Possums are enthusiastic fruit eaters, and the list of fruits they consume is long: apples, pears, bananas, grapes, berries, melons, stone fruits, and more. Whether you’re talking about the Virginia opossum common across North and Central America or the brushtail possum found in Australia, fruit makes up a meaningful part of the diet for both. But not all fruits and fruit parts are safe, and some common human foods can cause real problems for these animals. Understanding what possums naturally eat, and what to keep away from them, matters whether you’re managing wildlife in your yard, rehabilitating an injured animal, or just curious about what that nocturnal visitor is raiding from your garden.
Which Possums Are We Talking About?
The word “possum” gets used loosely, and it helps to clarify which animal you mean. In North America, “possum” almost always refers to the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), the continent’s only native marsupial. In Australia and nearby regions, “possum” refers to an entirely different group of marsupials, the most familiar being the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) and the common ringtail possum. These animals are only distantly related despite the shared name, and their diets overlap but aren’t identical. The Virginia opossum is a generalist omnivore that eats practically anything: fruit, insects, small vertebrates, carrion, and garbage. Australian brushtail possums lean more heavily on leaves, flowers, and fruit, with less interest in animal protein. Both groups, though, are drawn to fruit when it’s available.
Fruits That Possums Readily Eat
Virginia opossums are opportunistic and will eat nearly any ripe fruit they encounter. In the wild, they feed on native berries like pokeweed berries, blackberries, wild grapes, and persimmons. In suburban and urban areas, they raid fruit trees and gardens, helping themselves to apples, pears, peaches, plums, figs, and citrus fruit. They’re especially attracted to fruit that’s overripe or fallen to the ground, since soft, fermenting flesh is easier to eat and gives off strong scent cues. Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, and cantaloupe are all consumed readily when available. Opossums don’t seem to be picky about whether fruit is cultivated or wild; if it’s soft, fragrant, and within reach, they’ll eat it.
Australian brushtail possums also eat a wide variety of fruit. In their native range, they feed on the fruits of eucalyptus, banksia, and various rainforest trees. Where they’ve moved into suburban areas, they’re notorious for stripping backyard fruit trees of apples, pears, stone fruit, and passionfruit. In New Zealand, where brushtail possums were introduced and became invasive, they consume native fruits and flowers extensively, which has had significant effects on forest ecosystems. Ringtail possums are more specialized leaf eaters but still take fruit when they find it, particularly softer, riper specimens.
Fruit in the Wild Diet Versus a Captive Setting
In the wild, fruit is one component of a varied diet, and possums self-regulate by moving between food sources. A Virginia opossum might eat fallen crabapples one night, then switch to beetles and slugs the next. This natural variety means they get a range of nutrients and avoid overloading on sugar. Fruit in the wild also tends to be smaller and less sugar-dense than cultivated varieties. A wild blackberry has less sugar per gram than a grocery-store strawberry, and a possum eating native fruits gets a different nutritional profile than one eating domestic fruit.
In captive or rehabilitation settings, this matters. Well-meaning people sometimes offer possums large quantities of sweet domestic fruit, thinking they’re providing a treat. But too much fruit can cause loose stools and nutritional imbalance, since fruit is high in sugar and water but relatively low in protein and calcium. Wildlife rehabilitators typically use fruit as a supplement rather than a staple, mixing small portions of apple, banana, or berries into a broader diet that includes vegetables, protein sources, and calcium supplements. For brushtail possums in particular, overfeeding fruit at the expense of leafy material can cause problems, since their digestive systems are adapted to process fibrous plant matter.
Foods and Fruit Parts to Avoid
Not everything that looks like a harmless fruit snack is safe. Several common fruits contain parts that are genuinely toxic, and a few whole foods should be avoided entirely.
Apple seeds, apricot pits, cherry pits, and peach pits all contain cyanogenic glycosides, natural compounds that release hydrogen cyanide when broken down. These compounds are found in over 2,000 plant species, including common food crops like cassava, sorghum, and bamboo, and dietary exposure has been linked to acute cyanide poisoning, growth problems, and neurological damage.1Medical Toxicology. Toxicity Potential of Cyanogenic Glycosides in Edible Plants A possum eating apple flesh is fine; a possum chewing through a pile of apple seeds or cracked stone-fruit pits is exposed to a real hazard. The flesh of these fruits is safe, but seeds and pits should be removed before offering them to any animal, possums included.
Persimmons deserve a special mention. While possums in the wild eat persimmons and seem to handle them well, the fruit contains tannins that can cause a specific digestive problem. In concentrated form, particularly in dried or unripe astringent persimmons, tannins can bind with proteins and fiber in the gut to form a hard mass called a phytobezoar. These masses can cause intestinal obstruction, a condition documented in humans and a theoretical risk for smaller animals eating large quantities.2PubMed Central. Small Bowel Obstruction Caused by Dried Persimmon Ripe, soft persimmons are generally not a concern, but dried or unripe ones are best avoided when feeding possums deliberately.
Beyond specific fruit hazards, several common human foods should never be offered to possums:
- Chocolate: contains theobromine, which is toxic to most non-human mammals and is not metabolized efficiently by marsupials.
- Onions and garlic: can damage red blood cells and cause anemia in many animal species.
- Processed foods: chips, bread, cookies, and similar items provide empty calories, displace nutritious foods, and can cause metabolic problems over time.
- Dairy products: possums are lactose intolerant as adults, and milk or cheese can cause severe gastrointestinal distress.
- Raw meat or spoiled food: while Virginia opossums do eat carrion in the wild, deliberately offering raw meat in a captive setting introduces bacterial and parasitic risks that wild scavenging behavior is better adapted to manage.
Avocado is another fruit worth flagging. The skin, pit, and leaves of avocados contain persin, a fungicidal toxin that causes vomiting, diarrhea, and in some cases cardiac damage in various animal species. The degree of sensitivity varies between species, and whether possums are particularly vulnerable isn’t well studied, but erring on the side of caution and avoiding avocado altogether is standard advice from wildlife care organizations.
How Possums Handle Plant Toxins
Possums don’t just blindly eat whatever they encounter. They have physiological and behavioral mechanisms for dealing with the defensive chemicals that plants produce to discourage being eaten. Research on brushtail possums has shown that when their diet includes significant concentrations of plant secondary metabolites, they adjust their intake. In one study, possums fed a diet containing a moderate level of the plant compound orcinol initially ate less, but their food intake returned to normal within a day or two. When the concentration was doubled, they cut their intake roughly in half and kept it low.3SpringerLink / PubMed Central. Acid loads induced by the detoxification of plant secondary metabolites do not limit feeding by common brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) This suggests possums can detect and respond to toxic compounds in their food, ramping down consumption when the chemical load gets too high.
This self-regulation is one reason why wild possums generally manage to eat a wide variety of plants without poisoning themselves. They sample, they adjust, and they move on to something else when a particular food tastes too strongly of defensive chemicals. In captivity, though, possums may not have the option to switch foods. If a captive possum is offered only one type of food that happens to be high in tannins or other plant defenses, it can’t simply browse elsewhere. This is another argument for dietary variety in any captive or rehabilitation setting.
Possums as Seed Dispersers
When possums eat fruit, they’re not just feeding themselves. They’re also doing ecological work. Fruit-eating animals swallow seeds along with the flesh, and those seeds pass through the digestive tract and get deposited elsewhere, often far from the parent plant. This seed dispersal service is important for forest regeneration and plant diversity.
Research on opossums in Brazil found that most seeds passing through opossum guts germinated at rates similar to seeds that hadn’t been eaten at all, meaning the digestive process didn’t harm them. For one species, Rubus rosifolius (a wild raspberry relative), seeds that had passed through an opossum actually germinated at significantly higher rates than control seeds.4Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology. Germination in seed species ingested by opossums: implications for seed dispersal and forest conservation The mild acid bath of the gut appears to have scarified the seed coat in a way that promoted germination. This is a pattern seen across many fruit-eating animals, but the opossum’s wide-ranging nighttime foraging means it can carry seeds considerable distances from where it ate the fruit, planting future trees and shrubs across a large area.
This ecological role is worth keeping in mind if you’re frustrated by a possum raiding your fruit trees. The animal eating your figs tonight may be planting wild berry bushes across the neighborhood tomorrow. In degraded or fragmented habitats, the seed-dispersal services of opossums and other fruit-eating generalists become even more valuable, helping reconnect isolated patches of vegetation.
Should You Feed Possums at All?
This is a genuinely contested question among wildlife professionals, and the answer depends on context. In most cases, deliberately feeding wild possums is discouraged. Supplemental feeding can make animals dependent on human-provided food, alter their natural foraging patterns, attract them into closer contact with roads and pets, and concentrate multiple animals in one area, which increases disease transmission. In Australia, where brushtail possums frequently move into roof spaces, feeding them reinforces their association between humans and food, making them bolder and harder to deter.
There are exceptions. Licensed wildlife rehabilitators feed possums as part of their work, and in those settings, getting the diet right is critical. Orphaned Virginia opossums, for example, need a carefully balanced diet that mimics the nutritional diversity they’d encounter in the wild. Fruit is part of that mix but never the majority. Rehabilitators typically offer small pieces of apple, banana, grapes, or berries alongside leafy greens, cooked sweet potato, protein sources like insects or cooked egg, and a calcium supplement. The goal is to prepare the animal for release, not to create a preference for easy human food.
If a possum is visiting your yard and you want to coexist rather than deter it, the best approach is to let it find its own food. Fallen fruit from your trees, insects in your garden beds, and the occasional slug or snail are all part of a natural suburban diet for a Virginia opossum. Cleaning up fallen fruit reduces possum visits if you’d rather they go elsewhere, but it also removes a food source that’s genuinely nutritious for them. The trade-off is yours to make.
How Possum Diets Shift With the Seasons
Possums don’t eat the same mix of foods year-round. Their diet tracks seasonal availability, and fruit consumption tends to peak in late summer and fall when trees and shrubs are producing ripe fruit. Virginia opossums in temperate regions eat heavily in autumn, building fat reserves before winter. During this period, fruit can make up a large share of their intake because it’s abundant, calorie-dense, and easy to find on the ground. In spring and early summer, when fruit is scarcer, opossums shift toward insects, worms, and whatever animal protein they can find.
Australian brushtail possums show a similar seasonal pattern but tilted toward plant material. In spring, they eat more flowers and new leaf growth. As fruits ripen through summer and autumn, those become a larger part of the diet. In winter, they fall back on mature leaves and bark, which are less nutritious but always available. This flexibility is part of what makes both Virginia opossums and brushtail possums so successful in a wide range of habitats, from dense forest to urban backyards. They can pivot to whatever food source is most abundant at any given time, and fruit is simply one phase of that annual cycle.
Common Misconceptions About Possum Diets
A persistent myth is that possums are primarily scavengers or garbage eaters. Virginia opossums do eat carrion and garbage when they find it, but this represents opportunism, not preference. When given access to fresh fruit, insects, and other natural foods, opossums choose those over garbage. The image of the opossum as a trash-can raider says more about human waste management than about opossum dietary preferences.
Another misconception is that possums can eat anything without consequence because they’re tough, adaptable animals. While it’s true that Virginia opossums have unusually robust immune systems in some respects, their digestive systems are still vulnerable to inappropriate food. High-sugar processed foods, dairy, and toxic plant compounds all cause real harm. The fact that an opossum will eat a piece of chocolate cake if you leave it out doesn’t mean the chocolate isn’t damaging its system.
A third misunderstanding, more common in Australia, is that possums should be fed bread. Bread is one of the most commonly offered foods to brushtail possums in suburban areas, and it’s one of the worst. It provides almost no nutritional value, fills the animal up so it doesn’t seek out the nutrient-rich foods it needs, and can cause a condition called lumpy jaw, a painful bacterial infection of the jawbone associated with soft, sticky, carbohydrate-heavy diets. If you’re going to put anything out for a brushtail possum, a piece of apple or a few chunks of sweet potato is far better than bread, though not feeding at all remains the standard recommendation.
Citrus, Spicy Peppers, and Other Flavor Extremes
Possums are sometimes offered citrus fruit, and their reaction varies. Virginia opossums will eat oranges, mandarins, and grapefruit, though they tend to prefer sweeter options when available. The acidity of citrus doesn’t seem to cause them digestive trouble in moderate amounts, but very sour or bitter citrus like lemons and limes is usually ignored. Australian possums similarly tolerate citrus but don’t seek it out as eagerly as they do sweeter fruits like apples or stone fruit.
Hot peppers are an interesting case. Birds are famously indifferent to capsaicin, the compound that makes chili peppers hot, because their receptors don’t respond to it. Mammals, including possums, do have capsaicin receptors and generally avoid spicy foods. This is actually exploited in some wildlife-deterrent products that use capsaicin to keep mammals away from gardens and bird feeders while allowing birds to eat freely. Offering possums hot peppers isn’t dangerous exactly, but they’re unlikely to eat them, and deliberately feeding an animal something that causes it oral discomfort serves no purpose.
Strongly aromatic herbs like rosemary, lavender, and mint are also generally avoided by possums. These plants produce volatile oils that act as natural deterrents. If you’re trying to protect a garden bed from possum browsing, planting aromatic herbs around the perimeter is sometimes recommended as a mild deterrent, though determined possums will push past almost any plant-based barrier to reach something they really want to eat.