A rehabilitation center in Costa Rica has two raccoons that were born in the wild but cannot be released at this time due to new legal guidelines. Does anyone have experience developing an enrichment program specifically for raccoons? (if possible not food related as the raccoons have engaged in very aggressive behavior when competing for food)
Hi Elizabeth,
Have a look at the toy section in this amazon registry for an animal rehabilitation centre in Florida:
http://www.amazon.com/registry/baby/3B6URF20XM0G8
Dear Sanjo and Todd,
Thank you very much for the pointers. The Amazon registry is a great idea in general for the animal rehab center and I have written to Critter Care to see if they can offer any advice.
Cheers,
Elizabeth
Raccoons are happy to play with almost anything! One fun simple thing is ice cubes in their water bowl. You can even freeze grapes in the ice. Super fun! Even little balls or something like that in a large water dish is great fun for them (remember, in nature they will "wash" things in water). Hiding treats like grapes around their enclosure and in places where they have to get them out is fun. Hollowed out bones that you can get at the butcher with a thin layer of something like peanut butter will keep them excited. Hammocks are a favorite to relax in, and climbing things. A secret place where they can hide and sleep is also important. They love toys! They will chew them up pretty good though, so get tough ones. Hang things in their enclosures so that they swing back and forth, they will love that. With raccoons, pretty much your imagination is the limit!
We raise about 60 orphaned raccoons a year for release back to the wild.
For enrichment, we provide the raccoons with novel scents, textures, tastes, and activities and rotate these to keep the raccoons from losing interest in them.
Examples: we dot small amounts of scent here and there inside their enclosure. Scents include flavors like vanilla extract, cologne, and fish oil. Textures include fresh and dried leaves, tree branches with leaves attached, grasses, flowers, a crumpled ball of paper. Activities include placing small bits of food inside of a rubber dog toy (e.g., a "Kong" https://www.kongcompany.com/101/kong-101/), or interesting food morsels or scents inside of a cardboard box that is taped shut. On hot days, we like to put tidbits of food in a 1 gallon plastic bucket and freeze this until solid, then give the frozen block (minus the bucket) to the raccoons.
Providing two or three of these food-containing enrichment items at a time might keep the 'coons from fighting over them.
We also like to change the "furniture" in their habitat from time-to-time by adding new play features like a 5-gallon plastic bucket hanging from the cage ceiling by a rope tied to its handle. The bucket is suspended a few inches above the ground. The 'coons will climb in and out of the bucket to play. Other ideas are a hanging ladder made from knotted ropes tied around the ends of tree branches used as rungs on the ladder. Or a sling or hammock made from pieces of old canvas-covered fire-hose.
Having them process some of their own food as much as possible is also enriching. For example, we sometimes place an entire large (dead) fish in their enclosure, and the raccoons have to process the carcass; and we give them relatively soft-shelled nuts, like acorns, which they have to crack open themselves. Scattering and hiding food inside their enclosure, rather than putting it all in a dish, so they have to forage and find it themselves is also enriching.
Good Luck!
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