George was bo rn
June 26, 2011. I bought him July 13, 2011.
This is the first time I bought an animal with their
eyes closed. With the help of some of
the members from
Sybils Message Board, I did fine with him.
If you are not familiar with
bottle feeding an animal, I do not recommend getting
a raccoon at this
age.
At that age, George slept and ate. When raccoons are
that young, they need special care. He was fed KMR
kitten formula. I would mix a little syrup or honey
in his milk. Raccoons have a sweet tooth. I didn't
mix syrup or honey in his formula for several weeks.
They must be stimulated to defecate and urinate (I
stimulate George prior to eating).
George was constipated a few times. Mixing Karo
syrup in his formula helped.
At that age, it is obvious this is too young to
litter train. I used those blue towels on a roll.
(I buy then in bulk at sams club) When I fed or held
him, I would keep one wrapped on his bottom, so, if
he did defecate or urinate, it would go on the towel
and not on me. At that age, I kept him in a
cat carrier and would keep a couple blue towel on
top of his blanket. George also had a stuffed animal
in his carrier.
After his eyes opened, (at age 2-1/2 weeks of age) I
kept a blue towel near the door of the cat carrier.
He did seem to understand that is where he does his
business. When he was big enough and more stable on
his feet, I put him in a large dog cage. I put
a litter pan in there, along with a blue towel.
Eventually, I was able to eliminate the blue towel.
 I have two female coonhounds, that absolutely love
George. They helped me take care of him.
They clean George and protect him. They still
are protective of him. George naps with my coonhounds.
It is really cute to see how much George loves them.
Now that George is older my coonhounds play with
him. Sometimes, George play bites and gets a little
rough, but, my dogs do correct him. So my dogs
are a big help raising George.
Overall, George is pretty good for a raccoon.
He plays all day long without getting into much
trouble.
He has a lot of toys and the dogs to keep him busy.
It is strange that he is awake from early morning to
evening. He sleeps through the night. He loves
marbles to play with, sometimes he will roll them
around for hours. He seems to know not to put
them in his mouth, he uses his little hands to roll
them.
For more information on raccoons, please join my
message board. There is a lot of good information
there and you can post if you have any questions.
http://sybilsden.com/bb/ (scroll
down to "Little Critters") |
