Didn't go green, but adult raccoons can be really aggressive, they're cute when young but at maturity they can fark you up. Which sucks when the cute cuddly furry thing turns into OMG GET IT OFF OF ME

I knew someone in Colorado that found a baby raccoon after her mom was hit by a car. She was just a few days old, and he nursed it along. She stayed pretty friendly, even as an adult. He could pick her up and would take food (gently) from people. Even took her rabies shots without much fuss.

He had horses, and she pretty much lived in the stable with his mare. Everything in the barn had to be tied, locked, bolted and screwed down-she could get into just about anything.

No idea if that is a one-of-a-kind deal, or typical of what hand-raising a raccoon is all about.

Misha80: Once that coon hit's puberty, either it or that ferret will wind up dead unfortunately.

/context

Hopefully it will be the ferret.

The guy's an idiot. Raccoons make good hats but terrible pets. They're ferocious garbage-eating varmints that do not belong in houses.

Misha80: Once that coon hit's puberty, either it or that ferret will wind up dead unfortunately.

Probably, but I wouldn't count on it. I used to have both a ferret and a nasty, angry tomcat as pets. The cat would sit in the middle of the room, paw cocked, claws out. The ferret would circle the room, popping in and out under furniture, until the cat lost sight of it. Then the ferret would charge, attempting to sink its teeth into the cat's ass. Sometimes the ferret would be successful, sometimes the cat would spin in time to give her a faceful of angry paw before the ferret retreated under a piece of furniture to regroup and retry.

The important point is this: Regardless of the beatdown that ferret took, it would not give up. They are incredibly tenacious, and take a smack in the chops as a personal affront. Their capacity for hate knows no bounds. These battles would go on until, invariably, the nasty, angry cat with the distinct reach advantage would be forced to retreat to higher ground.

I wouldn't count the ferret out just yet.

Is his/her name Sunshine?

Misha80: unyon: Misha80: Once that coon hit's puberty, either it or that ferret will wind up dead unfortunately.



I wouldn't count the ferret out just yet.

Not counting the ferret out at all, I said one of them would end up dead. A ferret and racoon battling to the death would be a pretty vicious affair.

Pretty much right on the money.. cute when young, but they are wild animals.. they are hard-wired for certain behaviors.. territorial issues are there also.. there may be one or two that stay cool: that is not the norm. Have a bunch that visit my yard at night.. pretty well behaved until two moms with kids get together.. I go inside, and clean up the mess the next day..

I expect a headline featuring this man on the main page in a couple months.

RaceBoatDriver: maxheck: It took thousands of years of breeding and feeding to get cats and dogs to their present level of domesticity

That can be shortened up to 50 years if you believe the Russians.



No 50 years is perfectly reasonable when you are looking at selective breeding. In the wild the more docile/human friendly animals are still mixing with the ones with wilder traits. In the Russian study that take the offspring. Choose the most docile and breed them and repeat. It does not mean that every offspring will necessarily make a good pet, but then again not all dogs from domesticated breeds make good pets, but some of them would make excellent pets.



With a raccoon it is all about their personality, if you raise them from young it is still best to give them their own space as they get older, they will still remain friendly with you but in the end they are still basically wild animals.


Also most ferrets are fine, again they are like all animals they are capable of getting into trouble when you let them out, but they will also learn the rules eventually. I have never understood why people say ferrets are more likely to destroy a house, but ignore that their cat/kitten or dog/puppy began doing the same thing as it was growing up until it was trained. The biggest issue with ferrets is that they got bored/lonely really easily, but if you get a second one they are happy as a clam and will keep each other entertained forever. Similar thing with cats and dogs, the difference is when owners become lazy the cat and dog become lazy and will mope around with the owner, if the owner becomes lazy with a ferret then the ferret says fark it and finds its own entertainment.

In general any fault with a ferret is a reflection of the owner. Of course as with all animals some ferrets are more friendly with humans than other ferrets, no different than cats and dogs.

DO NOT WANT Poster Girl: Didn't go green, but adult raccoons can be really aggressive, they're cute when young but at maturity they can fark you up. Which sucks when the cute cuddly furry thing turns into OMG GET IT OFF OF ME

staypuft242: Foxes have been domesticated. They took the 1% of the population that was most tame, and kept continuing the process for several generations and voila. Domesticated pets. I'm more than sure it's possible with raccoons.

Yes and no.

Raccoons are VERY smart. One of our "Permanent Guest" Rehab raccoons could work the remote for the tv.
When I say work the remote, I don't mean button mashing and something might happen. She knew how to turn on the tv, and how to change the channels. She didn't mess with the volume much.

Imagine having an autistic 5 year with 4 hands.. that's a raccoon.

One of the (if not the primary) reason they get so biatchy when they get 4 or 5 years old is because they get BORED. If they are provided with stimulating activities, and puzzles (with food as a reward) they usually calm right back down.

The reason they seem to get mean is because when they get bored, they get destructive, and that usually leads to them being caged most of the time. This makes them even more bored, and depressed, and then they get violent.

/3 raccoons in the house right now, and I have dealt with many.

/Yes, we're licensed. Nationally, State, County and Township.

Should add, I do not condone keeping raccoons as pets. They are just not really compatible with staying in the house.

We do not raise raccoons or anything like that. We rehab, and occasionally foster abandoned animals if the local larger rehab operation is out of space.

/That, and we do have a famous raccoon. He is the first well documented (spinal tap and all that jazz) of a raccoon contracting EPM. They were supposed to be able to carry the disease, as a dead end host, but not become symptomatic. He became symptomatic as a juvenile, and it took almost a year of medication to get him back to "functional normal".

Unfortunately due to the neurological damage that occurred, he still has seizures if over stimulated, so he has to stay by himself, and has a massive cage to live in.

nyseattitude: DO NOT WANT Poster Girl: Didn't go green, but adult raccoons can be really aggressive, they're cute when young but at maturity they can fark you up. Which sucks when the cute cuddly furry thing turns into OMG GET IT OFF OF ME

I learned my lesson the hard way several years after adopting a baby orphan Pterodactyl

They're so cute when they learn to fly. Ours kept bopping his terry-bone on the doorways. We stole a tennis ball off of Granny's walker to cover the end of his terry-bone and that helped a lot, of course Granny was POed about it, but she was already POed about him flying in and dive bombing her cheerios every morning anyways.