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Movin' On Up
Jul. 13th, 2010 09:51 amOn Saturday, I released three adult raccoons that I had in the outdoor habitat. Dustin and I made the trek up to North Georgia and released them into a large forest where they will have plenty of places to play, eat, swim, and live in the wild. I'm so relieved I was able to release these guys - they had been kept as pets passed their sexual maturity, so they were tamed to human interaction. Over the course of the past few months, I've been hands-off with them and they've realized that I, nor any other human, is supposed to be their friend. They had reached all other goals in my release criteria, so they were ready to go! The release was a complete success!
This release also meant a big change for some of my raccoons at home - the juveniles got to move from the ferret cages on the porch to the BIG habitat outside! My outside habitat is 16' x 12' with an 8' tall ceiling, so it's big enough to house a lot of raccoons until they can be released. Even though I think the adult males would have gotten along with the juveniles, I didn't want such a wide age-gap between the raccoons, so I decided to wait until the males were released before putting the juveniles in the habitat. I did it just in time, too - things were getting a bit crowded in the ferret cage! Even though there was technically enough room for all the raccoons that were in there, they LOVE to pile on top of one another, which made them all look a bit squished.
After the outdoor habitat had been cleaned and sanitized, it was ready for the next batch of raccoons. I picked the oldest of my babies - 13 raccoons ranging from about 14 weeks to 8 weeks old - to put in the habitat. They are SO tiny in the big habitat, but I know they'll grow into it soon! This is the last "move" they'll make until their release. This is where they'll learn to fish, dig for grubs, and other important life skills before they get released into the wild.
Here are two videos of them exploring their new digs. :-)
This release also meant a big change for some of my raccoons at home - the juveniles got to move from the ferret cages on the porch to the BIG habitat outside! My outside habitat is 16' x 12' with an 8' tall ceiling, so it's big enough to house a lot of raccoons until they can be released. Even though I think the adult males would have gotten along with the juveniles, I didn't want such a wide age-gap between the raccoons, so I decided to wait until the males were released before putting the juveniles in the habitat. I did it just in time, too - things were getting a bit crowded in the ferret cage! Even though there was technically enough room for all the raccoons that were in there, they LOVE to pile on top of one another, which made them all look a bit squished.
After the outdoor habitat had been cleaned and sanitized, it was ready for the next batch of raccoons. I picked the oldest of my babies - 13 raccoons ranging from about 14 weeks to 8 weeks old - to put in the habitat. They are SO tiny in the big habitat, but I know they'll grow into it soon! This is the last "move" they'll make until their release. This is where they'll learn to fish, dig for grubs, and other important life skills before they get released into the wild.
Here are two videos of them exploring their new digs. :-)
