Considering a marsupial as a pet?

DON'T!

What is a pet.    If you consider a pet to be an animal that comes when it is called; that you can hold and pet; that you can train to do tricks; that you can share your home with and leave with neighbours or friends when you go away, then you should not consider a marsupial.

Marsupials do not make good pets. 

In most cases the suburban backyard is not the right place for these animals.   For the larger marsupials, a backyard is not big enough or secure enough, and for the smaller ones the danger of disease from domestic cats is unacceptable.  They also need constant attention so if you like the annual holiday – forget it – at least for the lifetime of the animal.

Most, if not all, of the marsupials that are commonly kept in captivity will not readily settle into a human household.   They will become either destructive or smelly or both.   They cannot be ‘house trained’. Most will scent mark their territories, which makes for indoor captivity somewhat problematical and likewise most are nocturnal so they will be active at night whilst you are asleep.

Marsupial are not domesticated, but wild animals and will always remain so.   In captivity they often become tame (well some of the time) but on occasions where individuals do not tame very well they can be dangerous.    In our lifetime, it is unlikely that any marsupial will ever fall into the category of the domesticated animal.

If you really need to keep these creatures then much thought needs to go into where you are going to keep it/them and how you are going to look after it/them once, you have one.

But remember, they will never become a pet in the strictest sense of the word.  If you want a pet, or companion animal, buy a cat or a dog or if you are looking for something a little different buy a stick insect.