Raccoon visiting to steal feed

[HomesteaderWife]

Hopefully using just the feed as bait did the trick and no cats were trapped. But there is a big chance it will catch possum too! Further preventative measures as suggested would hopefully deter future trouble.

 

[pacorona]

Got a raccoon coming by. Saw him 2 nights ago around 4 am hanging around. Caught him again last night around 11pm. I scared him off but I know he'll be back. He's not trying to get in the run but he is reaching through the wire and grabbing handfuls of chicken feed. I know this because he leaves a mess of feed just outside the wire. We have a live trap and I'd like to catch him. I'm not sure if the trap is big enough...hes a big coon. Very fat. He might have been doing this a while now and we just caught him. Need some advice on dealing with this pest. I worry he'll get sick of the feed and seek out my girls. He'd have to dig into the run (the wire is about 6 inches out in the ground so he'd have to be very diligent) and then lift the weighted coop door to get in. Since they're more likely to go for easy opportunities I doubt he'd try.

 

[pacorona]

From time to time we trap a raccoon and he goes to our relocation expert, my Hubby. I hope they like Mississippi!! And yes, you CAN catch a big coon in a regular cage. We had one once, tho', who was so smart - we watched him thru' our window as he held one leg out behind him and ate all of the food. With his leg in there, the trap could not set and he merely backed out with the bait. We laughed at how long he did this before we actually saw how he got to the bait!! Smart little creatures!! Cute, too!!

 

[BYC910]

Coons that have been caught and released, will most times not go back in a live trap. Took me two weeks of waiting in ambush. Had get a female that hat killed twelve of my chickens . She would turn over the live trap to get the bait. I staked it down didn't do any good . Bright light large load twelve gage .

 

[fawnda]

You can trap and kill predators forever. There will always be more to fill in the void. Instead of wasting your time trapping and killing, put your efforts into making a predator proof pen. Also, trapping in the spring can be quite cruel if you catch either a mother or a baby. The babies are dependent on the mother until fall and will likely starve or get predated upon. Learn to live with your local wildlife rather than blowing it all away with a .22 or trapping it all because you left free food out for it. https://www.cwrescue.org/predatorproofhousing

 

[BYC910]

Be realistic when it comes to cost effective pen construction. I saw really expensive pens that my male Pyrenees could destroy in minutes .I watched him tear a hole in a chain link kennel, five feet of the ground and climb through it . Don't kid yourself no such thing as all predator proof . Snakes are predators too. Any varmint that gets in my pens or kills my livestock is fair game . Because the natural predators for most predators have been wiped out by man . Man has to intervene to a certain extent. Fish and wildlife sell hunting and fishing licensees to help pay for just that. Varmints thrive in the fringes of southern cities . Coyotes are so numerous here they kill even small pets in subdivisions . I learned how to trap them isn't that learning to live with them ? Squirrels cute little gray squirrels do thousands of dollars in damage to homes and roofs every year .I guess it's ok if it isn't your roof Critter relocates are simply making their problem someone else's problem . Nope they leave me and mine alone I leave them alone .That simple . They are allowed to live outside of the no varmint zone . Possums coons coyotes all have a place in nature ,it just isn't in side my pens and coops .

 

[Old Philosopher]

I've had no problem with raccoon here in the northern Rockies, but striped skunks are the new field mice here! I've take 14 off my property, including a female and 5 kits. I can tell you all about trapping skunks. I have yet to be sprayed, but I'll just say this for starters:use the smallest trap you can for the target critter. If a skunk has no room to raise its tail, it won't spray! They don't want that 'perfume' on themselves any more than you do.

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

Be realistic when it comes to cost effective pen construction. I saw really expensive pens that my male Pyrenees could destroy in minutes .I watched him tear a hole in a chain link kennel, five feet of the ground and climb through it . Don't kid yourself no such thing as all predator proof . Snakes are predators too. Any varmint that gets in my pens or kills my livestock is fair game . Because the natural predators for most predators have been wiped out by man . Man has to intervene to a certain extent. Fish and wildlife sell hunting and fishing licensees to help pay for just that. Varmints thrive in the fringes of southern cities . Coyotes are so numerous here they kill even small pets in subdivisions . I learned how to trap them isn't that learning to live with them ? Squirrels cute little gray squirrels do thousands of dollars in damage to homes and roofs every year .I guess it's ok if it isn't your roof Critter relocates are simply making their problem someone else's problem . Nope they leave me and mine alone I leave them alone .That simple . They are allowed to live outside of the no varmint zone . Possums coons coyotes all have a place in nature ,it just isn't in side my pens and coops .

The DNR here has laws against relocation. You need to have it approved by them and agreed upon by the landowner you release it at. No laws against live trap and dispatch though. In fact they say to only live trap and dispatch as it is more humane. I always check before doing any thing along those lines. The other option that we've done is to simply call animal control and they cart it away. I'm not sure what they do with them but I'm relieved it's no longer my problem.

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

You can trap and kill predators forever. There will always be more to fill in the void. Instead of wasting your time trapping and killing, put your efforts into making a predator proof pen. Also, trapping in the spring can be quite cruel if you catch either a mother or a baby. The babies are dependent on the mother until fall and will likely starve or get predated upon. Learn to live with your local wildlife rather than blowing it all away with a .22 or trapping it all because you left free food out for it. https://www.cwrescue.org/predatorproofhousing

"He" ended up being a "she" actually. We didnt investigate but we think part of the reason she was so fat was because she was pregnant. So fortunately no babies will go hungry in the wild. I think we saved ourselves a bigger problem by getting rid of her. I havent caught anything more and we are looking into electric wire

 

[Grampy7]

I tolerate skunks and opossums because I can scare them away and they usually don't come back, at least that I see. I don't tolerate raccoons; they may start harmlessly enough, but for them, killing chickens is an inborn addiction they can't stop. I have lost hens to hawks and owls once in a great while, but raccoons have cost me multiple hens, multiple times, reaching through the fence or finding a way in. Shoot 'em or trap 'em and shoot 'em.
There are foxes and coyotes around here, but I've never seen any evidence around my run and coop.