Feeding Help

[tiggsmommy]

hello! I care for a small colony and live on about ten acres. Over the past couple of years, I have been okay feeding the raccoons and possums that inevitably make their way to my porch. However, over the past few months, our raccoon population has gotten out of control. They are coming out during the day, taking food dishes off my porch and running away with them, getting in fights with each other on my porch, pooping all over my porch, and eating all the cat food so I have to keep putting food out for my kitties to make sure they get enough. I have tried standing outside while my kitties eat to deter them from coming to eat the food, but they don’t care. They come and eat anyways. I have multiple dishes out, and even started putting extra food out for the raccoons in a dish away from the kitties dishes, just to give everyone a better chance at eating. The amount of food we are going through is crazy, and I am 7 months pregnant, so we really need to be saving as much money as possible. There are two new baby raccoons coming out with mom during the day, and lots more at night. I also just discovered we have new kittens from a new addition to the colony that I need to get TNR’d. I have spent all night trying to make sure these sweet kittens (they look to be about 3-4 months old) get enough food, even giving canned food from my indoor cats stash, but the raccoons just came and ransacked everything. I’m pretty sure I am now feeding as many raccoons as I am cats, and I really need help as to how to fix this problem, in the most humane way possible. If anyone has any ideas, I would be so very grateful!

 

[MiniPiemar]

I'm not an expert, so feel free to ignore me.
XD
Try getting the cats indoors during mealtime. But only if they're actually yours, and are safe.
The way I would go about this, is when you are watching them to keep away the racoons, try repeating a phrase, or do what I do and have a bell specifically associated with mealtime. Eventually they will come unning when they hear you. Avoid leaving food out constantly for a while, and just do a few meals a day.
Also try securing the food bowls down somehow.

My question is, what is the schedule that your cats are used to?

 

[tiggsmommy]

I'm not an expert, so feel free to ignore me.
XD
Try getting the cats indoors during mealtime. But only if they're actually yours, and are safe.
The way I would go about this, is when you are watching them to keep away the racoons, try repeating a phrase, or do what I do and have a bell specifically associated with mealtime. Eventually they will come unning when they hear you. Avoid leaving food out constantly for a while, and just do a few meals a day.
Also try securing the food bowls down somehow.

My question is, what is the schedule that your cats are used to?

Thanks so much for your reply! Unfortunately, I am not able to bring my little colony in to feed indoors. I have three indoor cats, one with IBD and is easily stressed, And it just wouldn’t be possible. Currently, I feed them in the mornings, in the evenings before it gets dark, and have been feeding at night now that I see I have these little kittens, which only also seem to come around at night with mommy. I also really like the idea of a bell to get everyone to come eat at the same time. Sometimes I have stragglers that miss feeding time, and then I feel bad and see them waiting by my door so will feed them when I see them as well.

I would love ideas to securing the food bowls. I have had to put aluminum baking pans taped inside of larger baking pans, with water and oil surrounding the small pan to create a moat to keep ants from getting in the food dishes. I dump the water and replace it daily, so on one of the dishes, I have been resting half of some broken hedge clippers on the outer part of the dish to weigh it down, but they still manage to run off with it.

 

[MiniPiemar]

I enjoy crafting a lot so my ideas might seem crazy.

See if you can find some bowls that have holes or handles on them. You can attach a cord of some sort to a sturdy item such as a fence or (if you have one) the railing beside your door.
I know that there are paracord bracelet sets that include buckles. Maybe that would work?

Or just tape it all down. With a ton of duct tape. Like, a ton.

 

[shadowsrescue]

One tip is to never leave food out over night. It brings in all the critters and once they get at taste of delicious cat food it is hard to get them to leave.

Try to feed on a schedule. Same time each day. I used to feed first thing in the morning and then again later afternoon/early evening. As soon as the cats were done eating, all traces of food were picked up. The raccoons I had eventually left.

Some people have luck feeding the cats up high. Raccoons can climb, but they cannot jump. If you google raccoon proof cat feeding ideas and look at images you might find some ideas.

Thank you for TNR'ing these kitties. I hope you can get the kittens done soon.

 

[catsknowme]

Raccoons are cute with those masks but are fierce, consume live prey in the most horrific manner (esp chickens & baby animals) and are so resilient that they remain relatively asymptomatic while passing along terrible diseases to cats and even to dogs (rabies, parvo).
I feed some of my ferals on an old card table in the yard. The raccoons seem to stay off of it.

 

[msaimee]

Did you say that the raccoons are coming out during the day and eating the food? Sometimes a mama will venture out during the daytime with her babies if she knows there is food available, but it's highly unusual for other raccoons to be coming out during the day. I have actually not heard of raccoons coming out during the day unless they are sick, or have become tame around humans, which is not a good thing. You might need to contact Animal Control to come and trap the raccoons.. Ask them to use bait in their traps that won't attract cats, such as marshmallows or peanut butter. Animal Control can trap and relocate healthy raccoons and destroy sick ones. You're going to have to nip this in the bud or it will only get worse. I was in a situation similar to yours about 4 years ago but raccoons didn't come out during the day so I left dry food out for my cats during the day, and gave them canned food at sunrise and before sunset, and sat beside them while they ate. A few of the raccoons were sick and my neighbor called Animal Control and got permission to shoot them. Long after we took all but one of the cats inside our homes the raccoons still came around. Raccoons have long memories, are persistent, and good at problem solving, so you may need professional help in dealing with this situation.

Also, I wanted to add that you should get the cats vaccinated for rabies when you TNR them.