Brisky Short Tail Possum Food

Evaluation By Molly Kalafut

My Comments

Like many (if not most!) new STO owners, the first dry food I tried was the Brisky short-tailed opossum food. After all, it was the only food that says "short-tailed opossums". However, my STO refused to eat it. Since then, I've heard from dozens of STO owners whose opossums refuse to eat Brisky's, and very few whose STO will eat it.

If you want to try Brisky food, go right ahead! You can reach them at 1-800-462-2464 or on their website and request a sample of their food. I suggest the free sample so you aren't out the food and shipping costs if they don't like it.

For my 3 month trial of Brisky STO food, I counted out and left 50 pellets of Brisky's in their cage. This was hard to do because the pellets crumble so easily. I changed the 50 pellets every week for 12 weeks (providing fruit/insects as well) and counting what was left before changing it. At the end of 3 months, none of the Brisky pellets had been eaten. In fact, my STO have more interest in vigorously attacking and trying to eat plastic bags rather than eating this food which they completely ignored.

These are the top reasons I don't like Brisky Short Tail Possum food:

1. Short-tailed opossum eat meat in the wild, not primary grain ingredients of wheat (Brisky Ingredient #1) or corn (Brisky Ingredient #3).
2. "Meat by-product" (Brisky Ingredient #2) is not legally required to contain any actual meat.
3. Whole, specified meats (chicken, turkey, etc) are higher quality than by-products or unspecified, generic "meat".
4. I think the Brisky food smells awful and the food consistency is so crumbly it falls apart into powder.

Here is a comparison between the primary ingredients in the cat food I offer my STO, and Brisky's STO food.

Pogstar Hedgehogs has an interesting excerpt from their site about the nutritional value of dry food ingredients...compare what they say to the foods listed above. The cat foods have clearly higher quality ingredients.

"The food you choose should have quality ingredients at the top of it's list. A whole meat or meat meal (chicken, beef, lamb) should be one of your top few ingredients. Watch out for general by products or digests (meat by product, poultry by product, poultry digest) as these tend to be the bits and pieces left over from the processing of the better parts of the meat and may include such things as hooves, beaks, feathers, and skin. You will also want to watch the corn content of the food. Unfortunately most feeds use corn as an inexpensive filler, and while a small amount of well processed corn is tolerable (and almost impossible to avoid!) it is important to avoid foods who have large quantities of corn or less processed corn (cracked or ground corn) as these do nothing to help your hedgehog and can cause digestive problems when fed in excess long term."

Back to Top

Pet Owner Comments

These are comments about Brisky I've collected from mailing list archives. I'm listing one comment per owner regarding Brisky food.

Pro Brisky STO Food

1. "I noticed the poll didn't have an option for STO food. Did you guys know that Brisky Pet Products offers specially formulated STO pellets? My STO's love the food, and they don't get diarrhea the way they did on hedgehog food. They even have discounts for bulk orders for large scale breeders and owners. They can be found at www.brisky.com and offer free samples to new customers. If you decide to order, please put me as a referral in the Comments box: Summer Shidler."
2. "We feed our 4 sweeties Brisky dwarf possum food and cat food, and scrambled eggs with great results!!!" -drdelsol
3. "Brisky was offering a free sample of their foods....i got a sample of both the Sugar Glider and the Possum feeds. My possum loves the food and it seems to make his "deposits" have a better odor than with the other feeds. Certain feeds make him NOXIOUS!!!!" -NASH4662
4. "Odd... am I the only one with possums that will actually eat Brisky's? :P My possums actually like it better than the ferret food I started them out on, although not quite as much as they like cat food." -socksy

Con Brisky STO Food

1. "I ordered a sample of the Brisky food and Pandora wouldn't eat it, not even when that's all I gave her for almost 3 days. I figured if she got hungry enough she'd eventually try it, but no deal. So I won't be ordering any." -Melyssa
2. "My Berry would not eat Brisky's either. I mixed it with the kitten pellets and he ate around it. I took the kitten pellets out and he ate nothing (I didn't try it for more than one night - I didn't want the little guy to starve!) I even mixed it with chicken baby food which he LOVES and in the morning there was a bowl full of pellets licked mostly clean of baby food. He does NOT like it!" -jamiya
3. "My STOs wouldn't touch the stuff & I sent it back. They were very pleasant about it - but had first urged me to play "Mommie Dearest" and only give them their kibble to make them like it! Didn't go that route." -hyjinxannie
4. "I also agree that no animal should be condemned to Brisky diets -- I have had to rescue too many emaciated and malnourished creatures from that path." -mammals
5. "Hello Opossum Friends. I have many S.T.O. (short tailed opossums), 6 to be exact. They are great little creatures, aren't they? My critters wont eat Brisky's opossum food, as most opossums won't." -andersch
6. "I bought her Short Tailed opossum food but she doesn't seem to be eating it." -buzzzworm
7. "Dick Brisky of Brisky Foods is the sweetest guy in the world, but, over and over, I find animals don't eat his food." -deanns
8. "What about trying the Brisky's with bad results? My opossums and a friend of mine's would not eat it. We bought a 25 lb container and split it. We both ended up tossing it." -tori
9. "The food that's designed for STOs is by Brisky ... I have heard a lot of complaints. I received a free sample and so much of it crumbles into a powder. Plus, my STOs, who seem very open-minded about trying new foods, did not like it." -herpgirl2003
10. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Brisky shouldn't be tried or fed at all, but rather the way that some of the companies representatives were pushing their product. Advising customers to remove all other foods but the Brisky's until the animal started to eat it. It IS true that some animals would rather starve than to eat a certain food that they detested for one reason or another." -crittersc
11. "My STO absolutely hates the Brisky STO pellet food, so I have been trying different dry cat foods, etc. to see what she will actually eat." -dobbelusic99
12. "Brisky's opossum food is what I am actually feeding mine. Well trying to anyway." (she was trying to get help for her STO's fur loss, which is usually a protein deficiency) -EmmasZoo
13. "My girl Minnie didn't like it at all. However, she is a picky girl anyway!" -pdogsrheaven

Back to Top

Please email any comments you have about Brisky STO food!

Copyright © 2005, 2006, 2007 Know Your STO by Molly Kalafut - a book about the South American gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica)
Send mail to info@knowyoursto.com with questions or comments about STO.
Last modified: 05-Mar-2007