Here in California there is little raccoon rabies.  Most cases of raccoon rabies are found in the Eastern half of the United States. While any mammal can contract rabies, usually through bat bites, raccoons are not among the animals likeliest to get or spread rabies in California. There have only been three reported cases of raccoon rabies in the state of California in the last 10 years.  Rabies vector species here are bats, skunks and fox.

If you see a raccoon out in the daytime, it is either hungry (much like humans, raccoons occasionally arise from sleep for a snack), injured or ill, or has been disturbed from its sleeping site.

As with all wild animals, don’t approach it, but there is no need to panic.  If it appears sick or injured, call your local Humane Society or wildlife rehabilitation center.  For more information on what to do if you find an injured wild animal, click HERE.

It would be foolish to state that a raccoon would never kill a cat, and it has happened on occasion.  However, raccoons and cats generally co-exist in peace, usually ignoring each other completely.  Cats often hiss and growl at raccoons, and raccoons usually back off.  Of course, when food is involved raccoons spring into action, and will always reach an arm past even a hissing cat to get into the food bowl. To avoid cat/raccoon conflict and fighting, do not feed animals outdoors, and keep cats in at night.

I have seen many a cat attack a raccoon attempting to sneak into a house, and every time the raccoon has skulked away looking embarrassed. My female cat, Missy, used to find raccoons had entered my house at night through an open deck door, and chase them through the entire flat and out the back deck where they scrambled down the deck posts as fast as they could.  Missy died of heart failure at a natural cat age, secure in the knowledge that no raccoon had ever made it past her vigilant guard.

It’s always a good idea to keep all pets inside and lock cat doors at night to protect your pet and avoid unwanted houseguests. If you must leave a cat door open at night for your cat, be sure to pick up any cat food left out in the evening so that raccoons, skunks, and other night-time visitors will not find a lovely midnight buffet awaiting them.  Never leave food outside for animals, as that is an open invitation to all local wildlife to join the feed!

Raccoons stick together in tight mother and offspring groups for most of the babies’ first year. The mother and siblings will not leave a family member who is caught in a trap, stuck up a tree or otherwise unable to go with them for some time, and try everything they can to free their family member.

Over and over I’ve seen young orphan raccoons learning to climb large trees, become frightened and cling to high branches crying as their siblings descend. Invariably one or more siblings scurry all the way back up the tree and surround the frightened one, chittering, nosing and sometimes butting it gently to encourage it down the tree. 

A mother raccoon who gets locked out of a den site in a home will claw and bite at the blocked entrance for hours, sometimes for several nights, to get to her babies. If a baby is found in a home where the mother has been locked out, it can usually be reunited with its mother for the next couple of nights by placing the baby in a box outside the entrance the raccoon has been using, and placing a towel the baby has been sleeping in just outside the box for the mother to smell. When attempting to reunite a mother and baby, it is most important that someone stays to watch and ensure the baby isn’t taken by a predator (human or wild), and that the baby is warm and safe while the attempt to reunite occurs. For more advice on reuniting mothers and babies, call Rancho Raccoon or your local wildlife rehabilitation center. 

Raccoons love water, and will almost always put their hands into water if it’s available. The nerves in raccoon hands, which are as sensitive as those in human hands, become even more sensitive when wet.  When raccoons put food in water, it isn’t to clean it, or because they need the moisture, but to feel it with their wet paws.

Raccoons are great fishermen as well, and crayfish are among their favorite foods, along with crabs and other shellfish.

Raccoons are among the most omnivorous and adaptable of animals. They’re able to digest and use all kinds of foods from grasses to vegetables to acorns, bark, rodents, shellfish, fish, frogs, legumes, birds, eggs and most of all, delicious insects! That’s why we seldom see thin raccoons unless they are ill or orphaned.

Raccoons are opportunistic feeders, in fact raccoons in general embody the ideal of opportunism. Therefore it’s important to keep pet food and our human food and garbage out of reach of raccoons (and other wildlife) to avoid wildlife/human conflicts. While feeding wildlife is a lot of fun for humans, because we get to see them up close, it is not good practice for the animals. 

Once they become used to getting food from humans they don’t know that they should not:

- be greedy (greed is a positive for wild animals),

- break in when no food is put out,

- have loud, occasionally bloody, fights over food,

- make their nests in the crawlspace, and

- invite all their friends

Raccoons are highly intelligent, independent, instinctive, adaptable, determined and above all, wild. Once they’re past the baby stage, they become more solitary than when young, and if given the choice, will go off to live their own lives.

If they are forced to be pets, they are moody and destructive of property. Even the sweetest “pet” raccoon cannot be trusted not to bite its caretakers or other humans. Biting is a fact of life among wild animals, and is perfectly natural. It is not an attractive attribute in a house pet. Please do yourself and raccoons a favor, and don’t try to keep them as pets.

Like all wild animals, raccoons should be allowed to live their natural wild lives and not be forced into domestic arrangements they would never choose for themselves. 

It is illegal to keep raccoons or any other wildlife as pets in California.

Raccoons harbor a parasite called Baylis ascaris procyonis, or raccoon roundworm. The parasite is passed to humans ONLY through ingestion of raccoon feces that contain the eggs (it is not passed through the air). It can cause eye and central nervous system problems in humans and animals other than raccoons.

It is most dangerous to small children or people with weak immune systems. There have been cases of small children eating raccoon feces found outdoors and ingesting the eggs. Raccoons generally have latrine areas outdoors, and contracting the parasite can be avoided easily by watching small children outdoors and careful hand-washing.

Those who work around raccoon feces, like wildlife rehabilitators, take extra precautions to avoid the parasite, such as wearing masks when cleaning raccoon pens and giving foster care raccoons a wormer while they are in care.

Moral: Don’t eat raccoon poop!

Raccoons are able to climb head first down trees because their hind feet naturally turn 180 degrees to allow them to cling with their claws.

Baby raccoons don’t realize this at first, and will climb down trees backwards, peering nervously down over their shoulders (and past their fat tummies). Their first few forays headfirst down a tree trunk are a nervous thrill for them! After a little while, they can be seen zipping headfirst down smooth-trunked trees, only using their hind feet to help steer and “brake.”

Raccoons can get many of the same parasites and viruses that domestic pets get.  Two of the most common killers of raccoons are feline panleukopenia (feline distemper or parvo), and canine distemper.  These diseases are passed among many kinds of wildlife, and occur from time to time in most areas.  Canine distemper in raccoons is often mistaken for rabies, because it can have similar neurological symptoms in its late stages.

Humans should always protect both pets and wildlife by ensuring domestic animals’ vaccinations are up-to-date.

While it’s true that raccoons can be rather pesky neighbors, until we learn to keep them out of our garbage cans (2 bungee cords crossed on any garbage can lid will keep the masked banditos out) and from under our homes (close up entrances when you know the raccoons are gone), very few people know that they delight in eating up every yellowjacket they get between their jaws!  Yes, they do get stung, but the swelling only lasts an hour or two, and they don’t seem to mind when the reward is another delicious insect meal.

They are also good little rodent-frighteners, and will eat rats and mice whenever they can catch them.