not heavily hunted. I didn’t know anybody wanted a raccoon in their house.
My father had a pair of them when he was growing up. They stayed in an outside shed most of the time but the family let them in frequently and they hung around on the couch, watched TV, and ate. He said that they were pretty good pets.
A crazy man named Squeeter Skinner that I knew in Louisiana had a pet alligator named “Baby”. Baby lived in the pond that was a few yards from his house but would come when called. He would follow Squeeter around the yard and I got to see him very close up on two occasions. Squeeter would also let Baby in the house sometimes so he could have some company and play. Baby was 10 feet long.
However, I have never seen anyone with a pet possum. Those things are disgusting.
We have possums living in our area, and they are amazingly fearless. They will not hesitate to run along a railing 10cm away from a person. I have no doubt I could hand feed them if I wished.
They come into the house at night if we don’t block off every possible escape route.
I have never tamed an opossum, but a guy I know (William) managed to tame a shrew.
Well, they are very stupid. But yes, after a while they look upon you as a source of food, which their tiny brain is hardwired to get as much of as possible. (Warning, they will over eat). However, I don’t think you can get them to not fear & bite you. Get excited you’re bringing food, yes. Being cuddly- no.
Rats are actually very nice pets. Try one of them instead. Do not be deluded by the apparant cuddlyness of hamsters. They are mean.
My wife had a pet “opossum” when I met her. You can play with them but if you push too much, they’ll bite the shit out of you.
In high school, I worked as a weekend and summer volunteer at our local children’s science museum. People would often stop by with “orphaned” wild animal babies, and sometimes the museum would agree to keep them to raise. We once got 2 tiny little possums that were found huddled together against their deceased mom on the side of the road.
We bottle-fed the little guys, and they were the cutest babies ever. I agree that adult possums are seriously ugly, but the babies were great. What I remember best was that their ears looked just like delicate little petunia petals. One of the possums had a mean personality and would try to bite whoever was feeding him, but the other was very sweet, and loved to be cuddled. We took him out for petting zoos all the time.
Once they were old enough to eat solid food, the museum staff added them to the 3 or 4 other possums already on display in the zoo area.
Maisy
Only a shrew.
Holy moly macaroons! :eek:
CynicalGabe, I think Dvorak beat you to the punch on that joke.
Not personally, but Elly Mae was often seen petting a possum on “Beverly Hillbillies.”
Personally, I’ve caught three possums in my house/garage in the past six months. None of them seemed very happy to see me when I tried to liberate them.
I used to see an older guy driving around in a Model T or A or somesuch antique car. His left arm was always resting out the left window and the entire left side of a coon was behind him straddling the opening, obviously at ease and enjoying the ride. It was quite a sight, not easily forgotton, and frankly more pleasant to look at than an opossum.
Today at the Fort Worth zoo, in the petting zoo, was a trainer who had a tamed possom! The possom was clean (she was a pet) and quite friendly (all things considered). It was amazingly soft and not bristle-y as I imagined. The tail felt like a lizard.
She said she had trained Sugar since birth, when she found her alone (mom and siblings presumed dead somewhere).
So yes, it is possible.
Well, I’ll stick to animals that are supossed th be pets. I think that pretty much limits it to domestic dogs, but others are sure to disagree with me. Cats are cool enough, but you have to strike a deal with them or they’ll go elsewhere. Fish, birds, and eapecially ferrets belong in the wild.
I might have, with this OP, given some of you the idea that I was considering "adopting’ a possum. Nope. Not in coon’s age. It just came to me that I’d never seen or heard of a tame possum. :dubious:
Appearantly few have.
possums can make great pets-while we don’t currently have one in our home-we do have one who lives in our garage-for the last few years, he’s back every winter…we feed him of course-he has no fear of us and will come out for his “dinner”-they are far from “dumb” They are actually quite intelligent-although their sloth like movements may make them seem so…they are quite cautious and most certainly think through their actions. They are the only marsupial native to north america and have been around since the age of the dinosaurs [really]. They are very adaptable and will eat darn near anything-but love dog and cat food 
They ‘clean up’ by eating everything we consider trash-they also eat insects such as roaches-
As far as being dangerous…no more so than any other wild animal-if you corner any animal it will attack you in fear-try to corner and catch a feral kitten once! I still have the scars to prove even the cutest kitten will take a chunk out of your hand if you corner it.
So will every other animal who is not used to human contact and even some who are.
They can contract illnesses, rabies and other diseases but so can any other mammal on earth-including your beloved pets.
So while possums may get a bad rep., it is wholly unfounded-they are actually quite interesting, intelligent and useful animals-never view them as pests…they actually help keep your home and yard free of real pests…
TY
I forgot to add, “our” possum actually plays with our small dog when he is out at night…slowly, but playing nonetheless.
I grew up in the mountains and foothills of the Appalachians, in the WV/OH/KY area. We used to find baby racoons and tame them every bit as well as you can train a bred ferret or something like that. They were excellent pets, to us.
We let them inside but they didn’t live there. I think they were kept like our rabbits, in an enclosed place in cages, warmer than the outside certainly.
One funny detail I recall is that we were always baby powdering them because–of course–they smelled feral no matter what you did.
I cannot for the life of me remember how long we kept them or what we did with them when they grew up. (I remember having them when they were big, though, as well as when they were babies.) At the time we wouldn’t have known anything about ruining them for the wild a’nat, so we probably let them go by a creek (crik) or something like we did with skunks we cage-trapped.
As for a 'possum, eh. Don’t think they’d appeal much as a pet. But a raccoon has a personality. Personality goes a long way.