When opossum joeys are too small to save

Are you one of the heroes who, despite feeling squeamish, checks for babies when you see a dead opossum? Awesome!

But you may not be sure what to do you find little pink jellybeans in the pouch. In the earliest weeks of development, opossums are hairless, translucent, and fused to the mother’s nipple. At that stage of development, we recommend simply leaving them alone so they can go to opossum heaven with their mommy.

Think of it this way: if a pregnant dog got hit by a car and killed, would you try to deliver her embryonic puppies? Marsupials like opossums use their pouch like a womb. At the stage when the embryos are still fused to the mother’s nipple, they are developmentally similar to early embryos of placental mammals. When removed from this “womb,” their chances of survival are near zero.

Trying to save them may cause more pain. If they are forcibly pulled from the mother’s nipple, they can suffer catastrophic injuries and may die. If the nipple is cut from the mother, the joey will slowly swallow and digest a rotting piece of flesh, something their bodies simply can’t do yet.

A few rescues have made claims that they can save babies this young and smaller, but we are skeptical. While older joeys can be tube-fed easily, feeding tubes small enough for the tiniest joeys simply don’t exist. Foster moms aren’t really a viable option at this stage, either: a joey can fuse to a nipple only once, when it is just minutes old, and won’t be able to reattach to a new mom. (Older joeys that have begun to detach from the nipple can do fine with foster moms, though.)

While we wish that each and every animal could be saved, the sad reality is that some opossums are simply too early in their development to be viable, and it is kindest to let them pass with their mother, without the stress and pain of being forcefully pulled from her body.

So where’s the line? Different rehabilitators have different policies, but we advise finders to remove joeys only if they detach from the nipple with a few gentle tugs. If you have to pull with force or cut the nipple, we believe that’s a sign that the babies are still just embryos and should be allowed to pass peacefully.