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Baby opossums, like their Australian cousins, are called joeys. [35] Female opossums often give birth to very large numbers of young, most of which fail to attach to a teat, although as many as 13 young can attach, [36] and therefore survive, depending on species.
Possums give birth after only twelve days of gestation, further allowing their babies to develop in their pouch for another two months. Baby possums later travel on their mother’s back for ...
The common opossum can mate for the majority of the calendar year. They do not mate for life. [14] Female opossums can give birth to at most 24 infants, however, only a third of them usually survive. Young opossums stay with the mother for the first few months of their lives and reach maturity before they are a year old. [citation needed]
Western pygmy possums can breed throughout the year, although they do so more commonly in the spring, and give birth to litters of four to six young. The mother often carries more than six embryos at a time in her womb, but because she has only six teats, and marsupial young remain attached to an individual teat for much of their early lives ...
As marsupials, pygmy possums give birth to extremely underdeveloped neonates, who spend more time developing in the pouches of their mothers. Suckling from her until they are about two months old ...
Females have a gestation period of 16–18 days, after which they give birth to single young. [7] [8] A newborn brushtail possum is only 1.5 cm (0.6 in) long and weighs only 2 g (0.07 oz). As usual for marsupials, the newborn may climb, unaided, through the female's fur and into the pouch and attach to a teat.
Opossums have a very high mortality rate of their young; only one in ten offspring survive to reproductive adulthood. [43] Newborns are the size of a honeybee. [27] Once delivered through the median vagina or central birth canal, newborn opossums climb up into the female opossum's pouch and latch onto one of her 13 teats. [42]
The long lactation of the ringtail possums may give the young more time to learn skills in the communal nest as well as to climb and forage in the trees. [4] The young are first able to vocalise and open their eyes between 90 and 106 days of age. [5] They leave their mother's pouch at 120–130 days.