I would discourage you from keeping a raccoon as a pet, personally. We had one for many years. It came around as a baby and just wouldn't go away. He'd break into the house if we didn't let him in. And although he was familiar with the word "no" and knew not to purposely destroy our stuff, it was an aggrivating thing to have a 50 lbs raccoon wandering.
I've also worked with a wildlife rehabber who rehabilitated many.
They can't be kept in a cage, need a room to themselves, and the run of the house. They're destructive, take all disciplin as an attack and can cause SEVERE damage to your person without even meaning to. If it gets tired of your dog, or annoyed, he could land your dog at the emergency vet without ever having the intention of hurting him.
There is a wormer for Baylisascaris Procyonis, but it's expensive and has to be administered regularly, and only a vet can get ahold of it. This type of worm can be transmitted to people and your pets. It attacks the central nervous system, causint permanant damage, can cause blindness and even death in people and other pets.
They're also suseptable to distemper and must recieve shots for it. Distemper is airborn, so even a racoon kept indoors 24/7 is suseptable, as you never know where you might pick it up and carry it home.
Raccoons are omnivores. They have to be fed fresh fruits, vegetables, chicken, turkey and fish. Red meat is not good for raccoons. A high protein, low ash, poultry based dog foods can also be fed, I understand. And they're VERY messy eaters, but you've probably run into that already.
They can be litter trained, but once they are, whenever they're mad at you they'll express it by relieving themselves on something they know is yours. And during mating season they'll mark your WHOLE house and won't go back to being fully litter trained until after mating season.
Say goodbye to carpet and nice looking floors. They dig EVERYTHING. There's also no such thing as "out of reach" with a raccoon. As long as it isn't locked securly in a box, it's just waiting to be broken or stolen. Cupboards have to be locked, and not just "childproof locks", because they'll figure those out in a week or so.
A raccoon isn't a pet. It's a whole new way of life. If you can take all this into consideration and still *want* a raccoon living in your house for nearly a decade, because once you've kept it too long it'll NEVER make it in the wild and it's cruel to just get rid of it after a year or more of keeping it, then you are a better person than I.
I wish you the best of luck. Give him a scratch between the ears for me, because he really is a cute little one.
Please post in the pinned nomination thread, with a link to this one, so that Angel Lady will see it when she makes up the contest.
