A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall The Critter Corner reRaccoons

Does anyone else out there love these little guys?
We have visitors everynight (we live in a remote community, sorta the boonies)
In the winter the biggest crowd we had was 9 on the deck. two moms with 3 babies each and one daddy. the pictures I am going to try to show you is of one of last seasons babies. He/She is pretty brazen. I call her/him Junior. Thought it was a male until recently, now I have my doubts. Mama whom I call Bandit is off with another litter. I am anxiously awaiting her bringing them to the backyard to feed. This is Junior comming up on the deck to be given some grapes.
I still say he/she is smiling at me.

Yes, we have had them. I liked it a lot at first. They would meet me and be waiting when I got out of work (very close to home),walk me home and scamper around until I got in. Then be waiting at the sliding glass door for their snacks. We bought dog food even when we didn't have a dog. But the last ones were very aggressive and beat up my cats. I stopped encouraging visits after that. But, oh, the babies are so cute.

The only agressive behavior I have seen is an adult male nippin at a baby to push it off my deck. I chased them both off. We have a feral cat that watches them very closely. Once he got a little close and Bandit (the mama) growled at him. Mostly he just lays about 8 feet away and watches them. So far no down side to this except for a few deposits on my deck. I never get those until there are "new guys moving around". The males range all over the place, the females stay a little closer. But of course, we are out in the country, forest type area.

They got along fine with my cats for years. But the an aggressive group moved into the neighborhood. Those I did not want around. I live backed up to national forest land, in the boondocks. I saw a bobcat this morning. That is always so wonderful.

OH there are so adorable!!

I had only one move in this year. Using the Pileated Woodpecker's abandoned nest in my Big Sugar Maple.

aaaawwwwww! they are sooo cute! my dogs pretty much keep all wild life ran off from the house-i guess that is a good thing-idiot here would just try to mess with them! i can't leave anything alone!!! i want to pick up everything!

As a boy here in Nashville, TN, I had several PET raccoons. MY best was SuziQ who lived in the house with me and slept in the same bed with me. She finally passed away after years as a good friend. Raccoons are the best pets I've ever had and are still one of my favorite animals. We currently have a black Male lop-eared Rabbit named, Two Bean Bags and Have just gotten a neutered male Catahoula Leopard dog Puppy named Lucky, who is already friends with Two Bean Bags.

I used to have 5 raccoons where I lived in 2001.
I bought dry dog food and made peanut butter sandwiches regularly. And of course kept fresh water out (No deeper than a pie pan for fear of wandering toddlers). There were fruit trees and date trees and no one minded the racs getting fruit.
I had never seen a raccoon and at first I thought I was looking at a big cat.
They'd come to the back porch at sunset and scrabble against the door to call me. I took some great close up pictures.
And of course, sobbed my way through the classic book "Rascal" !

They are very cute aren't they. Have you ever seen them clean their food? they will wash an apple for an hour

They are destroyed here because of the high rabies infestation. I am so glad that you all are able to enjoy them with no problems. It is sad here that we cannot.

I would give my pet raccoon, SuziQ, sugar cubes or vanilla wafer for a treat along with a bowl of water. she would start washing the treat in the water, only to have it melt away in her hands. She would look at her hands and then at me. and say, " Brrrrrrt, HMMM?" It was clear she was saying, "Where did it go?" She would sit on her rump on the couch and watch TV with me (which she LOVED!" I would make her a hamburger and fries with Catsup and a bowl of water to clean it with. She was happy as a lark.

I think Raccoons are beautiful creatures. I wish we had them running free in England.

They are EVERYWHERE in the U.S. and Canada, Glenda. I even have them in my yard and I live in the city. In the cities they like to scavange in the garbage cans and Dumpsters. They DO carry rabies a lot, so any that act strange you have to give a wide berth. They are nocturnal, so you rarely see them in broad daylight but if you know where to look at night they are thick as flies.

I threaded a broom through the handles of my outdoor trash cans (there was no garage) and that ended the trash can raids.
Besides, I do NOT believe that God made animals to dumpster dive-it's because we crowd them out that they are forced to be what we call "destructive" and get this-"invasive".
Uh, just who invaded who???

That raccoon invaded me,Ossifer,*hic*. When I wasn't lookin' he sneaked up ahind me with one o' them thar ALIEN body probes and got me where it weren't none to comfertable. Arrest him an' throgh him in the pound.

They are beautiful but here they carry rabies.

We have a friend who shot at one and missed, the bullet went through the cab and into the motor of his snowmobile. I'm sure the raccoon was laughing as it ran,....at the couple thousand dollars of damage.

Folks eat raccoons here in the Southeastern U.S. I've eaten raccoon one time myself out of curiosity. It tasted like chic......erm.......no, roast beef, only stringier.

Racoons are very common here also, but mostly at the state lakes. They like to rummage through your belongings at night, mostly looking for food. They are very cute to watch, I once accidentally left a can of pop out and it was pretty funny watching the little critter trying to drink a fizzy drink!

Your pictures are very cute, please keep sharing!