Possums are omnivorous opportunistic feeders so these wild creatures whether located in your garden or the wild defy expectations and have a quite diverse diet working for them. In the gardens, they seem to have taken the easy way out and feed on fruits, vegetables, and even flowers.
However, the diet of opossums truly shines in their wild natural environment where it extends to accompany small mammals, bird eggs, amphibians, pests, and even carcasses. The knowledge of possum’s diet assists us in controlling their encroachment on the gardens as well as recognizing their importance in an ecosystem.
What Do Possums Eat In Your Garden?
Are you curious and unable to resist knowing what the possum would possibly like to eat in your garden? After all, there’s no way why those scavengers would be interested in your bland old garden undergoing the early winter throes.
Unfortunately, possums are pretty resourceful and have quite a large and exotic diet list which can include flowers and seeds. So, if you have observed any theft and vandalism in your vegetable patch then it might be possums giving you an unwanted visit.
So, what can possums eat? Well, here is a list of things possums might be eating in your yard:
Possums are well-known consumers of fruits such as apples, pears, and citrus fruits. That’s not all though as they’re noted to be quite interested in any sweet, juicy fruits and have been observed making their way to sweet fruit-bearing trees if they are present on the grounds.
While it isn’t a surprise that possums prefer apples, pears, and bananas for a sweet crunch, they will also happily choose to eat citrus fruits such as oranges which are toxic to many animals including possums, and can be later found evacuating their stomach due to them being unable to digest citric acid.
2. Vegetables
As we stated above, possums also enjoy consuming various vegetables grown in their gardens. Moreover, you can easily tell that it’s a possum rather than a groundhog because of the simple fact that possums enjoy consuming vegetables that have not fully matured yet while groundhogs would wait a bit longer.
Some of their most preferred vegetables are carrots, tomatoes, and cabbage since the carrots are sweet while tomatoes are a juicy snack. Normally tomatoes would have been avoided due to being related to the nightshade family however, these rodents have come to associate any human-grown plants as non-toxic.
Nature isn’t always about the survival of the fittest but rather the survival of whoever can make do with what they have. And possums can certainly make do with things available in your garden. Even if you do not have a growing vegetable patch, the possums are perfectly content with settling for your garden flowers.
They especially like consuming the soft leaves and petals of petunias, marigolds, and pansies which are commonly used for ornamental purposes in most American yards even if it is completely devoid of any fruit and vegetable plants. They might also mess up your roots if it is infested with critters.
4. Nuts
Is it any surprise that possums also love nuts such as acorns and walnuts just like their squirrel neighbors? After all the nuts are high in fat content which makes them an especially nutritional and calorie-dense food. Survival is all about having access to the richest source of energy.
So, the nuts are definitely up there amongst some of the best foods for animals living in the suburbs. While they usually forage nuts from gardens with oak trees, it’s not uncommon for them to steal the nuts from yards containing bird feeders.
The possums have one more trick up their sleeves owing to their omnivorous nature when compared to their unneighborly squirrel. They are capable of feeding on insects within their reach such as beetles, caterpillars, and grasshoppers which is an important supplement to their diet and can act as a source of protein.
All these pests are quite common in the gardens so they will end up doing some garden pest control for you on a positive note. The bad news is obviously that they are also equally likely to make a mess of your garden by upturning the soil during hunting and also feeding on your fruits and vegetables.
6. Seeds
Seeds are another food that is bursting with both energy and nutrients making them another source of essential nutrition for possums during winter when both the plants, vegetables, and pests are a rare sight in winter alongside nuts.
The most common method with which a possum may gain access to the plant seeds is by stealing them from other birds, bird feeders or by scrounging up the sown seeds from your garden which can end your green thumb spree before it can even begin and erode your harvest yield.
There’s no shortage of food opportunities when you’re a certain opportunistic consuming marsupial. Remember that the possums are likely to consume oranges and other citric fruits despite being toxic? They will end up completely fine after a bout of vomiting.
This affords them a huge evolutionary advantage compared to other scavengers because even most scavengers avoid piles of decomposing food piles while possums will dig through them happily to feed on food waste such as food and vegetable skin scraps, leaves, seeds, and coffee grounds.
8. Fungi
While we’re on the topic of possums eating things that aren’t normally meant to be eaten, another such example is the fungi as the possums will also happily food on mushrooms and toadstools that can grow in the shaded and humid region of your gardens.
These fungi could prove to be a nutritious protein snack but they are also equally likely to be extremely poisonous. If they do happen to be poisonous, most possums usually have sufficient vitality and constitution to survive the poisoning after evacuating their stomach content.
If you thought the opossums being capable of eating decomposing food was impressive then it isn’t anything compared to this where the possums can nibble and feed on the bark of soft and young shrubs and tree plants in the absence of everything else.
This feeding behavior may end up harming the trees in one way or another as the damage to the inner wood of the trees can make them especially vulnerable to pests and diseases. This is especially common during the dry times of the year and can also reduce their physical durability.
10. Small Animals
While it’s not very often that a possum living in urban and suburban regions of human settlements may choose to partake in flesh simply due to the huge overabundance of other food products if given the opportunity, it isn’t uncommon for possums to be seen feeding on small animals and their eggs.
If there are any bird nests or rodents present in the garden, the possums can rely on predation to settle a day’s worth of rations. This can upset the wildlife dynamics in your garden and highlights the role of possums in the ecosystem as a manager of populations of certain species.
Now that we have just about covered everything that a possum might choose to eat in a garden, what possums eat in the wild? Well, if their opportunistic feeding behavior, diet variety, and versatility are anything to go by then they’re certainly not the ones to be struggling even in the wild.
When not limited to garden fanfare, possums in the wild are reported to feed on small mammals, birds, frogs, eggs, and even carrion! Let’s explore deeper into the wild side of possum fine dining and see how it contrasts with the diet of a garden possum:
11. Small Mammals
Predation of small mammals by possums is not very frequent as it isn’t very energy efficient to go on a literal wild rabbit chase, if given no choice due to food scarcity a possum has no problems with hunting and feeding on rodents, rabbits, and mice.
The offered opportunity for them to hunt these prey for a side of protein allows them to stay healthy and nourished in a wide range of habitats despite the food scarcity. This also makes them stand out from other omnivores not only as carrion-feeding scavengers but also as true opportunistic feeders.
Aside from active predation, a wild possum may also choose to go wild bird egg raiding should they happen to chance upon a nest. Eggs are after all rich in nutrients as it has everything necessary to sustain and give rise to life, one way or another.
The possums may locate these nests on trees, ground, or even in vegetation. Once they do, going nest raiding isn’t all too difficult as the nest is often bound to be unguarded due to its guardians requiring it to go scavenging for food themselves for the sake of the future hatchlings.
13. Carrion
Why do the work if someone else has already done it for you? Primary obligate carnivores such as wolves, bears, tigers, etc won’t bother completely consuming and stripping their hunt entirely to the bone. So, if a possum chances upon carrion before any other of nature’s scavengers, then they are in for a treat.
This gives the possums a huge leg up against other non-carrion-feeding omnivores residing in their similar ecosystem such as the raccoons. Carrions yield high nutrition and energy, especially considering that it is often a larger beast that a possum would be entirely incapable of hunting.
Frog and amphibian mating season especially during the marshes and the wetlands are another common source of a satisfying meal for the wild possums living in such a habitat due to them congregating together in huge numbers.
Thus, possums are amongst many other predators that serve as nature’s means of controlling the population of quickly mass-producing critters such as small frogs and toads. A little-known fact about the possum diet is that they require high amounts of calcium which these meals are perfect for along with their supple lean meat.
15. Fish
In places where water is available, a possum may choose to include fish in their diet. But wait, “How do possums even hunt the fish?” you may ask. While the possums are extremely proficient swimmers, despite having five-fingered hands and opposable thumbs, they aren’t good at hunting fish.
Fortunately for these opossums, there exists a predator that can do all the fish hunting for them, the raccoon. Possums are extremely territorial and can drive off the raccoons. A smart possum may wait until the raccoons have finished eating their side of the fish so they are less likely to fight and stand their ground for the fish.
Possums may also choose to occasionally actively hunt and consume small snakes as a means of getting their proteins and calcium amongst other nutrients. In fact, snakes are easier prey than frogs and rabbits due to their limited range of motion and being inept at running away.
Research has also shown that possums have a natural resistance to viper venom such as the diamondback rattlesnakes and the infamous copperheads. This implies that ancestors of possums may have hunted similarly venomous snakes and evolved the immunity proteins out of necessity.
17. Roots
Since possums are known to forage on the ground, their strong constitution affords them the freedom to experiment on various roots and tuberous parts of different plants to find good sources of food while relying on past experiences of poor consumption to avoid food poisoning.
These underground parts are rich in carbohydrates and can therefore be considered as a source of energy. However, this behavior isn’t always common, and roots are only exploited as a last resort during foraging when other food sources are unavailable.
Despite it being the “wilds”, grains are easily available in forests and grasslands. The grains are especially more common for possums that reside in the grasslands where they get the opportunity to feed on wild grains such as grass seeds, corn, barley, oats, millets, and more.
These grains are full of carbohydrates and are also full of fiber, vitamins, and minerals due to being consumed wholegrain rather than being processed beforehand. Their capacity to eat grains is further assisted by their dexterous hands and opposable thumbs.
19. Leaves and Shoots
Aside from the roots, the possums also predominantly feed on fresh leaves and twigs of several plants during the seasons with high food scarcity. This is especially common during the seasons when the plants and the trees haven’t bloomed to produce any fruits, nuts, or berries.
This feeding behavior enables the possums to achieve dietary polymorphism and achieve an additional level of flexibility on top of countless other dietary options. Yet again while this behavior can be destructive for the vegetation, it is countered by its rare occurrence.
These marsupials are great climbers and can easily forage the forest for wild berries such as blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries available in the forest due to good vantage spots offered to them as well as due to their fingered hands and opposable thumbs providing them the dexterity to avoid thorns.
Berries contain varying amounts of sugars and vitamins so they’re not just a good energy source but also a part of a well-balanced nutritious diet and prevent illnesses. This relationship isn’t one-sided as the possums help in the distribution of wild berry seeds in the forests through their feces.
Facts About Possums
Indeed, possums are rather interesting animals and exhibit some quite interesting and remarkable traits, behaviors, and personalities. From their unique winter diet to uniquely evolved tactical mechanisms for fending off predators.
Now that we have learned all about their dietary possibilities, let's learn facts about opossums by taking a look at their winter survival strategies and tactical mechanism for fending off their would-be predators as these creatures of the night are radically different from even their closest relatives.
Unlike bears and other animals, possums don’t hibernate. Instead, they experience torpor where their metabolic rate drops significantly allowing them to conserve energy when the weather is cold and food scarce.
The difference between torpor and hibernation is that torpor is involuntary and usually occurs when the weather gets colder and usually only lasts for a few hours after which they will wake up. Meanwhile, hibernation is completely voluntary and lasts for months at a time.
What do Possums eat in Winter?
During winter, these animals feed in a more opportunistic manner than they would in the warmer months due to the harsher environmental conditions and greater food scarcity. Thus, they primarily eat a variety of foods ranging from winter vegetables to other less palatable plant matter.
In the same manner, due to the unavailability of natural food, possums near but not quite inside human settlements have been observed to feed on leftovers from human foods as well as carrion. Since possums do not store food for winter and have very little body fat, they do not get to relax like squirrels and must forage all year round.
Thus, one must take appropriate measures if they want to get rid of possums wandering into their yards, especially during winter time.
One of the most interesting observed possum behaviors is playing dead. When threatened by a predator, a possum will choose to fall to the ground and pretend to play dead. To add more authenticity to the act, the possum will often emit a foul smell and drool to convince the predators.
This way, possums minimize the occurrence of being consumed by a predator as most obligate carnivore predators are incapable of scavenging carrion and enhance their probability of living to see another day. This is a high-risk high-reward play as the possums also lose control of their body during this act.
This strategy convinces the predator that it should stay away from carrion and as such will assist the possum to run away from some of the dangerous situations and would need to fight or flee.
