Raccoons are adorable little animals with their grey to brown coats and black-masked eyes. They are native to North America, but have been introduced into Europe for almost a hundred years, particularly in the area of Austria and Germany. Their preferred habitat is deciduous woods and forests. However, some people think that they are good pets too.
An adult raccoon is the size of a middle-sized dog ? about knee-height and weighing up to about 35 pounds. Their front paws are about the size of a child?s hands and they have five fingers on each hand or paw, which enables them to open doors and lift lids et cetera. This makes them pretty skillful thieves and reinforces the impression of a masked highway robber.
Raccoons will eat almost anything ? they are omnivores. They not just eat fruit, nuts and berries, but they will also take small birds, eggs, rodents, amphibians and fish. They are also fairly partial to cooked food and will go through a dustbin or garbage heap searching for the left-overs of human meals. They also pilfer pets? food that has been left out in the garden.
Tame raccoons normally wash their food before eating it, whereas this strange habit is rarely witnessed in the wild. Raccoons can carry very serious illnesses one of which, rabies, is dangerous to humans, but they also carry roundworms which can be passed on to humans with little impact on our health. Most raccoons die of predation or canine distemper. They can infect domestic dogs with the deadly canine parvovirus.
If you see a wild raccoon in your backyard, you should report it to the authorities so that it can be checked for disease as about 38% of rabies cases in America come from raccoon bites. Raccoons do tend to bite quite freely.
If you find an orphan raccoon when wandering in the woods, it is very tempting to take it home, but there is a fairly high danger of it having rabies. If you want a raccoon for a pet, it is better to buy one from a breeder.
They are notoriously hard to train. In most states it is illegal to keep a raccoon as a pet, but where it is permitted, the owner normally has to get an exotic pets license.
You should have them vaccinated against rabies and distemper and treated for roundworm before you take one into your home. If you purchase from a dealer, this should all ready have been taken care of for you.
Raccoons are difficult pets because they are in essence nocturnal creatures. They can be trained to sleep at night but it is not natural for them. Their diet can be a problem as well. Because they eat ?anything?, they require a very varied diet including live animals like frogs and mice from time to time. Pet raccoons frequently become overweight due to excessive feeding and a lack of exercise.
Pet raccoons ought to not be re-released into the wild if you find them rather a problem to take care of, because they will not know how to look after themselves. A pet raccoon is for life, which can last for twenty years.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many of subjects, but is now involved with distemper in raccoons. If you want to know more, please go to our site at Distemper Vaccines
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