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several months ago I got a call from a
good friend that a mama raccoon was
killed in his attic and he believed her
babies were still up there
after a day of crawling around in it she
insulation during a Texas heat spell we
estimated their location by zeroing in
on occasional soft whimpers after
tearing his ceiling apart with a crowbar
we were able to retrieve four
heart-melting
baby girl raccoons now what do you do
with four orphaned baby raccoon girls
with their eyes still closed you might
be able to drop them off at a local
wildlife rehabilitation center you can
raise them yourself or if you know a
redheaded supermodel with extensive
experience rehabilitating mammals you
can take them to her this was an easy
decision for me again it's been several
months and I'm curious to see if all the
babies are still alive if they are I'd
like to know how they were raised and
how they're doing now so let's go find
out what's up girl yeah I'm gonna see
those baby raccoons see how they're
doing let's do it Wow so these are the
little babies oh you got the camera okay
the old follow the pretty red head trick
never fails can I pet them like what
like if I reach with my hands they don't
they don't wanna bite that's why she's
called Bella yeah cause of the vampire
neck biting yeah they love to grab and
feel textures so that's like their
favorite thing is the just feeling new
stuff can I just grab this one and pick
it up yeah here just pick her up like
and like that they love their belly rub
oh this is so awesome
this is really overwhelmingly awesome
and you guys we're gonna be left for
dead you know they don't have you know
mama if you do that I guess your mama I
think this is the most adorable thing
I've ever seen in my life we first
brought me the Coons they were I think
they were probably a week old their eyes
weren't open and they weren't mobile at
all yet and the first thing you want to
do is make sure that they have had food
recently and you just can mix up your
formula your own or you can get some
kitten replacer milk either one of those
work
I have a recipe for a formula that I use
personally condensed milk and some whole
milk and two egg yolks and a teaspoon of
Cairo syrup tickles ooh I usually start
with a syringe because these guys are
way too small to attempt with the bottle
and I force-feed them for the first
couple days basically you like and hold
them up upright unlike a human baby and
you squirt it into the corner of their
mouth and you just want to take a little
bit of the formula and just a little
dropper to you and see if they're
responsive and some of them will just
immediately kind of realize that it's
milk and start lapping and others won't
respond at all so you gotta just keep
trying oh not the cowboy bird what you
did to my boot and always come back
around and make sure that everybody's
eaten a little bit that you've actually
given them some kind of fluid after you
get that first round going
you should probably feed them in every
two or three hours after that and again
just a little bit at a time usually like
I said within a couple days they're
starting to respond and they they
realize that that's their source of food
once they start responding you can feed
them until their bellies plump out but
at that point stop because they'll just
be too full and those these slugs later
this is the only way to every two hours
I have fed them and uh for the first
four weeks every night I woke up late
midnight - am 4 a.m. feeding them
because their mothers feed them
constantly you know they can just go
nurse at any point when they're probably
up to about maybe eight weeks of age
they're still with their mother nursing
in a in a den so they haven't even
started exploring or adventuring so all
they do is just eat so basically you
have to kind of recreate that situation
every day every night so there's a pet
nursery that she can get that has a
really small nipple on it and you can
start them off with that after you go
from the syringe and they'll actually
just latch onto that as if it's their
their mother so they'll use that for
maybe three to four weeks and you can
start increasing the size of the nipple
and the bottle as they start eating more
formula so I eventually switched to a
human sized nipple and then they just
they go crazy they hold the bottle
themselves they just basically take care
of themselves at that point I feed the
formula for about three or four weeks
and then I start gradually mixing in
rice cereal into that formula and
getting a little thicker and then
they're usually responsive to the
yogurts and Apple sauces but three
months in they were still eating a rice
cereal milk and I'd mix up like a an
oatmeal formula basically in one Bowl
and then another bullet have fruit and
you start offering them both and
eventually they just kind of wean
themselves off of the actual formula so
now they're just solely on on solid
foods and they love everything on it
through the day I grew up with a ton of
wild animals and my mom rehabilitated
animals we had 26 acres with nothing but
tigers lions bears everything you can
imagine including raccoons and that's
the only reason that I'm considering
keeping these guys but I would say just
an average person it's gonna be very
difficult you have to have a facility
you have to go to a cage that is just
about impossible to escape out of and
it's just it's a lot of work and I mean
they can if you don't know what you're
doing they can turn on you they can be
the are aggressive they are wild animals
gone done
oh and you need to be prepared for them
to be distant from you at some point
they will start to mature and not be as
bonded with you so you kinda have to
just let them do that so you know if you
see them being aloof and alone and
they're caged then you know you might
want to like just let them be alone and
not really interact with them too much
for that day you just got to watch their
moods and their personal he's kind of
almost like humans you know you just got
to gauge them I might have to leave my
boots here form as a goodbye present
you guys want my boots as a present
that's your going-away present guys if
somebody is gonna keep a then and
the best thing to do is spend as much
time with it as possible and it's the
opposite if you want to release them the
best thing to do would be to try to get
a rehab license or a certificate and
then that way you can learn and educate
yourself a little bit about the animals
and follow the state guidelines as to
what you should do to keep that animal
if you do have to find some abandoned
babies you know check for a day or two
to make sure that the mom isn't actually
coming back because they will come back
and you just because you don't see her
doesn't mean that she's not there those
are the most dangerous Coons that you
can come across as one with babies stay
away don't go near her so a lot of
people will rescue Coons thinking that
they're here abandoned and really long
just out hunting but if you're messing
with those Coons and that mom comes up
to you
you better run cuz they're alright Hank
is supposed to put all of this
information into the description below
so hopefully you'll have the recipe and
any additional info that you might need
if you do decide to rescue some Coons
alright guys so you're thinking about
raising raccoons you might want to
consider what you're getting yourself
into
if you've ever raised them before leave
some comments in our comment Department
and tell us your horror stories thanks
for watching friends
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