Hi, My name is Stacey, And welcome to my interesting world......

I live in Feilding, Manawatu. I currently work on an Organic Farm. I own a lamb (William), a cat (Miles formally known as Miley), a horse (Luigi), 2 frizzle chickens (Victoria and Elizabeth), and a possum named Blossom.

hi rotaville
and welcome to the LSB family
lol may have to bring Grommet and Mopsey round to play with William sometime

Hi rotaville .... isn't it interesting how animals can change sex overnight. I often have lambs that are born as males (or females) and turn into females (or males) when I get a round tuit to put the rings on

Your possum named Blossom is an illegal pet. It is an offence under something like the Wild Animals Act to keep possums as pets. Did you know?

Hi you will be another interesting person to have here welcome

Lurker;337659 wrote: Your possum named Blossom is an illegal pet. It is an offence under something like the Wild Animals Act to keep possums as pets. Did you know?

Lurker, a little bit of lateral thinking and leeway doesn't go amiss now and again. I had a possum live in my shed for over 2 years. I didn't "keep" her, she wasn't confined and came and went as she wished. I didn't kill her either. She had 3 babies in that time and she died before she had finished rearing the last of them so I fed him until he left of his own accord. I got a huge amount of pleasure out of her and her off spring and took it as a compliment that this wild animal chose to live where she did - she was feet from my cowshed so there were dogs, cows, machines running, radio going, me yelling (I do a lot of that ), the whole gambit of human activity, including one dog that spend hours under her eerie trying to work out how he could get at her.

Apart from giving them food, I never handled them and never tried to. The closest I got was them taking willow from my hand which is what the youngster in the second photo is reaching out to do.

So Rotoville, enjoy your Blossom, just don't go advertising that you have her.

Cheers,
Ronnie

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Hi and welcome,what type of organic farm are you working on horticulture or livestock.I'm sure you will have lots of fun on this forum.........T.O.R.

Lurker, yes owning a possum is illegal unless one obtains a permit from DOC which is what I have. There are strict rules you must obey when owning a possum all of which I know and adhere to.

LongRidge, it is amazing the sex changes lol. When my daughter caught this kitten she was told by my old school science teacher that it was a girl. I paid no attention to it's rear end as I was sure a science teacher would be right, but no, he wasn't, I now wonder whether the stuff he taught me at high school was right lol. So yeah, one day little kitten pranced past my face, tail in the air and there they were, testicles, hence the sudden name change lol.

The Old Ram, I work on an organic sheep, beef, poultry farm. And from my 24hour experience on this forum, I have 1 word, EXCEPTIONAL.

Hi Rotaville,With the permision of your employer ,you might like to explain how in an organic operation you deal with no drenching ,no backlining/dipping and no vaccines,as there are people who think there is no alternative to the "chemical cycle" of livestock management.............T.O.R.

Hi Stacey. Good on ya for having your possum. They are really great wee creatures and can become very tame. I have 3 that live around my house and they have become soo tame. When I first moved in here I was getting rid of them by shooting them, but after a while I got sick of it as there were so many new ones kept moving in. These 3 have been around for a few years now and seem to keep new possums away. It is strange but I lived in Australia for many years and they are protected over there. go figure. I spend a lot of time in the outdoors and the most detruction I have ever seem by animals is not deer, possums and goats but humans in conjunction with sheep and cattle. I also find it interesting that in NZ we have a great desire to wipe out anything introduced. I attended a sustainability forum under the previous government and the minister of conservation told me that once all wild deer, goats, possums have been wiped out they will start to target TROUT with a view to erradicating them as well. I believe that sheep, cattle, and horses are also introduced. wonder where on the list they are?

Possums are interesting critters, unfortunately they cause so much damage to our native plants and animals. Although their arrival to NZ was due to human greed. They have been given such bad reputation over the years, of which most is true but they are a living animal, so therefore they deserve every chance of a healthy life as any animal does. Why, if we see possums as pests and eradicate them with no thought to their suffering, can we not do the same to criminals? They are pests, but to do something as cruel and vial to them would be considered inhumane. Don't get me wrong here though, wild possums are pests, threats to our wildlife and to our economy in terms of TB and cattle. I've just chosen to give this one a chance.

Blossom plays fetch with us, we throw her favourite keyring which she tracks down in seconds and hurridly brings it back to us, dropping it at our feet before turning and preparing for the next throw. She's a cross between a cat and a dog. She loves to curl up in my lap and be patted. They can sense a stranger before they see them much like dogs can.

I've brought her up living a life as close to a normal possum would in the wild. She was fed Possum Milk Replacer as a joey as they are lactose intolerant and have complex nutritional requirements. She also had Impact Colostrum added to her milk formula as marsupial intestinal closure doesn't occur till weaning time which is around 5 months of age. Her daily diet now is based on the rehibilitation diets of brush tail possums in Healesville Sanctuary. She gets the best of the best. My daughter goes out after school to friends farms and selects the best foliage for her to munch on, they say 1 possum can chew through a shopping bag of plant material in a night and we know that this certainly is correct.

I took her in over a year ago, and we expect to have her for several years to come as they have been known to live to 13yrs of age in captivity.

Some people might say that keeping a wild animal captive is cruel but given enough space and the correct diet, they can thrive and actually do better than in the wild. Cows and sheep were once wild, we now have them stuck between wood and wire.

In Australia they are protected in certain areas and in most places you can only rehibilitate them for release (you need a rehab licence) and anything not able to be released are euthenaised. Over there they have natural predators as well as human caused predators such as dogs, cars, teenagers etc. They have a sweet life here with no natural predators.

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Great photos Stacey

welcome stacey,.. terrific photos and excellant effort on bringing this little one up and giving him a chance..i, personally, hate the little buggers..cause they eat my roses! but they are cute and its not their fault that they thrive here and have become a 'pest'.. just doing what nature called for.. having said that.. i did pick up and raise one little one who was clinging to his dead mum on the road..he went off when grown and did what he was meant to do and took his chances in the big world.. thats all you can hope for..