What Is a Marsupial's Diet?

Marsupials, a group of mammals found mainly in Australia, New Guinea and nearby islands, nurse from their mothers for up to two years. As adults, most marsupials eat a vegetarian diet but a few are carnivores.

Marsupial Infants

Because marsupial infants are born after a gestation of one to two months, they spend up to nine months in their mothers' pouches, nursing from their mothers while they develop. They often continue to nurse for a year or two after leaving the pouch.

Kangaroo Diet

The most famous marsupials in the world, kangaroos and the closely related wallabies, live on a diet of grasses and leaves.

Koala Diet

Koalas live on a narrow diet of eucalyptus leaves.

Many people forget that koalas are marsupials but these cuddly animals are well known for their diet of eucalyptus leaves. These leaves are not very nutritious and koalas digest them slowly to get the maximum amount of nutrition out of them.

Opossum diet

Opossums eat a variety of foods.

Opossum's, the only marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, eat a diet of mainly carrion (dead animals), but will also eat insects, rodents, grasses, leaves and fruit, which they love.

Carnivorous Marsupial Diet

A group of Australasian marsupials, including the Tasmanian Devil, are carnivores that eat both animals and insects. Tasmanian Devils have even eaten wallabies.