Attics are one of the raccoon’s favourite spots to build a den. They’re warm, dry and provide plenty of protection. If you hear a scratching around above your ceiling and can sometimes hear a high-pitched crying, you might be dealing with a nursery of baby raccoons. Here’s what you need to know about what baby raccoons look and sound like.
Baby raccoons are called kits. When a mother raccoon gives birth, there are usually three or four kits in her litter.
When kits are born, they are very dependent on their mother for food and protection. This explains why attics are such a popular spot for raccoons to build their homes: attics provide lots of protection from the weather and predators.
Kits are quite small – typically just a few inches long in the body. Their eyes are closed, their fur is very short and the exposed skin on their feet and tails is usually soft and pink.
The mother leaves the kits in the den to go scavenge for food and water. She returns to the den to feed the kits.
As the kits get older their eyes will open and they’ll get strong enough to stand up and begin walking. Their fur will grow and they’ll start developing some of the telltale signs of a raccoon: the dark circles around the eyes and the dark stripes around the tail. Eventually, the kits will get big and strong enough to leave the den with the mother and she’ll teach them how to hunt for their own food and water.
Here are what baby raccoons look and sounds like. The first video shows what baby raccoons look and sound like when they’re just a few days old, and the second video shows them when they’re a little older.
When we remove raccoons, we always take great care to keep the mother and her kits together. Young kits rely on their mother’s milk, so they’ll probably die if they’re separated from the mother.
We’re extremely serious about humane wildlife removal – just because a raccoon has built a den in your attic doesn’t mean they should die!
We typically remove the babies and carefully put them in a protective box with some insulation or some crumpled up newspaper. If the mother isn’t in the vicinity, we’ll seal the entry point and put the box of kits near where the entry point is. When the mother returns, she’ll relocate her kits to somewhere safe.
If we catch the mother in a cage we’ll take the cage and the box of kits to a nature area away from the home, place them both on the ground and then open the cage. The mother will cautiously emerge from the cage and then collect her kits, taking them somewhere safe and setting up a new home … not in your attic!
If you hear scratching or crying in your attic, you might have some baby raccoons up there. Mother raccoons can get quite upset and aggressive if you try and remove her babies when she’s around, so it’s usually a good idea to leave raccoon removal to the professionals. We do it humanely, at a great price and we guarantee our work.
Trust the experts at Pest Protection Plus for all your pest control and wildlife removal needs, and always remember …
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