Raccoons vs. Cats

[scott77777]

I heard some serious screeching/yowling tonight and went outside to find two raccoons on the rooftop of the abandoned building and one of our feral cats in a tree.

They were probably fighting, or simply facing off.

Since no one is going to do anything about the building, I trust that the family of raccoons co-existing with the cats will be a permanent occurance.

With (3) of our ferals out for TNR, and others out for adoption, is it possible that we don't have ENOUGH cats?

Has some power balance been tipped that the raccoons won't be deterred by the number of cats?

I have no idea how to prevent future altercations. They seem to both live in that same building, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is how some of our cats got their face wounds.

The cats seem to stick together when they're around. Will this be enough to keep the raccoons away from them?

 

[ldg]

Scott, I've never seen the raccoons interact with the cats, but we're in a very rural setting. The raccoons certainly were eating the cat food, but we got rid of the feeder altogether and put food out at sunrise and pick it up at sunset. As for sleeping/nesting - there just isn't any conflict here. Sorry I can't help with any thoughts on this!

 

[phendric726]

We recently had a discussion of this problem on the Indy Feral listserv. Most people there seem to think that cats and racoons can co-exist. Since the racoons are there for the food and shelter there are two options, either feed in the daylight and take up what food is left as darkness hits, or if you have a hard time atking the food away you might try to just put out enough food for both. I realize that this method may not get the results you wanted (no more racoons) but the advantage to this is that the racoons and cats can possibly co-exist without further altercations. Again if this is not possible I would suggest tryign to feed in a well lighted place. We have what we call the feral condo. It has fur seperat areas for sleeping, a common room for socializing, heated pads and a saftey heater that turns of when it get too hot or tipped, but most important we have three livestock lights on at all times. Not only does this deture the racoons and opposums from approching the "hut" but it also radiates heat for the kitties in the winter.