Help A Baby Raccoon

1. OBSERVE

Where did you find the baby?
Mother raccoons are very dedicated to their young, and although mom sometimes leaves her cubs alone for a short respite, or to find food, she will not leave them alone for long. If you see baby raccoons without mom, monitor the babies for a few hours, giving the mother a chance to retrieve them. Remember to keep all people and pets away from the area.

How long has the baby been alone?
If the baby raccoon has been seen alone for more than a few hours, s/he has most likely lost his/her mother, since mother raccoons closely supervise their young and do not let them out of their sight much.

Is the baby vocal or stressed?
Often when the mother has been trapped or killed, the hungry babies will start chittering and falling or wandering away from their tree dens after about three days, when they are hungry enough.

2. REUNITE

Is the mother around?
During spring, mother raccoons find safe protected places to give birth and raise their young. If babies become separated from their mother due to tree cutting or chimney/attic/crawlspace renovation or repairs, give the mother the opportunity to collect her babies. Mother raccoons have more than one den and if given the chance, she will retrieve her babies and move them to a safe location.

Eyes-open or mobile babies:
If the babies are wandering/mobile, place them in a pet carrier but don’t latch the door, simply wedge it closed with a stick at a 45-degree angle. When mom returns, she will knock over the stick and the door will spring open, allowing her to retrieve her babies. You can also place an upside-down laundry basket (with lattice sides), over the baby(s), so they do not wander off. Put a light weight (books or hand weight) on top of the laundry basket, so the baby is not able to nose under it.

Eyes-closed babies:
If the babies are immobile, place them in a shoebox or shallow cardboard box with a flannel shirt on the bottom. Do not cover them or the mother will not find them, and do not offer them any food or milk. Leave the babies exactly where they were found. If a tree den was cut down, place the babies on the tree stump. If the babies chitter, record them on your cell phone and place the phone near the cubs, playing it back continuously. Their recorded cries should attract the mother and help her locate her cubs.

Are the babies cold?
If it is cold outside, and the babies are naked (not fully furred) or slightly furred, they are likely to have trouble maintaining body heat. Mother coons will not retrieve cold or compromised babies. Place a warming device such as a chemical hand warmer (tucked inside a sock to prevent burning), inside the shallow box, or place a heating pad set to low UNDER the box (not IN the box, or the babies can get burned). An extension cord can be run out to the heating pad, as long as there is no rain in the forecast.

Keep watch for mom.
Monitor from a distance for a few hours. Ask around to see if anyone in the neighborhood trapped an adult raccoon or saw one hit by a car. If the baby(s) are not retrieved within a few hours they are probably orphaned. As an option, the baby(s) can be left out until well after dusk, which would be within the mother raccoon’s nocturnal activity period.

3. CALL

Call for help if:
Mom never returned
Contact a wildlife rehabilitator if a reunion was attempted, and the mother did not retrieve her baby(s) within a few hours after dusk.

Mom is Dead
If baby raccoons are seen around a dead mother, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

Sick, Cold or Injured
If the baby is sick, injured or cold, the mom will not come back to retrieve him/her and compromise the health/safety of the rest of her babies.

Has Parasites
If the baby is covered with fly eggs (yellow dots, “rice” or flakes) or a heavy parasite load (ticks, fleas), that indicates a baby who has not been tended to by the mother and needs help right away!

Signs of Dehydration:
Call for help if the eyes are sunken into the eye sockets, skin “tents” when pinched or the baby seems lethargic or exhausted.

Skinny or Constantly Vocalizing
If the baby has a scrawny appearance or is constantly vocalizing/crying, s/he may be orphaned and starving while looking for mom.

While you wait:
Place an upside-down laundry basket over the baby raccoons so they do not wander off, or put them in a container (cardboard box) with a flannel shirt on the bottom, and a screen on top for ventilation.

Stay Safe:
Keep all people and pets away until help arrives. Do not handle the baby raccoons with bare-hands. If the raccoons need to be moved into a container, use heavy gloves or an implement like a trowel. At all costs don’t risk being bitten. If the babies have eyes closed or are partially furred, put a warming device like chemical hand warmers (placed in a sock) inside the container, or a heating pad on low placed under the box to keep them warm until delivery to the wildlife rehabilitator.