Scooter

Thought I would share my other pet, Scooter the short tailed opossum. I have been wanting one for a long time & I had no reason to turn away from wanting one as some of the other critters out there. Finally the day came where I was able to get my first STO. I got him from a breeder in Virginia. He was born in April. He is such a sweetie, but I am used to the more sluggish nature of hedgehogs & this guy is quite skittish & very quick! He isn't the least but mean, he is very friendly & tolerant, but at the same time likes to keep to himself & rather hide away & nap in his bonding pouch I wear around my chest.

He loves meal worms & will come out to eat them from your hand if he knows you have some. Sometimes when he is active in the evening & I am preparing/cleaning his cage, he will come & hop on me & crawl around all over me. I was devastated that I only had him for 3 days & the quick little bugger escaped from us. We tried to catch him, but it was very difficult. I had to get one of those Havahart traps & we were able to get him. I am used to him now, & there have been a couple other times where he has jumped off of me & crawled onto the floor, but I know the procedure & he hasn't escaped since the first time he did thank goodness. He LOVES his wheel even more so than the hedgies. Doesn't matter if you are in the room, he will still use it.









Couple vids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3CyQYq-Hko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJyIR69FTK0

tacotac said:

He loves meal worms & will come out to eat them from your hand if he knows you have some.

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Ew, this made me cringe! He is pretty cute though. Not like the ugly things we have in CA at all!

Awww, so sweet! I have wanted one of these guys for a long time, but they are hard to come by.

Omg so cute!

This is the first I have heard of these guys. Usually I am not a fan of opossums, but he is a cutie. He looks pretty small. Is this as big as they get? I would love to see a pic of his cage set up. Thanks for sharing!

He is a brazilian short tailed opossum, distant cousins of the native north american opossum we have here. This is as big as he will get. I like them as they have very similar care to that of hedgehogs. They are nocturnal, eat cat food & insects, with more fruits in their diets, love to play on a wheel & have it warm like the hedgies, etc. I made him a cage set for Christmas, I will post pics of his cage then, but for now here is an earlier video of his cage at the time, it changes weekly with different sleepy areas, climbing things, toys etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfXFtTQXptI

Thank you so much for the link. He really does get cuter every time I see him! Does he climb or jump to his fleece hidey house? I really need to google this little guy and learn more about him. Have fun with your little sweety!

Yes they love to climb! They are pretty quick climbers, too!
There was this site called knowyoursto that has been around for a long time, but it has been closed down for a month or 2. Not sure why, maybe they just didn't renew their website subscription or whatever? There is info online about them, here is a video about them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A66DJaqVNWw

My cousin had one growing up he was so cute and sweet.

AHHHH he is so adorable! I saw one at a reptile expo a while ago and fell in love. I just wish they got bigger. His little nose is so cute in the first photo