this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2025
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Opossums

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Ten new Joeys showed up today! I missed getting to feed them, but that didn't keep me from checking out how cute they were!

This was after they got fed, so they piled up and all went to sleep after this.

You can see in the photo they've been dotted with nail polish on the ear. This lets us know who is who so we can track their weights and make sure everyone gets a turn to eat.

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[โ€“] Tempus_Fugit@midwest.social 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was this many days old when I realized joeys applies to all marsupial babies.

[โ€“] anon6789@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I don't even know where I picked it up to know that! ๐Ÿค”

I just looked up where the term joey comes from, and it seems to be an Aboriginal Australian word for a little animal. Now, Australia has possums, which are very different from opossums (formally the Virginia opossum), and John Smith made records of opossums in the early 1600s, while the term joey wasn't used until the 1800s. I can't find a reference what they called the babies before then.

Before they get fuzz like these guys, I've heard them called pinky opossums.

Also in my searching on the joey term, I saw reference to adults being called "jacks" and "jills," but I can't say I've ever heard active use those terms that I'm aware.