Raccoons!

So, I had mom and the babies on our back porch checking them out as the bulb in our garage finally gave out. I needed a place with more/stronger light hence moving them to the enclosed porch briefly. Our door is broken and doesn't close tightly anymore so while sitting there inspecting mom and babies I hear the door pop open expecting it to be the wind like normal.. nope raccoon.

It paused when it saw me then did a quick 180 disappearing into the dark, I could not see which direction it disappeared into and am now freaking out as the garage door was open at the time. I have no clue if it slipped inside while I was hastily popping babies and mom into their respective carriers. I transported them back to their cage placing babies into their nest and mom into the cage with the nest.

Now I am antsy and just know I am going to go out there to check on everyone every 2hrs. There isn't a whole lot of places for a raccoon to hid in our garage but I have this paranoid feeling it could have slipped into the walls for some reason. Probably stemming from the fact some of the dry wall is not secure to the garage frame on the inside.

All I can suggest is to go down to the garage very quietly and then stand still with your flashlight beam obscured and listen. A raccoon is not likely to stay in hiding inside a building for long without making any movement. Also note the body language of the rabbits. If they seem calm and relaxed, chances are the raccoon is not in the garage.

Please be careful. Avoid any contact if the raccoon is there. It's probably just a perfectly healthy curious raccoon, on the prowl for its supper, but they can carry rabies, so don't put yourself at risk.

Just checked on them this morning, all babies are accounted for, one of the true dwarfs looks antsy but then again she is a spaz anyway. Mom is flopped in her cage obviously not disturb by anything. I'm thinking it was a relatively healthy raccoon as if it had rabies it would not have left as quickly as it did and instead ventured inside the porch even with me there.

Bleh, coons. I'm grudgingly living with some. :angry: They got cornered here by loggers, and it's been a year of actually seeing mama coon with only one incident at the start. She has another litter this year, so I'm worried for another incident.

So far, they haven't touched our chickens, and only gotten into the rabbitry once, tearing a door halfway off in the heart of the herd. :evil: But after that scare, she hasn't returned to the back yard, and seems to understand the critters are off limits. I'm sure it helps that I have a little 10lb dog in the rabbittry 24/7 to bark his head off and ward them off, though.

Maybe some coons are more bloodthirsty than ours, but besides that initial curiosity (which might've been one of her pups) she hasn't had any interest in bothering my buns as long as she gets her milk & cookies on the front porch. :? I still don't trust them, even if mine don't live up to the bunny-killer reputation.
Maybe yours was just looking for cat food? I think ours honed in our place because they smelled the cat food. :x

Nyctra":1xwcd328 said:

Bleh, coons. I'm grudgingly living with some. :angry: They got cornered here by loggers, and it's been a year of actually seeing mama coon with only one incident at the start. She has another litter this year, so I'm worried for another incident.

So far, they haven't touched our chickens, and only gotten into the rabbitry once, tearing a door halfway off in the heart of the herd. :evil: But after that scare, she hasn't returned to the back yard, and seems to understand the critters are off limits. I'm sure it helps that I have a little 10lb dog in the rabbittry 24/7 to bark his head off and ward them off, though.

Maybe some coons are more bloodthirsty than ours, but besides that initial curiosity (which might've been one of her pups) she hasn't had any interest in bothering my buns as long as she gets her milk & cookies on the front porch. :? I still don't trust them, even if mine don't live up to the bunny-killer reputation.
Maybe yours was just looking for cat food? I think ours honed in our place because they smelled the cat food. :x

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That got me thinking, my cousin has a habit of leaving bags of garbage on the porch, the past couple times she left them there (not taking them to the garbage which is RIGHT OUTSIDE THE DOOR) something has been tearing into them. Must be the coon I saw.

. . . besides that initial curiosity (which might've been one of her pups) she hasn't had any interest in bothering my buns as long as she gets her milk & cookies on the front porch. :?

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I've been hesitant to mention something similar to this happening here, but in view of your post I'm going to go ahead.

Our first winter here (after years of city life) we had a raccoon visiting our window birdfeeder to get the sunflower seeds. It was a very bitter January and I did feel sorry for the critter, so I fell into the habit of leaving a snack on the windowsill. It was kind of cool seeing "Raffles" peering in at me while I did the evening dishes.

He continued to visit pretty much every night. When spring came, I took to tossing his ration to him out the kitchen window. He'd sit up on his hind legs like a dog for Fig Newton cookies. I could even call him by name and he'd come to the patio below the window. In August, he disappeared and we believe he was killed on the road. My point is that this raccoon had excellent manners, was never destructive in any way and seemed to enjoy the interaction with us.

I believe that population pressure plays a big role in how destructive and vicious raccoons become. In fact, I think this applies to pretty much all predators. They have it fairly easy here because there are large areas undeveloped. The coyotes have never bothered our critters, nor have the foxes, fishers, eagles, crows etc. We've had minor problems with weasels and mink, but only when they run out of rats to eat.

I'm not advocating feeding wildlife, but it was an interesting experience.

Edited to add: I must add that in later years, raccoons have become an intermittent problem here. Exclusion is the only defence against them that works long term. There are always more raccoons, so killing them off is not effective.