Not recommended because of the metabolic bone disease that affects so many captive opossums.
However, these animals have been kept as pet for centuries.
They don’t live very long. A three-year-old opossum is like a 15-year-old dog.
And they aren’t really intelligent. I’m fairly certain that different species of rodent, especially rats, are much more intelligent than opossums.
These animals don’t have to be that bright. They eat virtually anything, and they reproduce at very high rates. They are gradually evolving more cold tolerance, which is why some individuals have ranged as far north as the Eastern Townships of Quebec.
(I don’t know why the Quebec opossum was vaccinated for rabies. It is very hard for an opossum to contract rabies, and there have been very, very few cases of them having the disease. When frightened, opossums stand with a threat gape and drool, which might be mistaken for a rabid animal. If you continue to bother them, they got into they go into the comatose phase, and green stuff comes out of their anuses. Talk about a defense strategy!)
Virginia opossums are commonly eaten in many parts of the US. Normally, the opossum is caught alive and fed table scraps for a week or two, just so they don’t have a garbage-like taste to their flesh.
It is not a big step from taking keeping wild opossums for the table in this fashion to keeping them as actual pets.
