The following are an
assortment of suggested foods as fed to
marsupials of various kinds. This
information was compiled, over a number of
years, from members of The Marsupial Society
and has been used with much success,
particularly where breeding populations are
involved. It was first published in May
1989 but has been edited and updated.
Water is not mentioned in any of these diets
but it goes without saying that they must
all include fresh water at all times.
Kangaroos and wallabies
These would be without
doubt the easiest group of marsupials to
feed. If you have a reasonable sized
property then during winter months very
little in the way of supplementary feeding
will be necessary as they will survive very
well on the natural vegetation available to
them. However, I believe it is
irresponsible of us not to provide a
supplementary source of food at ALL times
and especially during the lean dry months of
summer.
My animals have the
following at all times
Capra Goat Meal (a Ridley
Agritech product), Lucerne chaff, oaten hay
and a slice or two of bread as a daily
treat.
We have also offered
(when in season and with varying degrees of
acceptance)
Wheaten hay
Meadow hay
Vine leaves
Corn on the cob
Pea straw
Lucerne hay
Carrots
Apples
We have since stopped
feeding our ‘roos Lucerne hay as it is very
expensive and, for us, wasteful. We have
found that our animals tend to only eat the
leaves and leave the stalks, so there is a
lot of waste but Lucerne chaff is readily
accepted and not wasteful.
Possums
Reading through the list
of foods fed to possums is quite amazing.
In essence you can feed a possum almost
anything although Ringatils are a little
more finicky and need a higher proportion of
native vegetation in their diet than do the
Brushtails.
The list goes something
like this:-
Corn on the cob
Egg
Cucumber
Apricots
Watermelon
Roses
Bottlebrush
Celery
Sultana cake
Apple
Rockmelon
Tomato
Strawberries
Mealworms
Gum branches with leaves
& flowers
Oranges (cut in half –
but they won’t eat the peel)
Lettuce
Chicken & chops (cooked
leftovers)
Sugar Glider mix
1
The above is just a
sample and you can offer any green native
vegetation but I guess it boils down to any
fruit of vegetable matter with a little
protein thrown in for good measure. Beware
of ants soiling any sweet or meat foods.
Animals will tend to refuse food that has
been contaminated by ants.
Sugar Gliders
Being such small animals,
Sugar Gliders should only begiven very small
amounts of food and it is probably best to
experiment with your own ani als to se how
much they are consuming and feed
accordingly. It is advisable to give then
extremely small amounts of a wide variety of
foods rather than a greater amount of a
lesser variety. All the following can be
tried:-
Apple
Cucumber
Sunflower seed kernels
Peanuts (chopped)
Banana
Sweet Corn
Carrot
Sultanas
Pollen
Melon
Pear
Sugar Glider mix
1
Mealworms
2
Moths and other night
flying insects
3
Wombats
Although these animals need very special care
with housing their feeding requirements are
comparatively easy.
Our animals are fed every other day with a half
ice cream bucket of Capra Goat meal with a hunk
of bread, an apple or pear (or both), carrots
and when in season, corn on the cob. You could
also try Lucerne hay or chaff, Oaten hay or
meadow hay. We have tried all these in the
past but are all treated with disdain.
However they are very fond of rolled oats, fresh
green grass sunflower seed, and chook pellets.
We have a couple of animals who wander about our
property at will and are regularly found raiding
the chook house for a feed of their pellets
Bettongs (and
Potoroos)
This is basically a Bettong diet but can
adequately be applied to Potoroos although they
will have trouble with the almonds.
These animals will do very well on a vegetarian
diet, much the same as the Glider diet (without
the Sugar Glider mix1)
but will the addition of bird seed ( a small
parrot mix or finch mix would be ok).
Whole seed is better than husked seed (as in
Sunflower kernels). They will often stuff
their mouths full of seed and then carry it to a
suitable spot and bury it. They also
appreciate almonds in the shell (either hard
shell or paper shell) which they will break open
with ease (even the hard shell) and devour the
contents, or, like the seed, will have a great
time burying them for future use and then forget
where they put them. So don’t be surprised if
you encounter almond trees sprouting all over
your Bettong enclosure. They also relish the
addition of fungi in the form of mushrooms and
the like.
Bandicoots
The following quantities are per animal per
night
½ handful Puppy Chow
¼ diced Apple
¼ handful Rolled oats
¼ Sunflower seed
6 kernels fresh Sweet corn
1 teaspoon Meat mixture4
Small quantities of diced carrots banana, wheat,
bread, insects, earthworms, mealworms, whole
mice (dead) should also be offered occasionally.
These animals may require a Selenium/Vitamin E
supplement. Use Selenium/Vitamin E tablets at
the rate of ¼ of a tablet per animal per month.
This is not obligatory.
Whilst discussing Bandicoots it may be an
opportune moment to offer some assistance with
their housing requirements.
Depending od the sis of their enclosure, these
animals are best maintained as single pairs,
although have been kept successfully as trios
(one male two females). Fighting may occur if
more thwn one male is housed in the same
enclosure as females. Some males, although not
all, may eay their joeys, so it is wise to
maintain a careful watch when the joeys are due
to leave the pouch and remove the male if
necessary.
Females are capable of having anything from one
to five joeys in each litter. Gestation is 12
½ days. Pouch life is 45 days and weaning
occurs three to four weeks after pouch
emergence.
Like most small ground dwelling marsupials,
Bandicoots are good diggers and are adept at
escaping under the enclosure perimeter –
be warned!
It is also not a good idea to house bandicoots
with any other creature (including birds) or
they may find themselves becoming a meal for the
bandicoot or at the very least be severely
mauled.
Dunnarts
A Dunnart diet is a comparatively simple affair
of a few mealworms, moths and any other insects
you can trap together with Wombaroo Small
Carnivore mix made up into a crumbly consistency
by adding a little water. A Dunnart will eat
up to 90% of its bodyweight per night and will
go into a state of
torpor during the winter months. Torpor is
similar to hibernation and is a slowed metabolic
rate when temperatures are low and/or food is
scarce.
Notes
1
Sugar Glider mix is a mixture
of hard boiled egg, honey, water, high protein
cereal,
Wombaroo®
Insectivore mix and
Wombaroo®
Flying Fox
mix made up into a creamy consistency. A
teaspoon per animal per day may be poured over
the top of their food.
2
Mealworms can be addictive so
use as treats or at breeding times. Be mean;
two or three mealworms per animal would be
plenty. They will favour these over almost
all other foods and if fed too many or too often
will reject ‘normal’ foods.
3
Moths and insects are a great
favourite of all the gliders
and is an
excellent way to keep your animals in the peak
of health and provide them with a natural food
source at the same time.
They will have a great time leaping about their
aviary chasing them about and when caught will
devour them with gusto. A simple
way to
attract insect life way into your aviary is to
install a low wattage light (an 8w fluoro is
ideal) within the confines of the aviary, which
can be switched on a night (a sunset switch or
timer will do this job). An insect "zapper" is
also good for this job but don't forget to
disable the "zapper" part – you don’t want dead
insects, you want live ones. All you need is
the light. These jobs should be done by a
qualified electrician.
4
Meat Mixture.
250grams minced beef
2 hard boled eggs
8 heaped teaped teaspoons Wombaroo Small
Carnivore Mix
Blend together to become a porridge consistency
– add extra water if required and add (optional)
a small amount of high protein baby cereal.
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