racoons

[carpetman]

The past two nights Ive caught a racoon in my trap. Tonight a first--have two coons in the trap. Been seeing a lot of em in my yard. Maybe get em al caught and I can finally catch another cat.

[Buckshot]

...............I had a raccoon (Procyon lotor) as a pet. Very cool. Requires lots of attention. When he wanted to play you'd better be also as you can't just throw their butts out the door if you value anything on your property that isn't set in concrete. When he was little and my daughter was 8-9 years old she'd dress him up in doll clothes, which he put up with pretty well, and push him around in the stroller.

He learned good stuff was located in the refrigerator and he used to hang around it like a drunk at a liquer store. Waiting for it to open I guess. You had clamp him him between your feet when you opened it because he'd climb the shelves. If you'd picked him up he was a gas. He'd reach and stretch as far as he could trying to get something and chitter to beat the band.

When he got older he could open the refrigerator door so we used a big carabiner clip between the handles (side by side). He could entertain himself for quite awile before he'd give it up. He finally figured out it took a big human to get in the thing so he left it alone. But if anyone headed in that direction he'd either follow or watch with intense interest.

When he was smaller, if he wanted to play you could run a couple inches of water in the bathtub and put him and a couple of his toys in there and he was good for a half hour or so. Also he used to sleep more when he was smaller so after playtime it was sacktime for a couple hours. It still worked when he got bigger but he could get out by himself so you'd end up with 20 lbs of damp raccoon in your lap after awile.

He was a big chicken. If he heard a car pull in he'd get all tense and if they knocked on the door he'd shag butt to the hall closet. I put a skinny ladder on the inside wall of the closet and cleared off the shelf and that was his hangout. I was really funny as heck to open the closet door and there'd be this raccoon with a couple legs and his head draped off the edge of the shelf.

That was his security place. I think if you were between him and it, and something scared him he'd go right over the top of ya to get to it. He was scared to death of balloons. Well, not at first he wasn't. We'd been fooling around with him one evening and my daughter blew up a balloon and tossed it across the floor. He was a bit concerned for a bit but then started playing with it. When it popped he let out this shreik and headed for the closet and it was hours before he came out. After that if you even blew up a balloon it was closet time.

When he was little we'd give him a bath in the kitchen sink, but when he got bigger I'd bathe him outside in an old icechest I had. He didn't like it but after I'd caught him all he'd do was his damnest to NOT be put in the icechest. He'd get all 4 feet spraddled out across the top and then all you had to do was grab both back legs and flip him over. Once he was in he was in. He never did learn. All he'd try to do was climb out reeeaaaalll slow, like maybe you wouldn't notice him or something.

As much as he seemed to hate baths when he was all rinsed off he sure liked being toweled off. He'd growl and grab at the towel and chitter and roll around. The harder and faster you toweled the crazier he'd get. When you turned him loose he'd turn into a wild thing. He'd race around the yard like a lunatic and grab stuff and tumble around with it and just chitter and carry on.

I'll have to see if I can't take some pictures of the pictures we have. I don't have a scanner.

................Buckshot

[Ranch Dog]

I can have quite a problem with the critters but coons are fast learners. When my dog died (avatar) a couple of months ago, my yard was immediately fair game for all the varmints that roam. I killed 19 opossums in one week but only two raccoons. I think they learn quick. I see them under my yard light all night long but they don't cross the fence into my yard.

[carpetman]

Ranch Dog--Get a live trap and bait it with cat food. It is most embarassing to stand in line and be seen with cat food. If you dont catch something first night or so that food is in trap,seems the old rancid stuff will still catch coons. To avoid being seen buying the cat food you might con someone else into buying it or maybe wear a mask when you buy it. Guess you could make your own out of fish parts. Does seem the fish flavored foods make the best bait. Been wondering if I had it on a hot plate if it would permeate the air better and be more effective? I catch coons,cats,possums and skunks. Caught one rabbitt and have never caught a squirrel. Did have something eat the bait and spring the trap but escaped??? That one puzzles me as the mesh is too fine for anything to escape. I once turned a neighbors siamese loose and caught it a second time a week later. Doubt that the coons wise up to a trap.

[Scrounger]

Ranch Dog--Get a live trap and bait it with cat food. It is most embarassing to stand in line and be seen with cat food. If you dont catch something first night or so that food is in trap,seems the old rancid stuff will still catch coons. To avoid being seen buying the cat food you might con someone else into buying it or maybe wear a mask when you buy it. Guess you could make your own out of fish parts. Does seem the fish flavored foods make the best bait. Been wondering if I had it on a hot plate if it would permeate the air better and be more effective? I catch coons,cats,possums and skunks. Caught one rabbitt and have never caught a squirrel. Did have something eat the bait and spring the trap but escaped??? That one puzzles me as the mesh is too fine for anything to escape. I once turned a neighbors siamese loose and caught it a second time a week later. Doubt that the coons wise up to a trap.

Rattler? You do enjoy catching things, don't you?

[redneckdan]

The past two nights Ive caught a racoon in my trap. Tonight a first--have two coons in the trap. Been seeing a lot of em in my yard. Maybe get em al caught and I can finally catch another cat.


mmm...coon, barbequed coon is good.[smilie=1:

[redneckdan]

...............I had a raccoon (Procyon lotor) as a pet.
................Buckshot


How does one obtain a pet racoon? I think the manager of the apartment complex where I live would flip out if I got me a pet coon. My roomie and I thought about gettin a pet grouse but decided against it due to the 6 am wake up call of a drumming grouse.:roll:

[Buckshot]

How does one obtain a pet racoon? I think the manager of the apartment complex where I live would flip out if I got me a pet coon. My roomie and I thought about gettin a pet grouse but decided against it due to the 6 am wake up call of a drumming grouse.:roll:

............Our horse shoer's ex- girlfreind raised them. My wife got him (Tinker) for me one birthday or father's day, I don't recall now. He was pretty tiny and had to be bottle fed for some time. Litterbox trained in 2 days. I don't think a pet 'coon would work in an apartment. You do have to put them in a cage when you go to bed as at night they're most active. He'd have your apartment all taken apart in a couple nights :-)

....................Buckshot

[Shepherd2]

We have a "fixed" barn cat that we feed in the barn in hopes of keeping it away from the house. It's supposed to keep the barn rodent free. The previous cat kept the fields rabbit free. When I get the feeling that something else is hanging around the barn I set the live trap. I have a sardine can attached to the trigger and I bait it with dry cat food. I'd have to check the hash marks on the barn wall but I think I've caught 51 racoons so far. Also 13 cats, 14 if you count the current barn cat who got caught once. One time was enough for him. I've caught a few possum too but I don't keep track of them. I'm sure I catch a bunch more if I kept the trap set all the time.

Last summer I noticed that the cats food was disappearing during the day. After a day or 2 I saw a grackle fly into the barn and light on the cat's dish. I didn't have time to sit around the barn and shoot grackles with a pellet gun so I set out a small live trap someone had given me. The trigger was sensitive enough that a grackle's weight would trip it. They'd really raise a fuss and I'd leave them in the trap for awhile to frighten the others away. I trapped 7 before they decided to leave the cat's food alone.

[Frank46]

So's raccoon done up in a stew. My late father in law used to do a stew to die for.
But being a cajun you had to watch him as he'd sneak in a bottle of tabasco sauce. Frank

[redneckdan]

But being a cajun you had to watch him as he'd sneak in a bottle of tabasco sauce. Frank


Mmm, tobasco. My dad makes fire chicken, get leg/thigh piece and bakes them in straight tobasco or franks red hot. Nice and tender but a little, okay, alot hot.:twisted:

[carpetman]

Caught another coon last night but no animal control on Sunday so I turned her loose.

[carpintx]

Buckshot:

Here in Del Rio TX we have three or four raccoons visiting us every evening to eat some dry dog food that my wife puts out for them. We also have a fox (sometimes two) that arrive like clock work in early evening - they don't really like dry dog food but certainly clean up fruit scraps, grapes, and shredded bread.

Also visiting....not so regularly but getting that way...a possum. We enjoy seeing them and it's fun watching how they interact when they all decide to show up at once. Usually it's just a reaction of being watchful and keeping their distance.

Your post was very interesting and I can vouch for just about everything you mentioned because I have know people who had them as pets. Racoons:drinks: are something else!

[drinks]

Carpintx;
Why not serve some real food, tamales, enchiladas, chilies relleno, carne asada, guacamole and with some decent pico de gallo on the side.
Likely would not want to set out some nice cold cerevza, might get some fights going.
:D

[Ranch Dog]

Like I said earlier these fellows are a quick study on any situation they encounter. I monitor all my deer feeders and feed pens with trail cameras. When I start seeing a lot of raccoon activity during the night, I do something that an old trapper taught me.

I place out a life trap and catch one. I don't bait the trap, just let the corn from the feeder fall through it. The next morning I go and get the animal in the trap, place the trap in the shade but I don't release him. I leave him in the trap another night. The next morning I go back out and remove him to a slough on the back side of my ranch. I won't see or get a picture of a raccoon for 6 months minimum at that feeder. It seems they don't like seeing the one in trap and will shy away from the area. Like I said, I have cams that are monitored daily and the activity stops now!

[carpetman]

Well caught a few more coons and caught a cat last night. Now having problems with squirrels. Here we have a black squirrel which I dont know much about and we have red squirrels. Been seeing this one in my yard that looks like a mix. One morning my wife saw her and she had three young ones. Darn things are living under my storage shed and dig everywhere. I tried plugging the holes but that is a wasted exercise. Other day I saw a couple of the young ones out. I gave one a full time job of being rose bush fertilizer. Later shot another but it made it back to the hole. Today put out some bait with Decon rat poison in it and saw the mother eating it. Head shot her with a pellet gun and she quivered and made it into a hole. Later it looked like some more of the bait had been eaten. My guess would be that is the young one that hasn't been shot. Bet I have a stink on my hands in a few days.

[drinks]

Carpetman;
The black squirrels are likely rock squirrels.
Pretty common in the western half of Texas, I have seen them in colors from a honey blond to bright red and on to really black.
The fox squirrel is also black on occasion, we have a family of them just down the co. road from us,see one at the bird/squirrel feeder now and then.