Brushtail Phalangers

Meet Oz

Oz is our resident male brushie. He joined the Pawprint Gang in February 2000, while we were at the Unique Animal Expo in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Like wallabies and other larger marsupials, pet brushies are pulled from the pouch for bottle feeding when fully furred and approximately two-thirds of their weaning-age size.

For Oz, that was about 4 months old. When we first met Oz, he was 5 1/2 months old, and had been on the bottle about 6 weeks.

At the Expo, Oz was instantly a crowd pleaser. One look at these first photos, taken during the Expo, and you can see why!

Today, Oz is full grown and weighs about 14 pounds! He's still a charmer, though, and still awes people as part.

Oz had a companion named Tango, a female brushie who joined us in July 2000. Although brushtails are solitary in the wild, Tango and Oz happily shared a large outdoor enclosure. Tango was quite a bit older when she arrived with us and has since passed away peacefully of natural causes.

Oz now shares his enclosure with the Patagonian Cavies. They get along just fine, as Oz travels along the branches at the top of the enclosre, and the Cavies forage for hay at the bottom.

Phalanger Phacts

Similar in some ways to sugar gliders, brushtails are arboreal marsupials that can be found throughout most of Australia.

Due to loss of habitat and competition from introduced species, brushtails are endangered in their native Australia.

However, in New Zealand - where they were introduced about 100 years ago - they're now considered a pest.

Although solitary in the wild, a bottle-fed brushtail becomes strongly bonded with his humans.

Feeding Time

As you can see from these photos of Oz, brushtail phalangers aren't "really" bottle-fed. They're syringe-fed. That's because brushtails have difficulty using a nipple.

When he first joined the Pawprint Gang, Oz was at two daily feeding. He was also showing the first signs of interest in solid foods, especially grapes and bananas.

Within a week - at slightly under six months of age - he was down to only one daily feeding and eating a variety of solid foods representing a complete adult diet.

By six months old, Oz had lost nearly all interest in his sbottle. Then one day, he completely refused the bottle, declaring that he was a Big Boy and wanted only solid foods!

Joey On Board

Brushies in the wild have one joey each year, with almost always a single joey born. The joey starts to peak out of the pouch at around five months and permanently exits the pouch a few weeks later.

In captivity, brushies will often have joeys each year, once in the spring and again in the fall.

As mentioned above, pet brushies are pulled from the pouch for bottle feeding when fully furred and approximately two-thirds of their weaning-age size.

These photos are of Tango and Oz's first joey, from Spring 2002.