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Racoon question - will it move on? tips for keeping it away? how to deal with barn cats (food/door)?

Happy to report the racoon has not been back. We’ve had fresh snow each morning, allowing me to be able to see if there are tracks. Right now I only lock the barn up at night, cats inside, no food. They have in/out access and food in daytime.

I did give the cats canned food twice a day in the barn, but I always picked up the dishes and brought them inside the house, even prior to racoon visit. I never leave any garbage or other food in the barn except for I did have some dry cat food out. It was well inside the barn, not easily accessible and up on a high table or bench.

The neighboring farm I referenced is not really that close, they would have to cross a busy road, creek, and go through some residential yards that have dogs. Often they get hit by cars before making it across the road, so I think they learn to avoid going my way. If they head the other direction there are plenty of better options - a housing development with dumpsters, several businesses with dumpsters including food services, etc. No one lives at the farm and the workers do leave garbage/fast food wrappers/etc in containers that are not well secured, both of which I think contributes to their problem. Also I think that my dogs had helped keep them at bay just from the smell - the dogs never went outside without me so it’s not like they had any firsthand interactions. When I moved in there were many skunks around, but since getting dogs, they have been almost non-existent too. The feral cats usually only show up when the population over there starts getting out of control, or if it’s a wandering tom marking his territory or looking for a mate. (everyone here is fixed and vetted, sorry tom)

I really think the racoon ended up here due to the storm (6-10" snow that night with bitter cold winds and drifts of snow that I had a hard time walking through). I think they were moving through but had tangled with the donkey, it was separated from its friend, and curled up near the barn for the night. There are a couple places that could have worked as a shelter for it.

I don’t really know but for whatever reason, I have not had a racoon or skunk problem prior to this and will be more careful so that it stays that way. Will look into getting a radio for the barn too.

Thank you again for all the suggestions and experiences.

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A few years ago, I had several destructive raccoons take up residence. Their reign of destruction lasted about a month.

Once I finally got everything appropriately secured, they did eventually move on. But they are resourceful buggers. It wasn’t enough to just put cat food away. I had to lock absolutely everything food-like in metal trash cans with heavy cinderblocks on top. I had to remove all trash and put multiple cinderblocks on the dumpster lid for weeks.

Locking up the food pissed them off big time and the problem got worse before it got better. They opened cabinets, chewed through containers of fly spray, ointments, etc. They shredded a heavy duty plastic treat bucket with screw-on lid that I thought was vermin-proof. After they totally trashed my barn and found nothing good to eat, they seemed to give up.

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One barn that I stayed at left dry cat food out at night. The rats were probably bigger than kittens from all that easy food!

Keeping raccoons out is a constant battle at most barns, especially if you have other livestock like chickens that drop food all over. At another barn I was at, the raccoons opened closed tin grain bins. (The bricks are a good idea.) I know some people swear by cayenne pepper or Pine Sol as repellents.

You say you don’t have rabies in your area-are you in the UK?

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I just returned from a camping trip with plenty of raiding racoons. All feed had to be secured in my horse trailer. Dogs are very effective deterrents because as soon as someone came with a dog, the raccoons left. I don’t know how they knew the dogs were around. Maybe smell?

I think the most effective way to discourage pests is to keep all food locked up. This includes feed buckets. If it isn’t raccoons, it will be rats and mice.

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If your cats can find it and access it, so can other critters.

Likely, the dogs do probably help.

An amusing google finding was that city raccoons can jump higher vertically than country raccoons.

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Someone here, back when we all had signatures, had theirs with a quote like, “I catch them in a Hav-A-Heart trap and then shoot them through the bars.” That is what I do.

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I have raccoons out and about at all hours of the day and night. I’ve had people tell me that only sick raccoons are out during the day but that is untrue, at least around my place. They are healthy as can be and very annoying.

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@Texarkana, wow! Vindictive little vandals, but you gotta respect that industrious effort. Chewed through containers of fly spray? Man, leaving nothing untouched. What pesky devils.

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Rats are bigger than kittens. And omnivores so they might eat a tiny kitten if they had the opportunity.

As for feeding cats, they do make collars that have some kind of chip that will unlock a cat door. Not sure how foolproof they are, and whether collars are safe or not. Although while it might work against larger animals like raccoons, I’d still worry about mice and rats that could find their way in through small openings. But maybe something to consider.

I considered one for my house but thought the chance of my cat bringing in a mouse/rabbit/snake was too great so never installed it.

One of our cats once brought thru the dog door a 2 1/2’ long rattler.
Gave us a heart attack before we realized she had left the snake’s head somewhere else, thank goodness!
That cat was a great hunter and liked to share or brag, not sure, we had all kinds of offerings, some disturbing, from her.

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I have not had problems with racoons recently, but I DID have a problem 'possum.

I put the dry food out as I start to prepare the horses’ food, and put it away when they are finished. So it is only out while I am in the barn.

I feed the cats IN a cat carrier. Makes it much easier when it is time to take them to the vet. Unfortunately the 'possum had no qualms about jumping up into the cat carrier while I was right there.

They shredded anything they could shred! The worst was they found some powdered fly attractant refills for my fly traps and got the powder EVERYWHERE. I think my barn attracted every fly for a 100 miles radius for weeks. So gross.

I was honestly afraid they would try to claw and chew their way into the house next, but they moved on.

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Raccoons will be out in daylight a lot when they have babies, I’ve heard. It’s not as common, but I do see them during the day occasionally. I might be wrong or it might depend on the area, but I think it’s far less likely for them to have rabies than it is distemper, that’s pretty common. And worms.

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I am having a similar experience @Texarkana. Cinder blocks on everything. All the feed can lids are removed if I don’t weigh them down! The Empower Boost must be super tasty, that needed 2 cinder blocks! I no longer feed the cat if she isn’t directly in front of me. These things are tenacious. And boy they do get more pissed when you are actually able to secure things!

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I use this on my trash can at home, there is NO WAY a coon can get this open. The bungee is like the black rubber ones. You can operate it one-handed. I wonder if this could be rigged to work with feed-type trash cans?

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