Heidi Chronicles: Long Live The Queen!

Terese,

I meant to suggest this yesterday when you mentioned how much your raccoon is eating. It seems quite likely that you now have multiple visitors including possibly one that is not a raccoons, an opossum maybe. My guess is that one or more other creatures found you, perhaps even the end of last year, and added your place to their route(s) also.

Like me, you probably hoped to just feed the one raccoon indefinitely w/o attracting any other raccoons or creatures. As I learned, that isn't usually the way nature works. There is never just one hungry critter out there, and sooner or later, others are sure to learn about the windfall this one has found.

My guess is that Cleo (I'll call the little one that to save keystrokes) is coming around and eating her favorites 1st followed by others later in the night. That's just my guess, of course, but it fits some things I noticed early on before I started seeing the opossums and such, things I also 'see' in your story, things like Cleo eating such a huge amount the one night.

Also, if you are concerned that the raccoon not become dependent on you as a food source, it's a good idea to skip a night occasionally even when you are there. I do that here, too, especially on nights when I don't feel like going out for some reason (figuring that way I kill 2 birds with the one stone). Even if she doesn't find food one night, she will still come back the next night to check for food. Skipping the occasional night forces her to forage for food every now and then but only for the one night. It also makes it less likely, according to some 'experts', that they will 'come looking for you' possibly damaging the house in your absence during times when you can't be there to feed them for some reason. From my experience, I don't see any indication that they are inclined to try to break in to find me (or food) regardless. Still, skipping the occasional night doesn't seem like a bad idea.

I don't think you have to worry too much about where/how you raccoon will eat in winter. You mention that you are more concerned because it is cold there. From what I've read, in very cold areas such as the one you describe raccoons semi-hibernate, using torpor as a means to put themselves into a sort of suspended animation to lower their metabolic rate for periods of time thereby minimizing their need for food. They apparently do this especially when the world is covered in snow.

It means they don't have to dig through snow to look for [mostly non-existent] food. It also means they don't have to try to dig their way out if they awake to find that the mouth of their den is covered with snow. In winter their activity levels are drastically reduced (plus they aren't gestating or nursing) and thus their food needs are minimal. Supposedly, the colder the region, the less food they need (due to this hibernation of sorts). Even in my area, the raccoons need so little food in winter that, although they still come by my house while out foraging, they stop bothering to try to link their schedules up with mine to get food. That's pretty huge if you think about it. Even when they know I'm going to be there with food, in winter they stop bothering to come at the right time and wait for me. They just are not that hungry in winter and are able to find enough food on their own such that it's no longer worth it for them to wait around for me - seems distaste for sitting around and waiting crosses species boundaries.

As an interesting side note, bears are a distant relative of the raccoon, distant but closer than other species. Upon 1st learning this, I had great difficulty with the idea mostly because I was comparing grizzlies w/raccoons and noting the obvious differences. If you look at the red panda, however, the two species seem much less different. Once I accepted the bear connection, I began to see many similarities: the dexterity of the hands, for instance.

As to food choices, while I've found that their are individual differences just like with humans, there are also some fairly universal preferences. I've found that while raccoons will eat apples if they are hungry enough, apples are generally pretty low on their list of 'likes'. Apples being so readily available and inexpensive year round, I experimented a lot with them the 1st year or so but no longer offer them - unless I'm just trying to get rid of an apple and put it out there for whoever wants it.

Your observation that offering chicken decreases the likelihood that she will steal BOSS makes sense to me also (based on my observations of which food are favored by raccoons). However, as they also like variety, I suspect that in time this 'fix' may breakdown. If given chicken more or less daily, she will likely start to covet the seeds again. Do you offer her any dry dog or cat food?

Oops. Now that I've written you an epic, I recall that you have limited reading time. Sorry. Maybe you could work it like a novel, reading a few paragraphs a day? ;-)

Argh!!!

Every hour or so the news channel repeats a story about some people being attacked by a rabid fox. They even have some video footage from a home-owner's security camera. Each time they run this they end with a spiel about how the one man will now have to undergo very painful rabies shots! Argh!

I've been on a one-woman crusade to try to teach the world that rabies shots are no longer painful. I kid you not, it's just like getting a flu shot except that you have to get one every few weeks until you have taken all 6 or so of them. They are not painful!

Apparently in the distant past, rabies shots were quite painful and now everyone has been taught to equate rabies shots and extreme pain. Today, however, the shots have been greatly improved such that they are a non-event. The only 'pain' for me was the aggravation of making some 5 or 6 trips to the Dr's office, but even that wasn't really so bad. Since the Dr's assistant was able to give me the shots, they took me straight in when I arrived, gave me the shot, and sent me on my way. It was just short of drive-thru service.

I really think it would be a great benefit to animals like raccoons if people didn't fear those shots so much - and thus think it best to destroy the animals to 'save' themselves. Therefore, I'm trying to spread the word that the shots don't hurt. It pains me every time I hear the old disinformation passed on, so you can imagine how I cringe each time I hear the news channel repeat this erroneous information to their millions of listeners. Scream!

It may not change anything, but I sent the news channel an email to tell them that rabies shots are no longer painful. I explained that I've had the shots and that I'm trying to dispel the myth that they are so painful. I directed the email specifically to the group who do the morning show. It was on the 2hr morning show that I 1st heard them give out the misinformation. Also, that group strikes me as more likely to read the email and even possibly to correct the error on a subsequent show as I have heard them do this before.

Either way, regardless of what they do with the email, I feel better now that I have sent it. I feel better because instead of just being annoyed, I took action to try to educate them and correct the misinformation. I did my part.

While we are on the subject of shots...

I am often surprised at how many otherwise tough people are frightened by shots - any kind of shot. For what it's worth and in case it might help even one person out there, I wish to tell you why shots (and needles) are a total non-event to me.

First, let me say that I am a wimp. I'm afraid of most scary things and am especially 'allergic' to pain of any kind. As a child I cried, screamed, whaled every time I got a shot. To make matters worse, when it comes to drawing blood, I'm what they call a 'hard stick'. I've had them stick me over and over like a pin cushion trying to find a vein. As a child this resulted in screaming that could be heard well across the hospital.

When I was in my early 20's, we owned horses. We lived in a rural area. On occasion, when directed by the vet, my husband gave the horses shots. He had learned to do this growing up and did it with ease. One day I was out there with him as he was giving shots. That particular day was a total eye-opener to me. It's effect on the rest of my life was to be profound.

Having worked with horses all my life, I knew all to well that when hurt a horse would react. All creatures do really. There is no getting around this. If you hurt an animal (humans included) it will react and the reaction will generally be relative to the degree of pain inflicted. Horses, being so large and strong and being prey animals will react quite noticeably to anything that causes them pain. At a minimum, they are going to try to get away and will likely rear if they can't get away from a frontal assault.

So I watched as my DH gave the horses shots. In case you have never seen a horse needle, let me tell you that it is HUGE. I could not believe he was going to stick that quill pen looking thing in the horse. Completely unlike the threadlike needles used for humans, the needle used for the horse was so large in diameter that it really reminded me of photos of those old quill pens used hundreds of years ago. I could see the hole in the center quite easily (whereas I can't see this in human type needles). I kid you not, the sheer size of that thing was mind-blowing.

DH slapped the shoulder muscle a few times to numb it a bit to touch. Then he quite unceremoniously stabbed the needle right into the horses shoulder. I expected to see a fight especially from the one horse, a very spirited, young, male. I was amazed, however, when the horse stood perfectly still, all 4 feet firmly planted on the ground, the only movement a slight ripple of his skin. Horses, for those less familiar with the species, have the ability to move a section of their skin, to sort of wiggle it independent of the surrounding skin. This is something they do to get various biting flies off of them. When bitten by a mosquito, horse fly, etc, a horse will sort of jiggle the section of skin where the fly is located. This movement usually scares the insect causing it to fly away. This is how the horse reacted when stabbed by that huge needle.

The effect of seeing this high-strung, 1500lb animal's reaction to being stabbed by that huge needle had the most profound effect on me. There was no getting around the implications of what I had witnessed. The horse had reacted to the needle exactly as if he had been bitten by a mosquito or horse fly - exactly. There was no way around this. To the horse, there was no difference between the sensation of being bitten by a mosquito and that of being stabbed by the huge needle. It actually made sense when I thought about it. The mosquito does, after all, stick a probe into your skin to remove the blood. That probe is, essentially, the same as a hypodermic needle.

While almost no one is terrified of being bitten by a mosquito, it's amazing how a small hypodermic needle will strike fear into the hearts of many adults. People may be concerned, and rightfully so, about the possibility of disease transmission by mosquitoes, but mosquitoes almost never strike fear into the hearts of humans the way needles do.

The really profound realization of that day was that, unlike humans receiving shots, the horse did not know my DH was going to stick a needle in him. That was the key to the whole thing. The horse did not know he was getting a shot. This was a crucial piece of information. To the horse, the shot was a total non-event while to many humans it's a painful experience. The only difference (other than the fact that the needle used for the horse was many times larger than that used for humans) between horses for whom a shot is like any other insect bite and humans for whom it is often a very painful and stressful event is in the brain!

The human knows he or she is going to get a shot. The mind thinks about how 'big' and scary that needle looks and how it will surely hurt. The idea of having that thing stuck in ones arm is 'eeeewwww'. It evokes some kind of instinctive fear. The mind, believing - no, knowing - this will surely hurt, creates the pain, or rather, interprets the sensations that follow in view of this idea that a foreign object is being inserted into the skin and this in going to be painful. Thus, the brain interprets what it expects - PAIN! The brain of the horse, on the other hand, having no knowledge of the existence of the needle or of the fact that he's about to get a shot, interprets the sensation that follows w/o prejudice and decides it's another horsefly.

Now, if you really think about this logically, the horse is the one who is 'right' here. Only the horse is rendering a truthful reaction that is untainted by any prejudice about what he believes is about to happen to him, and the horse says, "It doesn't hurt". That is what I 'heard' from every horse we owned and every shot they were given. Not one horse EVER said it was painful. They all agreed that it was a total non-event.

Since that day, I have never been concerned about needles since. I've had them stick larger needles required due to the thickness of cortisone into my knees, through my ankles, and through the sides and bottom of my heal. The Dr warned me it would hurt a lot. It didn't. There was a nominal pinch, but it didn't rise to the level of a single cramp (for a reference with which most of us ladies can identify). While trying to draw blood, I've had several different people stick me up and down both arms: sticking my upper arm, inner elbow, lower arm, and the back of my hand (on both arms) before finally bringing the doctor in to draw blood from my wrist. It gets annoying after a while (as does numerous mosquito bites), but it doesn't hurt.

If you are one of those people who fear shots, I urge you to think about the fact that the horse tells us it doesn't really hurt. The horse tells us that any pain we experience is coming from our own mind's interpretation of events, converting a relatively nominal prick into a sensation of pain because it is what we expect. The horse tells us the actual sensation of the needle is no different from that of a mosquito bite.

>>Oops. Now that I've written you an epic, I recall that you have limited reading time. Sorry. Maybe you could work it like a novel, reading a few paragraphs a day? ;-)

ROFL -- I did take a break... refilled the hummer feeder and sat outside for a bit. the weather is really nice right now.. low 70's light breeze. the hummer didn't come back while i was there. but boy was he pretty... nice emerald green with the ruby throat.

anyhooo... one night she did get a combo of cat and dog food. that was the night when about a quarter cup was left in the dish.. and i dont think the squirrel feeder was touched.... they make quite the mess with the shells -- so I always know when they had their fill of seeds.

OH and actually -- i'm up here by myself for a few weeks... i got hired for the office, so i had to come up, and DH and furkids stayed home. but -- so i have more time to read as i dont have to fight DH for the laptop.

Terese,

Oh, good. Sounds like you can enjoy some "me" time for a little while w/o any demands on your time from family. But maybe from work? In the long run, I'm sure you would miss them, but for a short vacation, it sounds nice.

Sounds so nice there - I'm on the way! It's HOT here already, so hot that Cocoa who is < 1yr old and still has tons of play in him, refused to go out on the lawn to chase the fishy. He would lie around on the walkway and bat at it when it came past him, but that was the limit of his willingness to play. When it's really hot like this during the day, he doesn't even want to be cuddled too much for obvious reasons. He is very clear about this. He wants to lie beside me and pant - and not be touched. His hair is still shedding by the handfuls, BTW. I can't stay out there very long either. In just the few minutes I was out there with him, I have sweat running through my hair and down the edges of my face. yuck.

I love hummingbirds. Sounds so restful there. Enjoy.

I think it's just in their DNA for the raccoons to forage, eating a little of this and a little of that for variety - a way to increase the likelihood of getting all of the vitamins and minerals they need. Although my raccoons definitely like BOSS, the indication is that they probably prefer the cat food if they can only have one thing. If I give them unlimited cat food, some of them will still raid the feeders (when I had the feeders up), but if I put BOSS on the plate with the cat food, there is no indication that they actually favor the seeds. I hope that makes sense. They just seem to be genetically programmed to keep foraging a bit, even when they are basically full.

Humans are the same way really. Even when you are full of finger sandwiches and potato salad, you might be willing to eat a few chips or some cake. It's not an indication of which you prefer.

I must reiterate that anytime I mention cat/dog food with respect to raccoons, I'm talking about DRY cat/dog food. Contrary to what we normally see with cats and dogs, from my experience raccoons prefer DRY cat/dog food to the wet/canned varieties. I don't offer canned pet food to them anymore, but when I did they showed little to no interest in it. This was back when they were extremely spoiled. I don't doubt that raccoons will eat canned pet food if they are hungry enough, but (from my experience) they don't seem to prefer it. Back then I bought Heidi a few small cans of the best and priciest cat food I could find. She wouldn't have anything to do with it at all. The others sampled it a bit. None showed great interest.

we only use Kibble for Pets. Charlie gets the rare 'treat' of a small can of "wet" food.. i can divide it into 4 small servings for him... just a treat. at 48cents a can.. that's not to bad.

There are 'coon' prints on my back porch -- though they may have been there a while -- not sure.
We'vw got that nasty green dust pollen that covers everything, and i can see the lil paw prints in the dust... they go under the table and chairs on the back covered porch where i like to sit... the trash can is back there too.

the very first time i knew i had a coon visit.. that was 2 summers ago... there was an old watermelon rind in there. A few days later, i bought another and cut up some cubes and put them out at night... they never got eaten.

but just for the reason they know where the trash bin is... i never leave 'food' out there... say a chx carcass or other food that would attract them... i'll always wait a day or walk it down to the dumpsters.

I got a little treat for you (plural) today. I will try to get it ready by tomorrow - and change all of the threads.

Rabies shots use to be given intra-abdominally and were quite painful. These days, as you said, Cheryl, they are "normal" shots and not the least bit painful. When you're getting the post-exposure series (after being bitten), however, the first shot is given at the site of the wound; that can be a bit ouchy, primarily because of the wound rather than the shot. Those news stories infuriate me also; they could at least give current and accurate information!

Hi Ruth,

I was actually given 2 shots the 1st day, 1 'regular' rabies shot in the arm and a 2nd shot at the wound site. The Dr did tell me that, of the 2 shots given ASAP after exposure, the one which is given at the exposure site may be painful depending on the location of the bite/scratch and how painful/swollen the area around the wound is. In my email to the news channel, I even acknowledged this; however, even that fact doesn't get them off the hook. In the spot they aired about the fox bite victim, they indicated that the victim had already received the initial shots, some 10 extremely painful shots per the story, and now had to undergo "weeks of additional and extremely painful rabies shots". I didn't entirely understand the 10 initial shots but figured the victim must have been given that "2nd shot" at some 9 different bite or scratch locations. Is the 2nd of the two initial shots actually given at every wound site when there are multiple wounds?

Because of what the Dr had told me, I didn't get upset with the news channel for stating that the 10 initial shots received by the victim had been painful (since I allowed for the likelihood that the initial wound areas probably were inflamed making it painful to receive shots around them). It was the statement that the victim would now have to undergo weeks of additional and extremely painful shots that angered me. That last statement implies that the 'regular' rabies shots are extremely painful (thus continuing the myth that this is still true today).

Since news channels are challenged to find enough 'exciting' news to fill most 24hr periods, I suspect they like to hint at the 'horrors' of rabies shots just to evoke emotion in the mind of the viewer and expand the impact of the news segment. I, on the other hand, think it's a disservice to all involved (animals and humans alike) to continue the myth that today's rabies shots are [still] extremely painful.

I absolutely agree with you that they owe it to the viewer to get their facts straight. It would only have taken a moment to check on what rabies shots are like today.

Ok, at long last I've finally created a new thread. It goes w/o saying that this one has long since gotten way too long. Here then is our new thread:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1099471/

As promised (last night), I have a small (very small) treat for you, so please do come to the new thread to see what it is. I hope to get that treat rolled out very soon.
;-)