I have been working with raccoons for over 20 years and I have to say I’m totally in love with this creature. They are smarter than the average human, adapt well to any environment, other than small cages. They are opportunistic omnivores and have an extreme sweet tooth. Here in SC hunters brag about baiting them with honey buns.
Baby Raccoons
If you find a baby raccoon without it’s mother, whom usually packs it on her back and fur from birth to a couple of weeks, chances are she’s either watching you from a distance, there is a birth defect or has been injured and no longer there. So don’t immediately assume the worst has happened. Step back and observe from a distance that the mother would feel comfortable at approaching her baby. If she feels threatened she will become agitated and may leave the baby.
You should always immediately call a wildlife rehabilitator to take the animal, but some years they are overwhelmed with the amount of animals coming in and may be full. Remember most of the rehabilitators on the SCDNR Registry are private individuals working alone or with a friend or family member. To properly care for the wildlife they receive they can only handle so many at one time.
If you determine the baby is alone and determined to do this on your own you need a small pet carrier with a locking door, a blanket for warmth inside it, a stuffed animal with nothing it can pull off to ingest (like the eyes and nose on some stuffed animals) to help it feel comfortable, not alone, thick gloves and a blanket to toss over it to catch safely without harming it or yourself. BABY RACCOONS CAN BE MORE VISCOUS THAN AN ADULT AND THEIR RAZOR SHARP BABY TEETH HURT! Don’t let their cuteness fool you!
The first thing you need to do once you are in a safe environment with the baby raccoon is to inspect its body from head to toe- determine if any bones are broke, open wounds, check it’s body temperature and for dehydration. If the body temperature doesn’t feel warm, DO NOT put it on a heating pad, but provide it warmth through a hot water bottle or a rice bag, just make sure it’s not to hot. You check for dehydration the same as you would a cat or dog- you pull the skin up and count to three and if it took longer then it’s dehydrated and a little pedialite should be added to its first bottle, once you have it’s body temperature where it needs to be at.
Baby raccoons need a formula of goats milk with a touch of dark karo syrup in it. The milk should be a light cream color like a weak chocolate milk shake made from vanilla ice cream. If they are new born to 4-5 weeks a small kitten or puppy bottle needs to be used for feeding and once they start chewing the nipple a human baby bottle is most appropriate. They need to be burped just like a baby, sometimes even turned upside down because they eat so fast and greedily it will go into their lungs. You must be careful to not over feed, it will kill them. You need to also be aware that when they start chewing on the nipple that if they ingest rubber, it will swell up and create a blockage and kill them. Rubber does not show up on an X-ray, only an ultrasound can detect rubber. ALL babies should be fed every 2-3 hours and as they mature the frequency will be spaced longer.
Adult Raccoons
All raccoons can get both dog and cat diseases, so every time you see a raccoon acting strangely does not mean they have rabies, but they can catch and have rabies as well. You always want to be very careful about approaching an adult raccoon. They can and will become aggressive if they feel threatened. Raccoons are primarily nocturnal but mothers come out during the day to hunt for food to insure she is able to produce milk and feed her young. If there is a shortage on food then males will also venture out during the day, so don’t think the worst when you see a raccoon out during the day.
Again, if you locate an adult raccoon sick or injured you should immediately call an experienced wildlife rehabilitator. Should you find yourself on your own, understand and know it’s dangerous and you could be harmed in the process of trying to help this animal. If you still decide you are determined to go forward I highly advise that you have these items on hand to assist you, but know you could still get seriously injured even with these items; steel toed boots, Kevlar gloves that go up past the elbow, thick padded pants, medium size carrier and a big thick blanket. A lot of people use catch poles, I have one but have never used it. I have the experience to catch them without traumatizing them. YOU ARE PUTTING YOURSELF AT RISK BY TRYING TO CATCH THIS RACCOON- I DO NOT ADVISE THIS!
You first want to take 5-15 minutes to observe the raccoons behavior. Don’t get in a hurry, that will cause you serious injury or harm if you don’t understand the raccoon’s behavior. You want to pay close attention to the tail. If it is moving side to side it is agitated and feeling threatened. If its head is down and ears are back, it’s agitated. If you see the tail going side to side and the head is down and ears are back it’s probably fixing to attack you, so step back to a safe distance. Once at a safe distance, you want to calmly talk with the animal to make it aware your intentions are not to harm it. Once it calms down, approach it slowly, never taking your eyes off of it, and place the carrier as close as you can in front of it. Then, fold your blanket in half and hang it between you and the raccoon, taking your foot behind the blanket slowly nudging the raccoon into the carrier. At any point the raccoon because aggressive or agitated, stop and go back to a safe distance and start over until it’s in the carrier and the door is securely latched.
UNDERSTAND AND KNOW RACCOONS ARE EXTREMELY SMART AND HAVE THE ABILITY AND STRENGTH TO GET OUT OF SOME CARRIERS THAT HAVE THE PLASTIC THINGS THAT GO IN THE HOLES ON THE SIDE OF THE CARRIER AND TWIST. MAKE SURE YOUR CARRIER IS A STRONG STURDY ONE FOR AN ADULT RACCOON.
You should immediately locate a veterinarian that treats wildlife or again contact a wildlife rehabilitator. Raccoons can carry B. Procynis, a roundworm that is dangerous to humans. Follow the instructions of the veterinarian and continue to try and contact a wildlife rehabilitator.
Adult raccoons need a variety in their diet to get healthy for release. Commercial dog food is better for a raccoon than cat food. Cat food can and does create the same issues in raccoons as it does in cats; UTI, kidney and bladder issues and just like cats can die from these complications so can raccoons. I cook all meat for raccoons while I’m rehabilitating them, but raw meat can be fed to them as well. They like sweet potatoes, green beans, muscadine grapes, black and red raspberries. You want to limit the amount of natural sugars provided to them. You want the food you’re feeding them reflecting as close as possible to what would be available to them in the wild.
Releasing Raccoons
Every wild animal deserves to have the freedom it was born with, so releasing the animals are of the utmost importance. The only time you don’t consider releasing a wild animal is if the veterinarian says it will not survive on its own in the wild. You want to make sure that while the wildlife is with you that they don’t become accustom to humans because you decided to tame it to provide care for it. Once they are released, if they seek out humans for their source of food then all your work has gone down the tubes and it has cost them their lives.
They should be put in a sturdy, strong carrier and taken to a safe zone, which I call a safe zone a location that does not permit hunting but has water and where there’s water there is an abundant food source.