Animal Rentals Blog

One of the things that people love the most about our animal shows and animal displays is that they get to touch, pet and hold exotic animals.  Everyone has a different favorite for different reasons.  But one thing that everyone who meets her can agree upon is that my friend Olivia, the Virginia Opossum, is the sweetest and gentlest of all my animal friends.

Olivia was hand-raised from the time she was just a tiny baby by my friend Mark, one of the trainers who works and travels with me and dad.  Baby opossums are born in their mother’s pouch, and spend a couple of months nestled all snug and safe inside. When they come out, they travel around by clinging to their mama’s back.  It’s really cool to see all the babies riding on a mama opossum!  So baby opossums are naturally clingy and cuddly.  Wild opossums eventually grow out of that stage, but because Mark spent hundreds of hours raising and training her, Olivia is still very sweet and cuddly, even as an adult.  She loves to be held just like a baby.

When wild opossums are threatened they play dead in order to discourage their predators.  Olivia can be very still and quiet and not move for hours at a time. That is amazing to me because I don’t like to sit still for even five minutes! Another thing about her that’s really neat is that she has a prehensile tail, just like I do.  She uses her tail kind of like an extra ‘hand’ to help her climb and balance and hold onto things.  Even though we use our tails in similar ways, we are not related. Opossums are marsupials, so Olivia is more like a cousin to a kangaroo than a monkey.  She even has a pouch, too.

Olivia loves traveling with me and dad to all our different events and college lectures.  Because she is so calm and relaxed, she enjoys riding in the car all across the country.  And her favorite thing is meeting and being held by lots of new people – curling up in their arms and laying her head on their chests while they stroke her soft fur.  Everyone loves Olivia the Opossum, and I do too!

Last week I promised to tell you a little more about what it is like to live with and take care of exotic animals.  In many ways it is not that much different than taking care of domestic pets like cats and dogs.  Feeding, watering, cleaning, grooming and training are all a part of dad’s and my everyday life.  Today I’m going to tell you about what we do every morning at our house.

The biggest part of our day is spent washing dozens of dishes and preparing food for all of my animal friends that live with us.  I help dad wash and cut up and mix all the different fresh fruits and vegetables, and then I get to inspect and taste everything to make sure it is perfect.  It takes five or six hours every day to feed everyone and clean up their living spaces.  Fortunately, we have wonderful people that work with us and help us, or we would never get finished!

Most of us eat a combination of fresh food and nutritionally balanced commercial food every day.  Dad is very good about feeding everyone exactly what they need to stay happy and healthy.  We get a good blend of fruits, vegetables, meat, vitamins and minerals, nuts and seeds according to what we like and need.  I like pretty much everything, but some of my friends are very fussy about what they eat.  Some of them, like the snakes and alligator, will only eat live food.  Amy the Armadillo loves crickets, and it is lots of fun watching her run around hunting them!  I also share my monkey chow with many of my friends because they really like it.  The rats have their own rat chow, and the birds have their own pellets, but the opossum, porcupine, skunk and others love the monkey chow.  It is pretty delicious!

Some of my friends – the geoffroy cat, opossum, porcupine and skunk – also eat high protein cat food.  For fresh food, we eat just like you do, with whatever fruits and vegetables are in season.  Lettuce, green beans, corn, squash, peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries, apples, peaches, pears and everything else in the produce section are things that we like.  The birds and I also like nuts a lot, and we each have our favorite types.  My uncle, Mr. Adam Monk, loves chicken and hamburgers so dad cooks special things for him and always brings him leftovers when we go out to eat.

As you can see, our mornings are very busy with fixing so many different types of breakfast for all of my friends.  After everyone has eaten, there is still a lot more to do for the rest of the day.  Next time I’ll tell you more about what we do in the afternoons, and how we get ready for our different kinds of animal shows, parties and events – so be sure to come back to my blog next week!