Its diet comprises insects, worms, lizards and, occasionally, even small birds, and is supplemented with vegetable matter. As with most marsupials, the dusky antechinus is nocturnal, spending the day-light hours within a nest in a hollowed log or among the thick leaf litter and ground vegetation of the forest floor. Like many marsupials, the species is solitary. Interaction between individuals tend to be largely confined to mating, and the mother-young interaction. Breeding The dusky antechinus, in common with the swamp antechinus , has a remarkable breeding biology.
Copulation occurs during a short season in winter.
The males, driven to somewhat frenzied sexual activity due to raised testosterone levels compete vigorously for females. Within three weeks, almost all the males in the population are dead. This male die-off is largely brought on by the high stress levels associated with the physiological changes brought on by the breeding period. The female gives birth after a four week gestation period. Six to eight young are born and carried in the pouch for up to eight weeks.