Skunk Advice

[oosik]

Mace - post #73. I had a very similar situation as yours. Mine was with a family - mom & four babies - of raccoons. We would put a Shed Spread bowl of dog food out on the porch. Mom and the babies would visit and we would have a "close encounter" with this small family. This was viewed thru the glass door out onto the porch. My granddaughter was visiting and before we knew it she was out on the porch, hand feeding the babies out of the bowl.
For whatever reason, mom raccoon did not see this as a threat. My son and his wife were in a panic. We finally got them settled down. I calmly told my granddaughter that we had ice cream, here in the house, for her. She put the bowl down and got up and came in off the porch.

We were just VERY lucky.

 

[MossRoad]

Mace - post #73. I had a very similar situation as yours. Mine was with a family - mom & four babies - of raccoons. We would put a Shed Spread bowl of dog food out on the porch. Mom and the babies would visit and we would have a "close encounter" with this small family. This was viewed thru the glass door out onto the porch. My granddaughter was visiting and before we knew it she was out on the porch, hand feeding the babies out of the bowl.
For whatever reason, mom raccoon did not see this as a threat. My son and his wife were in a panic. We finally got them settled down. I calmly told my granddaughter that we had ice cream, here in the house, for her. She put the bowl down and got up and came in off the porch.

We were just VERY lucky.

When I was a kid back in the 60s and 70s, my parents would feed the raccoons every night on the back patio. Several slices of bread. Many of the neighbors used to do that. The raccoon would come along, take a slice of bread from you hand, then carry it over to a bird bath and dunk it and eat it. Then he or she would wonder down to the next neighbors' house and repeat. In spring, after they had babies, they'd bring the babies along. The mom raccoon would get the food and hand it to the babies. As they got older, the mom would allow the babies to take it from your hands. That went well for many years.

Then one year, a rather rambunctious young male raccoon would actually climb up in your lap and eat. Then he'd climb up on our shoulders. He'd look in our pockets. Play with the dogs. Follow you all over, etc... after a month or so of that, he'd get kinda ticked off when we and the dogs would go in the house. So he'd start pawing at the screen doors and ripped the screens. So we put the glass back in and he moved on to the windows, tore the screens and came in the house. So we closed the windows. Then he started tearing holes in the gravel and tar paper roof. Did several thousand dollars damage in just one night.

Dad got a trap from the DNR and they relocated him to a new state park many miles away. He felt bad because it was our fault for feeding it, that the animal got destructive. We never fed wild animals again after that. Good lesson for a kid.

Today, the DNR doesn't relocate them, knowing now that it's just moving the problem somewhere else. They have you contact a local animal control company and they'll trap and euthanize the animal. Or, you could do it yourself. Or, you could just not feed them in the first place, don't keep pet food out for cats and dogs, etc...

 

[Molalla1]

When I was a kid back in the 60s and 70s, my parents would feed the raccoons every night on the back patio. Several slices of bread. Many of the neighbors used to do that. The raccoon would come along, take a slice of bread from you hand, then carry it over to a bird bath and dunk it and eat it. Then he or she would wonder down to the next neighbors' house and repeat. In spring, after they had babies, they'd bring the babies along. The mom raccoon would get the food and hand it to the babies. As they got older, the mom would allow the babies to take it from your hands. That went well for many years.

Then one year, a rather rambunctious young male raccoon would actually climb up in your lap and eat. Then he'd climb up on our shoulders. He'd look in our pockets. Play with the dogs. Follow you all over, etc... after a month or so of that, he'd get kinda ticked off when we and the dogs would go in the house. So he'd start pawing at the screen doors and ripped the screens. So we put the glass back in and he moved on to the windows, tore the screens and came in the house. So we closed the windows. Then he started tearing holes in the gravel and tar paper roof. Did several thousand dollars damage in just one night.

Dad got a trap from the DNR and they relocated him to a new state park many miles away. He felt bad because it was our fault for feeding it, that the animal got destructive. We never fed wild animals again after that. Good lesson for a kid.

Today, the DNR doesn't relocate them, knowing now that it's just moving the problem somewhere else. They have you contact a local animal control company and they'll trap and euthanize the animal. Or, you could do it yourself. Or, you could just not feed them in the first place, don't keep pet food out for cats and dogs, etc...

Exactly how wild animals start to get domesticated . . .

 

[oosik]

For many years I burned our garbage - 55 gallon barrel. Then one summer evening it jumped out of the barrel and started a fire in the dry grass. It was only because I had a live garden hose RIGHT THERE that I was able to stop it. Ever since then I've had garbage collection thru a local refuse company.

When I quit burning our garbage - I quit seeing raccoons and skunks.

 

[Motorboatin]

One of our dogs tangled with a skunk twice last year and was sprayed from a distance three other times.... trust me you can tell

I tried every concoction I could find on the internet and multiple store bought products but the one that worked the best was this. I told my wife it will never work but it does. I read the ingredients and coconut oil was the main one. I also found that greenies work great for when your dog gets the business end of the skunk in it's mouth. Half a dozen of the large ones gets the smell out of the mouth

 

[Jstpssng]

When I was a kid back in the 60s and 70s, my parents would feed the raccoons every night on the back patio. Several slices of bread. Many of the neighbors used to do that. The raccoon would come along, take a slice of bread from you hand, then carry it over to a bird bath and dunk it and eat it. Then he or she would wonder down to the next neighbors' house and repeat. In spring, after they had babies, they'd bring the babies along. The mom raccoon would get the food and hand it to the babies. As they got older, the mom would allow the babies to take it from your hands. That went well for many years.

Then one year, a rather rambunctious young male raccoon would actually climb up in your lap and eat. Then he'd climb up on our shoulders. He'd look in our pockets. Play with the dogs. Follow you all over, etc... after a month or so of that, he'd get kinda ticked off when we and the dogs would go in the house. So he'd start pawing at the screen doors and ripped the screens. So we put the glass back in and he moved on to the windows, tore the screens and came in the house. So we closed the windows. Then he started tearing holes in the gravel and tar paper roof. Did several thousand dollars damage in just one night.

Dad got a trap from the DNR and they relocated him to a new state park many miles away. He felt bad because it was our fault for feeding it, that the animal got destructive. We never fed wild animals again after that. Good lesson for a kid.

Today, the DNR doesn't relocate them, knowing now that it's just moving the problem somewhere else. They have you contact a local animal control company and they'll trap and euthanize the animal. Or, you could do it yourself. Or, you could just not feed them in the first place, don't keep pet food out for cats and dogs, etc...

When I was in first grade (1965) a classmate's older brother brought his pet raccoon to show and tell. All that I can remember is him walking around the classroom with the coon on a harness, letting everyone see it.

I can't imagine that happening now, for various reasons.

"relocating" is a topic of discussion on TBN from time to time. I live on that back road which people like to dump their (kittens, raccoons, squirrels, woodchucks...) on and I don't appreciate it as I have enough vermin of my own. Right now I'm in all-out war with crows; in the past 10 days they've killed 7 turkey poults and 3 pullets by pecking through the cage; also pulled 2 rows of strawberries which dried out in the sun, killed my cukes and squash.
OOPS, I guess this isn't the "peeves" thread.

 

[Molalla1]

1965 . . . :laughing: :laughing: 1st grade . . . Oh you make me feel sooooo old. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, there's been a few people that had pet raccoons around here when I was a kid back in the 60's, too. I think all of them were named Rocky.

They're cute and cuddly when they're small. But let me tell you from that personal experience, a juvenile male raccoon is a terror, and then when they hit puberty, they can get downright destructive and aggressive. We'd find that thing in our house on a daily basis going through the cupboards and closets!

It was a burglar! :laughing:

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^
That mask was a dead giveaway!!!

 

[MossRoad]

I'd be sitting in the living room and look over and the raccoon would be climbing up onto the couch with me! My sister woke up one night and it was sitting on her stomach looking at her! I was sitting on the counter in the kitchen talking on the phone and it came walking through the kitchen! We'd get a piece of bread and lure it to the door, throw the bread outside and it would run out after the bread and we'd shut the door. Hour later it would be back in the house again. Couldn't figure out how it was getting in. Then one day I was in my bedroom working at my desk. I had a radio on a timer. I turned it off and went to the bathroom. Came back and the radio was on. What the heck? I looked around. A pillow from the top of my bunk bed was down on the floor on top of the timer cord. The pillow had pulled the timer off the desk and turned it on. How did that pillow fall off the top bunk? I went to grab the pillow and there was a raccoon tail sticking out from under it! :laughing: I called the raccoon out, and got him out of the house again and went back to investigate the bedroom. I found a slit in the top of the window screen right along the frame just above my bunk bed. I watched and the raccoon came running around the side of the house, climbed right up the wood trim, across to the window, and slipped in through the slit right in front of me. The screen would flap back into place. That's why we didn't see where he was getting in. So we then opened the windows only about 2". That's when he started tearing holes in the roof!