Update 30th May 2020

I have a correction to make: Rahmet is a female possum and not a boy. This will be Sasha's first girl after nine boys in succession.

Rahmet - 28^th May 2020 [Photo by Xesce]

The way to tell the gender of a young brushtail is to look for the testicles; the pouch on a baby female possum isn't easy to identify and everything else is tucked up inside the possum's cloaca. There is a bit of a problem with this; when the baby is small and has short hair, the boy parts are easy to spot, but the baby spends all its time either in the pouch or clinging to its mother's back, so it's difficult to get a look. By the time the baby has grown enough to venture off its mother's back, it's covered by enough fur that you can't see anything.

Usually it's possible to catch a glimpse on the box camera when the baby starts emerging from the pouch, but the resolution of the cameras isn't great and this time I got it wrong.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Rahmet. Supposedly when male possums grow up, they move far away from their mother's territory, but females stay closer and some even take over their mother's territory.

It's difficult to imagine Sasha giving up her territory, but hopefully she will at least allow Rahmet to take up residence somewhere nearby and maybe visit occasionally.

Sasha - 20^th May 2020 [Photo by Xesce]

Nikita is visiting regularly. Her pouch is growing plumper. 

Nikita - 2^nd May 2020

Rio has been spotted a couple of times.

Omar is also around. He doesn't take food from humans but isn't particularly scared of them. He's been seen a couple of times drinking from the bucket of water on the balcony.

Omar - 11^th May 2020

The last couple of months have been very dry and it's starting to get cold (at least by Brisbane standards) and probably there is less desirable food around for the possums. For a while now they have been descending on the feeding area all at once as it gets dark.

Here is a typical scene with the three female possums all glaring jealously at each other, each trying to ensure that they are not missing out on something.

Sasha (left), Rahmet (top right) and Nikita (bottom right) - 24^th May 2020 [Photo by Xesce]

Although not shown in the photo, Morse was also there are the time and is happy to be treated like a possum.

Morse - 4^th May 2020

The wound on Marcel's tail ended up requiring treatment. Normally, a wound on a possum will heal, or at least show significant improvement, in a week. Marcel had been able to shake off some nasty injuries on his own, but after two weeks his tail wound was not improving and it looked like there was exudative dermatitis.

So the vet was consulted and Ceclor was administered. Marcel was a very compliant patient and turned up at the same time each evening and eagerly took his medicine. He now appears to be cured.

Nearly all of the photos taken of him recently were of his tail wound, to track its progress, but here is one which shows his actual body. He is now looking very healthy.

Marcel - 16^th May 2020 [Photo by Xesce]