Hi Pam
You probably have a neighbor or two who are feeding the raccoons. I used to work with a guy who bought dog food at Cost co for the raccoons and opossums and all of their offspring in his area. His cats never went outside. Raccoons will mess with cats I'm not sure about dogs. I would not leave ANY dog or cat food outside. I used to have an outdoor kitty and the raccoons would come up to the porch and see if there was anything left over. I think it was the raccoons that finally did him in. Bottom line, there are people who will trap them when they become a nuisance but it is not cheap.

Racoons can be aggressive and vicious. We have a couple that live in the neighborhood (close-in suburbs). They rummage through my compost bucket and bins. I have heard that they will kill bunnies and cats. Some cats think they can pick a fight with a coon, but coons are usually bigger and will usually win.

I would make sure the cats are inside at night.

What are the bunny condos made of? I would imagine a racoon can rip through chicken wire. Stronger fencing material might be a good investment.

Pam, with your menagerie I would not want a Raccoon around, they can get the best of just about any domestic animal. I don't want to frighten you but most wild animals are normally shy of people, if an individual isn't, there may be something wrong, perhaps rabies or some other disorder. Also any droppings should be carefully disposed of, make sure your animals dont get into it. And your cats should always be inside to minimize predation on other less threatening native birds and critters, the cats will live much longet too...get some screens :-)

Racoons are primarily looking for food. That could be dog food, cat food, or what ever scrap you put in the compost. it is also, as the last couple people said, what ever any neighbor puts in the yard. I never put ANY food scraps out or in the compost because of this. My cat is an in door cat. I live by a wet land, and there are tons of Racoons in the area, as well, many of my neighbors feed the little homeless cats that live in our area. I call them the garden cats. I think raccoons dont come in my yard,which has become sort of a sanctuary for the little kitties, because its a hassle to get there. Chain link covered with "slippery" split bamboo prrivacy screen.I have tried to climb over this, when I have accidently locked my keys in side and its miserable. as well, I have dogs that sleep indoors, but patrol around at odd times and scent mark thier territory, I think all of this leaves less than a welcome mat out for a critter who would rather go to the easiest food source. I think they have learned to be warry of humans, because some folks are really mean to them. they can also be pretty aggressive, and will tike out anything that gets threatening with them. left alone they dont attack humans normaly. what I heard once, that you would have to confirm from some one in the vegitable gardening forum, or the midwest forum, was that they ran a string of electric fence wire around the perimiter of the corn patch, sort of low. (a few inches off the ground?) I thought the person was pulling my leg, but have heard other folks confirm this. I dont know if you would feel comfortable doing this around the top part of your fence where they are coming over, but If it were me Id look at making the exit /entry points less acomadating. I dont know how exactly electric fence wire works, but its not the whole thing, just one small wire at the top. its a tiny amount of charge, wont hurt a human or dog that bumps it unexpectedly. by they way, on Jones Island in the SanJuans, I have seen the results of racoons coming down on the dock and ripping the screen window covers off the cabin cruisers tied up there, so Id really reinforce the bunny world. Im not saying this stuff because I disslike racoons, I love them, but Id rather they not come into my garden. And so far they dont. I dont have window screens or any of that either, Ive allways used the preimiter as the main deterant, (to any thing/one) hope you have good luck.

Addendum to racoon post, I do have screens on the front and back doors,(I live in a TINY cottage) but mostly I leave the windows cracked smaller than the hight of my precious kitties flatest part of his skull. If it gets so hot that I want to open everything up I put the cat into a room with the door closed for a couple hours till its done. If you are unsure whether its "fair " or not to keep your cat in, talk to your vet. There are so many kitty diseases/cars/preditors that is is pretty unrefutable that an indoor cat will have a much longer life span than an out door one. I know people say they are meant to go out, but that may have been in the old days when people and cars etc wern't so densly packed.

Thanks for the feedback - unfortunately, I am a bit more nervous about the situation now than I was before :-)

The bunnies' accomodations are pretty sound - 3/8" wire mesh and wood. They have been residents in my enclosed patio for over 10 years, so unless the 'coon is new to the neighborhood, they have never discovered or bothered them before.

The cats really are indoor cats - I've only allowed them limited outdoor access for the last couple of weeks. So far they seem to have not strayed any further than the nextdoor neighbors and amazingly enough, they do come running when called. But I do live on a busy street and I do realize the dangers out there to cats allowed the freedom to roam outdoors at will. Previous cats have also been mostly indoors but not entirely so and have never encountered problems. The only wildlife they have ever bothered was the occasional urban rat one old tom would catch - too lazy and well-fed to go after birds. Guess I will need to invest in some screen doors, though :-)

No compost pile (no room) and the only pet food outdoors is the bunny food and I'm thinking the 'coon would be more interested the bunnies as a snack rather than their greens and alfalfa pellets. Some idiot neighbors down the road feed the squirrels(!?), so I guess I'm not surprised someone would feed racoons as well.

Here where we are not far north of you, in the past I have lost poultry in poultry netting covered enclosures to both dogs and racoons. The dogs appeared to have pulled the wire making up the walls off the bottom basal boards and slipped in underneath. This was after years without difficulty. Racoons eventually got a few birds that were in a rabbit hutch like setup, with a wire floor and wire front but solid walls. I think they reached through the wire and pulled the sleeping birds over to where they could gnaw at them through the wire. At night chickens will not move, whereas rabbits might hop around and stay out of reach, I suppose, if not caught by surprise.

Here we have had neighbors leaving dog food out where crows (and probably racoons) could get into it, as well as somebody feeding Eastern gray squirrels peanuts. There has also been a woman throwing bread out for crows and gulls, I went down and took a quick peek over the fence once. Much of her back yard appeared to have become mostly dirt and feathers, with a few bird carcasses scattered around! It smelled like the penguin enclosure at the zoo.

Have heard tidy couple near the bird lady is having a continuing problem with rats in the garage, here we get an occasional wharf rat that we notice--mostly passing through the garden. Sometimes see other rat species in the garden, eating barberry fruits or also in transit. A few years ago there was a wharf rat that would climb up the Chinese witch hazel, leap across and get right into the crawl space and run across to the garage, where it would play for hours until we finally sickened it with Warfarin. Its movements were quite noisy and easily followed, so I think we would soon notice any others that came inside the structure. There also used to get mice in the walls, but haven't for years.

Local racoons are sometimes hit hard by canine distemper in this area during summer. A wildlife rescure volunteer who came out one hot day to collect a panting, prone racoon that was plopped against a wall near the front door, as though too ill to move into the shade said August was racoon roundup month here. Apparently not everyone keeps their pets vaccinated and it gets passed to racoons.

I live right in Portland, not on the outskirts and have to keep an electric fence around my pond because of the raccoons. Works like a charm, low voltage brand is Fishock available at Petco or Petsmart for about fifty bucks. DH used the transformer to electrify copper pipe that is wired to bamboo posts so it is more attractive than plastic posts and wires. Running a wire around the top of your fence is an option as is running one around the bunny hutch.

I have two kitties that are indoor/outdoor and they've never been bothered by them though.

My husband chased two out of the pond one morning and when he cornered them they turned, stood up and hissed at him and he ran like ****.

I have had to have animal control come get a sick one that was wandering around in broad daylight, it was a distemper year for them.

Whether you ever see them or not, they are here, even in the heart of the cities. The quickest way to find this out is to build a pond.....

They will kill chickens, ducks, and our old lab cross was fast enough to catch them. She hated them, but whe would get them in the belly and then they would scratch her nose or gash her too. Then it would cost her a trip to the vet!. Try to talk to your neighbors about not feeding them. They are not cute, they are a wild animal, and really could hurt a human too. Call the Wildlife people, and ask what to do about them...

Coyotes live in town, too. I've seen those in broad daylight, and not obviously ill either. Last one seen here came through shrubbery next door, looked over at me in the window about 15-20 feet away (I heard it coming through the foliage, far from steathily) and trotted down to lower level in front, where it remained for awhile, as unconcerned as a familiar dog. It's amazing that either species could move around amidst all the dogs and people.

Raccoons are an introduced pest in Europe.

We live in the Cascade foothills, so there are definitely a lot of raccoons around. We're not bothered by them, because we don't have any food sources (I'm trying to find a raccoon-proof compost bin), but I've heard they'll claw through siding to get to a food source, so if I had bunnies outside at night I would put some kind of electrical wire outside their cage that would zap anything that tried to get too close.

A raccoon killed 3 of our ducks who had been in the same moveable enclosure for 2 yrs. The bottom of the run was just pvc pipe under welded 2x4" wire fencing, unlike our old run that had 2x4's and chicken wire (and was sucessful at least against raccoons for 6 yrs, though dogs jumped on one run that wasn't supported well at the top and killed some roosters that didn't have the sense to stay in the house part). It must have lifted the bottom to get in. Unfortunately we had just gone out of town but ID'ed it when we returned because it snowed that night and I saw the tracks in the snow. One duck survived some severe wounds with the help of colloidal silver. The problem seems to be solved by weighting the center with the water bucket.

I have also heard reports of raccoons inflicting severe wounds on cats. Our cats are older and tough, so have been OK. We were forced to make them outside cats sleeping in our garage when we had my MIL come and live with us. I'm not really sure a coon could come in through the cat door but I don't think it has happened so I don't think it will. No lectures, please.:-P I did find 3-4" of the end of some strange cat's tail in our garage- as I said, our cats are tough.

We did live-trap a raccoon once in CA but you need a large trap. I've known of coons that tore into a roof for a living space and destroyed the roof shingles. If you are really concerned you might want to locate a trap. Some places rent them or loan them out.

My friend in Atlanta had a raccoon come in the cat door. It actually jumped on her daughter's bed! Her daughter thought it was the cat.

I've had two friends lose their cats to coyotes in Gresham this year. Neighbors saw the last one trotting off with kitty in it's mouth in their headlights when they came home late. This is in a neighborhood, not rural/farm country but fairly close to some brushy areas and the Springwater Trail. Not a new neighborhood just built on farmland either.

Raccoons and Coyotes are both highly adaptable and their numbers are much higher now after human populations have grown and built cities (and reduced predators) than ever before.

Cats are also highly adaptable and learn to protect themselves. They can outclimb any wild creature that lives here except a cougar/wild cat. They can definitely outrun a raccoon. A cat that is inexperienced or lacking in tree cover might be at a disadvantage. Oh by the way, those cute cuddly cats can inflict severe damage on a human being, I've seen it, don't think they are helpless by any means.

Coyotes grab house cats and small dogs routinely. I think how alert an individual pet is will be critical to its fortunes. I've been standing out in the yard facing some free ranging poultry at friend's Camano Island place and had a redtailed hawk drop in for dinner. Not one of them noticed the hawk until after it saw me and broke off the attack. It had its talons inches from the target hen, who didn't have a clue. If I had been holding a camera up and taken a photo at the critical moment it would have shown the hawk looking sideways at me with its feet held out to the hen, the hen and all the other chickens going about their business in complete oblivion.

After the hawk started to fly off the food source scattered in all directions--too late. Subsequently the entire flock gradually disappeared. A coyote was also noticed running through the yard, early in the morning. I think they watch from a distance and attack on the run, rather like the red tailed hawk would have been--watching from a tree and then floating down.

Today I was standing out on the same property, on the other side of the garage and had a racoon pop out of the planted shrubbery and then back in again, moving in the direction of the now empty henhouse and the occupied pigeon coop. I went to the house and called my friend, who came out and shot it. She couldn't find it until I started watering the shrubbery, which it turned out it had been hiding in since I first saw it. I told her where it was going and she caught up with it down the hill, after it gave its second hiding position away by turning to look at her. Before that it blended right in with the forest floor, where I guess it was crouching. I've never seen one sneak around like that before. Usually if I see them at all they are ambling along as though not much concerned. Here in Edmonds I have had a couple walk up the driveway and go past me into the back yard.

RACOONS can reach right through cage wire and eat the bunnies by the handful! If a little paw can reach through, your rabbits are in danger. This sad event happened to my neighbor last year. Our usually placid neighborhood coons ripped through the screen on his porch and killed their bunnies while their cage door was securely locked. One little dead bunny was mostly intact, but had pieces torn from its body and eaten. Nothing left of the other but its head, which couldn't be pulled through the wire. Outside is not a good bunny spot, even on a porch!

I'm a member of the House Rabbit Society. Our bunnies live inside, and get supervised porch playtime.

2nd chapter on the racoon and duck situation, we bought 3 ducklings in April and they were doing great until last month, when the racoon found another vulverable point where my DH had attached the wire to the wood house with nylon cord. It chewed the cord, bent the wire, and killed the 3 babies, apparently dragging them away somewhere to eat them unlike the other attack where the bodies were left lying around partially eaten. The 2 older ducks were completely unscathed, which was a puzzlement. I suppose they were less appealing, or maybe they learned not to run at the attacker. Now the wire is attached with wire through some eye-screws, so hopefully they will be safe but I don't know if I am up for buying more ducklings next spring.

We have a rabbit hutch built 3 ft off the ground and never had any problems with the rabbit inside. We don't presently have a rabbit, though. It has 1x2 wire for a floor that is heavier than 1/2" hardware cloth. The hardware cloth would be harder to reach through, but the height probably would make it difficult for the racoon to access.

Outdoor bunnies are never really entirely secure from wild animals. A raccoon could probably scratch at them through the wire mesh. And even if it couldn't come in contact with the bunnies, it would still be terrifying for them, and they may be able to catch parasites or something from it. That's one reason why it's better to have bunnies inside. They can be litterbox trained. They're especially well-behaved if they are spayed and neutered. And besides, around here there is an extreme overpopulation of rabbits.