Feeding The Raccoons

I’ve been feeding the raccoons almost daily due to the extreme drought. Normally, if you’re going to feed raccoons, it’s best to just do it 2 or 3 times a week – to avoid dependency. Still, I’ve noticed the mother raccoon still makes her family hunt.

I’ve had to put out 2 plates to spread the food out. When they were smaller, they’d eat out of the same bowl. As they get older, their survival instincts kick in and they fight viciously over 1 bowl of food.

There are tiny pea ants that are all on the food by the time the raccoons arrive. They don’t bite or sting – but raccoons have such sensitive paws that the ants tickle them. Thus, as you’ll see, the raccoons dance around and are annoyed by the ants.

I had been spraying around the deck with insecticide but I was worried that it would harm the raccoons.

Actually, the ants help insure fair feeding. One of the offspring is very dominating and would stand in the plate and bite any of the others that tried to feed. With the ants, the dominate one can’t do that.

The food is dry dog food with some left over potato chip pieces and some left over diced up tomato.



Dessert

Tonight - a special treat - crackers with peanut butter. They LOVE peanut butter.

Here comes the do as I say, not as I do part.

Do NOT hand feed raccoons under any circumstances.

Camera

The only light for this video came from the small deck light at the back door. I had to 'brighten' the video up quite a bit in processing. That resulted in the washed out look. If the raccons ever come by during daylight, I'll try and get a better video.

This video was shot using a Casio Exlim EX-S600. Quality was set on normal. Focus was set on multi-point automatic.

This little credit card camera is great. It's a great point and shoot camera with more features than you'll ever use.

Video length is limited only by the size of flash drive and battery life.

I set the camera up on a Joby mini Gorillapod tripod wrapped around the arm of the deck furniture.