Raccoons?

Evereigh Mann

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Hello--

I'm still unsure on this one.

A friend of mine who lives on a large farm some 35 miles inland advises his herd of @50 RF and YF adult tortoises are never preyed upon by raccoons. Further, I notice that the Kamp Kenan guy leaves his various species of adult tortoises in open enclosures and I have never heard him reference raccoon attacks in his videos even once.

We have 4 juvenile RFs that are 3-4 years old and about 7" long...we started with 5, but when these were 6 months old, a raccoon climbed the stairs up to our front porch one night, knocked the tupperware container with lid off the table, and got to one of our poor little RFs before we could get out there.

For a few years now I have housed the remaining 4 RFs outside in a 10' x 5' wooden enclosure with raccoon-proof construction wire mesh covering the top. There is a small hidey area within it that's heated for the winter nights when the temps here dip down into the 50s (island off the Gulf Coast of Florida).

I have the perfect area along one of the side yards that's completely surrounded by raised beds, railroad ties, and thick clumps of exotic bamboo. When the RFs reach maturity I would love to set them in this area, but naturally I don't want to risk a raccoon attack. Is this in fact a non-issue when the RFs reach maturity? Why doesn't the Kamp Kenan guy seem to have raccoon issues?

Thanks in advance!
 

ZEROPILOT

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Hello--

I'm still unsure on this one.

A friend of mine who lives on a large farm some 35 miles inland advises his herd of @50 RF and YF adult tortoises are never preyed upon by raccoons. Further, I notice that the Kamp Kenan guy leaves his various species of adult tortoises in open enclosures and I have never heard him reference raccoon attacks in his videos even once.

We have 4 juvenile RFs that are 3-4 years old and about 7" long...we started with 5, but when these were 6 months old, a raccoon climbed the stairs up to our front porch one night, knocked the tupperware container with lid off the table, and got to one of our poor little RFs before we could get out there.

For a few years now I have housed the remaining 4 RFs outside in a 10' x 5' wooden enclosure with raccoon-proof construction wire mesh covering the top. There is a small hidey area within it that's heated for the winter nights when the temps here dip down into the 50s (island off the Gulf Coast of Florida).

I have the perfect area along one of the side yards that's completely surrounded by raised beds, railroad ties, and thick clumps of exotic bamboo. When the RFs reach maturity I would love to set them in this area, but naturally I don't want to risk a raccoon attack. Is this in fact a non-issue when the RFs reach maturity? Why doesn't the Kamp Kenan guy seem to have raccoon issues?

Thanks in advance!
As another south Floridian, I can assure you that raccoons CAN be an issue. A hungry one can and will carry away a smallish tortoise.
Camp Kenan doesn't mention a lot of things. Those videos are strictly for entertainment.
I caught and killed my nuisance raccoons. I'm not happy about that. But that's what it came down to with my current house and in the past.
I had raccoons get into my attic at my previous residence and tear up insulation, drywall, plywood and part of the roof.
Here, I had raccoons trying to catch fish from my fish ponds and terrorizing my tiny dog.
They live in social groups and each group has a territory. Trapping and moving them far away might work. I suppose a large dog would work. But I ended up eradicating them. (I would otherwise never consider harming any animal.)
Now, after 12 more years, I've seen not even one.
Just rats and possums. And they aren't as much of a danger.
 

Evereigh Mann

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Hello Z-Pi:

Insofar as raccoons are pretty much everywhere, my area is particularly inundated with them. Killing off EVERY raccoon in the area would be simply impossible.

So the $64,000 question: Does a full-grown adult RF qualify as a "smallish tortoise"...?
 

method89

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Yard sentinel is a great product for keeping critters away. It's available on Amazon. I don't use it for my tortoise just yet ( he's tiny and not outside yet) but I use it for my garbage area. I was constantly get my garbage torn up before I installed it. Not once has that happened since it's been there. I got the idea from Chris Leone, who uses them to guard all his tortoises and turtles.
 

wellington

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The smartest thing to do is lock tortoises up every night in a secure coon safe enclosure. Many of us, even those with lots of tortoises do this. Tortoises are vulnerable specially at night. Coons hunt at night. Even a large tortoise can get badly chewed on even if not carried away by a hungry coon.
 

ZEROPILOT

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The smartest thing to do is lock tortoises up every night in a secure coon safe enclosure. Many of us, even those with lots of tortoises do this. Tortoises are vulnerable specially at night. Coons hunt at night. Even a large tortoise can get badly chewed on even if not carried away by a hungry coon.
I agree.
A hungry raccoon is both dangerous and resourceful.
 

Tom

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Raccoons are usually only a threat at night. There are exceptions, but in most cases, you don't have to be concerned in the day time. Make a large, insulated, heated night box, and lock up your tortoises every night. This will also keep them at the correct temps when those winter nights dip into cooler temps. Then every morning, open the door and they can come out when they are ready.

I agree that Kenan videos are not a good source of tortoise care info. He's not a bad guy, and his videos are of a high production quality as far as editing, sound and video quality, but the content is lacking and in many cases sets a bad example.
 

Yvonne G

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I lost several box turtles to a raccoon over several nights before I finally was able to trap her. . . and box turtles hide at night. She was able to find them, dig them up and kill them.
 

Loohan

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Even if a raccoon can't carry away a tort, it might cause considerable cosmetic damage or worse. I have helped a couple boxies across the road who had extensive grooves cut into the carapace by somebody's teeth. Apparently they might chew quite a while before they give up.

If someone has social groups of raccoons, i would suspect they are not surviving by feeding off the wilderness but rather people's orchards, gardens, pet food, pets, chickens, garbage...
My understanding is that a natural forest will usually not support many coons per square mile.

I have read that letting them go in a more remote area means they will just pressure existing predators' territories and likely starve.
 

TurtleBug

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Further, I notice that the Kamp Kenan guy leaves his various species of adult tortoises in open enclosures and I have never heard him reference raccoon attacks in his videos even once. ... When the RFs reach maturity I would love to set them in this area, but naturally I don't want to risk a raccoon. Why doesn't the Kamp Kenan guy seem to have raccoon issues?

He has an electric fence around the whole property. One video showed it to be three levels of wire.
 

PJay

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He has an electric fence around the whole property. One video showed it to be three levels of wire.
That's right, Kenen has three powerful electric wires running around the entire perimeter of his compound. Powerful enough that it destroys any vegetation that grows and touches it. He said he touched it once by accident and it took several minutes to recover from the jolt. Chris Leone also uses electric wires around turtle enclosures in addition to Sentinel and his dog who owns the turtles. :) Raccons are intelligent and persistent hunters. A hungry one can cause terrible damage to a turtle yard in one night. In my neighborhood I've seen them in packs of as many as 8. I assume that is an adult female with her maturing young. As said before they are most likely to kill small turtles but could also damage larger animals with chewing, scratching etc. I would use a complimentary combination of deterents: electric wires, Sentinel, motion detecting lights, wire mesh, locking hide boxes, etc.
 

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