I wouldn't be concerned, but I wouldn't bother it. Mother raccoons come out during the day to forage. She is probably very hungry, and yes, they will eat bird seed, altho she wouldn't be getting much nutrition from that.

I have always heard that raccoons that come out during the day are rabid...but since living here where I can observe them, the mothers will come out during the day to look for food. Sometimes the babies will be hidden just a little ways off. They feel safer either leaving the babies during the day or taking them with them. At night, there are more predators around that might get them.

I wouldn't worry about her being rabid, and if it was me, I would leave her some food discretely at a distance. I know a lot of people don't believe in feeding wild animals, but to me, it is no different than feeding birds. Since she is near a lake, she may have been fed by humans before....hence, her lack of fear.

Leave it to Marilyn to have all the answers!! You are one exceptional human being! The animals are blessed to have you.

We put out cat food for the raccoons and occasionally a mama gray fox comes along to eat as well....the coon and the fox glare at one another, but seem to manage to co-exist. Marilyn, we need to see some new pictures when/if you have a moment. I miss seeing all your babies!

Marilyn, what foods should I leave for her?

Cat or dog food. Table scraps. Fruit. Just about anything.

I do admire Marilyn for her kindness to animals - it has certainaly made an impact on me.

I do worry about raccoons though. We had incidents of rabies in our area - even had a friends horse contract it a year ago. They suspected a rabid coon transmitted to the very curious horse, but don't know for sure. It was a bad bad situation - with the horse having bit a person in the midst of it too.

I would not make ANY contact, nor would I feed the coon. That would encourage it to come back.

I don't want to offend Marylin in anyway with this - but I am very wary of coons (but they are fun to watch sometimes!)

Wouldn't the raccoon avoid the lakeshore (i.e., water) if he had rabies? I've read that animals develop aqua/hydrophobia (fear of water/drinking water) at a certain stage of rabies.

Jodi-

LOL! I can tell you from experience. Don't try to hand feed a Raccoon that seems friendly. They ain't very social like. LOL! They Growel an Puff Up.

There is a Restaurant in the Mountain Area with Outdoor Dining. Raccoons would come up and beg for handouts. There were Warning Signs all around to not Hand Feed the Raccoons. The waiter told us to lay a tomato at the edge of the Patio and they would pick it up themselves. Of course, my 10 year old Son couldn't resist attempting to "hand feed". Everyone on the Patio screamed when the Raccoon gave him "what far". Then they all laughed because my Son was so surprised he was holding his heart. LOL!

Gayle

If you leave food for it, that doesn't mean it will expect to eat from your hands. I feed the raccoons here, and when I walk to where they are eating, most of them run away.

They will bow up like Gayle said, sometimes. Young ones, especially will do that. They want to look bigger, so hopefully, you will be afraid of them.

Actually, I used to handfeed the wild raccoons here all the time, and one of the most amazing things is how gently a raccoon takes food from your hand. Even dogs and cats are apt to snatch it away from you and bite you in the process. Raccoons take it very carefully. I don't handfeed the raccoons now, mainly because I don't have time to sit out and watch them. I quit that several years ago when dogs killed and scattered the raccoons, and I couldn't stand the idea of some of them being gone, because I was so attached to them. But even my rehab animals...possums and armadillos mostly, I never let anyone touch them. I know people are much more nervous about those kinds of things than I am, and if they even got scratched, they would think they were going to get rabies, and it is just easier to tell any one who asks to touch or hold one of the animals, no, and I give them the reason. Besides, it isn't good to handle the animals...they carry parasites and all manner of things that
wouldn't be good. I wouldn't want anyone to get sick. I think germs crawl on me and die...so I don't worry about myself.

I wouldn't ever suggest anyone to handfeed a wild raccoon....or even someone's pet raccoon. Rabies isn't a problem in raccoons in this area. It is much more likely for a skunk to have rabies. I do know of a horse that had rabies about 40 years ago. Not sure how it got it, but I remember our farrier had to take rabies shots, because he was someone who had handled the horse. One of the raccoons here, is one that I raised about 6 years ago, and she comes to me every night, and very sweetly asks for yogurt. She will tug gently on my pantsleg or stand up and pat her paw on my leg. She used to want grapes every night, but she found out about yogurt, because I feed it to the possums, and that is what she wants now.

If you leave food for it, I'd suggest leaving it at a considerable distance, and let it go at that. If you don't leave food for it....at least know that just because it is out during the daytime hours, does not mean it has rabies or is sick. It means it is hungry.

It has been very dry here this year, and all wildlife has suffered. Well, not the ones on my place, of course. I put out 60 to 80 lb. of food every night. The wildlife rehabbers furnish the food for me for free.

Here is Audrey, having her nightly dish of yogurt. Only when I call her to come get it, I call it "La Crema." :))

goodness, she even LOOKS like an Audrey! :-)

Marilyn, I haven't said it before and I apologize for that, but in my opinion the world is a better place with you in it.

Audrey is so precious and I wouldn't mind having some of that yogurt, but I bet she would. vique.

Marilyn, I will leave food for her(?) tomorrow. Hopefully, she'll get it before the other critters do. I plan on leaving grapes and apple slices along with some dog food for her.
I assume she's hungry because she looks on the thin side.

Oh, is this the season for raccoons to give birth? How many are delivered by a mom?

They are usually born early in the spring, but if a mother loses her babies, she will have another litter usually. I had a litter of babies in the hollow tree in my yard just a couple of weeks ago. You can hear them chattering. Cancun, my favorite from years ago, had 6 in a litter one time. That would be a big litter. They can have from one to six. I don't know of any bigger litters than that. Usually I see two or three babies.

One litter has five in it this year. I don't know who their mother is. They come storming into the yard just at dusk and commandeer the cats' food. I thought they might be Audrey's babies...but I saw them being friendly to a raccoon
that I released here a few years ago named Pia. I don't see them with a mother, altho they are big and healthy, so I am sure they aren't orphans.

It's very kind of you to leave some food, and if you leave it early enough in the day, hopefully she will get it before other creatures find it at night.

Audrey was the first raccoon I raised when I started rehabbing....and just about the last since I decided not to add any more raccoons because there are already so many here. I have released a couple more. With Audrey was Abby and Allwyn. I think Abby is still here.

The next batch were named with the letter B. I had Becky, Billy, Buzzy, Brenda and Bart. After that I quit. The 5
B's were a rescue from someone who had them that was feeding them things like Fruit Loops.

I have since last week two racoons visiting. The new one seems to be younger and leaves when it sees me. The one with just a stump of a tail has been around for a couple of years. He (I assume it is a he since I never saw young ones) wants his bowl of catfood in the early morning. He waits at the backdoor and if I am late, he goes to the front door because I leave from there in the morning. I think he has been handraised or comes from a rehaber. He always wants to come into the house. I don't let him of course, I have seen what racoons can do when somebody left the door to a backroom in my former workplace open and I had to chase a dozen racoons out of a storage area with boxes and boxes of records!

Could have been hand raised. Lots of raccoons that are hand raised don't make it in the wild. For one thing, they are usually released where there are already plenty of raccoons living, and they are chased away. No place for them to go, and always on the run. Some people start to raise a baby raccoon and find out how much trouble it is, or it bites them, and they take it out in the woods and let it go. They think because it is a wild animal, it will do okay, but they don't. It is like dumping out a puppy. They have no idea where to go or where to find food. Some rehabbers will release them where they can leave food out for them....that's called a "soft release". They need that while they try to make an adjustment. Raccoons stay with their siblings or sometimes close to their mothers for the first year of their life, so it is always best that they be released with another one that they have a bond with.

I have a short tailed raccoon here too. I call him "Puff".
I have been trying to get a picture of him, but can't tell him from the others unless he has his backside turned to me.
All I know about him is that he is a member of the "gang" that arrive every evening about 6 and commandeers the cat food bowls...before moving on to the other food that I leave out for them.

There was also a big armadillo here that was missing part of his tail, but I haven't seen him for quite awhile.

One of the armadillos that I raised last year is still here every night tho. I don't know if it is Henry or Edsel, but it's one of them. He is working on re-landscaping my yard. I finally got the soil improved here by adding lots of mulch, and it is full of earthworms. It was rock hard clay when I started. It seems to be to his liking. I raised him on nightcrawlers that I had to buy by the dozen.

Well, this morning around 10:00 AM I left some grapes, apple pieces and dry dog food out near the spot by the lake where the raccoon has been hanging out. She came out around 1:00 PM and went right for the food and ate it all.

So I'll probably continue doing this and see what happens.

If it is a Mama looking for food for her babies, I can't let them go hungry, can I?

No, you can't. I'm sure she appreciates it. She may be a young coon that has been released there and having trouble adapting, or she may have babies. If that is the case, she will probably bring her babies soon.

Thank you, Mona.

Raccoons do have the nicest way of taking food from your hands. My daughter was only four when we had Rascal and he was always so gentle with her. I love raccoons and my year living with one made a soft spot in my heart for them. We have none here in town but as I mentioned a few months ago, I fed an opossum baby who lived under my garden house. One night a baby skunk came with his mother and as the opossum lumbered over to eat, the skunk sprayed him as I stood and watched. The opossum left and the skunk moved in. I think he is the sibling to the baby I rescued and raised for two weeks in June and released miles from here. Any way, two weeks ago I rescued a puppy who goes out at night to go potty. I always go with him and talk and make noise. I feed the skunk right beside his hole, so my question to you Marilyn is ,will the skunk just turn and go in his hole if he hears voices or will he stay and spray the dog if he runs too close to him? I go up and stand real close to it and talk to it but it just eats and glances up at me .It's totally fearless but I am very quiet and don't make sudden moves like the dog does. I don't want the dog sprayed but I'm enjoying feeding and seeing the skunk every night. They are sweet animals..

Skunks are very sweet. I don't know much about skunks. We have great horned owls that nest here and skunk is their favorite food. I guess those white stripes really stand out at night. I did release some skunks here....one was killed on the highway about a mile away...recognized him by the big white tip on his tail. I have smelled skunks a time or two here, but haven't seen any.

I would say that skunks are pretty much fearless, and I would keep the dog away from him.