Don't. I know you have the family interests in your heart but at this time of year mama needs to teach her babies to hunt. Without this time of training they will never live.

I have left extra seeds out during a very hard winter but especially at this time of the year please don't.

That is an excellent point I had not considered. I will not fed them, thanks for your wisdom.

Feeding raccoons at your house will teach them that houses are safe and that people will feed them. As the previous poster said, reliance on food from people will not help the babies learn to hunt for their food.

Besides that, though, you don't really want raccoons around your house, believe me. They can be a real nuisance and sometimes nasty and dangerous in the wrong situation (like if they felt their babies were being threatened). Not to mention that some of them carry rabies.

Once raccoons get accustomed to hanging around a house they become bolder and act like they are part owners of the property. Where I grew up farmers could have crops ruined by raccoons. So 100 feet from your house isn't much to a raccoon. And I don't know about where you live, but where I grew up, raccoons that were nuisances were hunted and shot.

Sorry if this scares you a little but these animals do have another side (as all animals do) and I wouldn't want you to have a bad experience. I would just let mama raccoon and her babies go on down to your pond and do some fishing.

I agree. Also, for the stray cats, it would be best to have them neutered and vaccinated or get them to a shelter-there are no-kill shelters if that is a concern. There are enough homeless pets out there and life for them on the streets or in the wild is really hard. We had quite a few feral cats here in our suburban woods behind our house. The neighborhood foxes (yes, even here outside Washington DC, we have foxes)have gotten them-not the kindest end for them!

Not all areas have no-kill shelters and even they have to do something when they receive too many animals. Normally it is the very elderly or healthy but will not get well enough to adobt that are removed.

Best to spay, vaccinate, and release. Feral cats do have their place. If you see a cat with the top part of the ear cut off it is a released feral cat. Some that have been house pets make nice pets after they calm down. Just think the original poster probably has less of a mouse problem due to the cats. Good payback for a little caring.

But this was not the original posters question which only had to do with feeding racoons.

I made the mistake of feeding a nursing mother 3 years ago, because she looked so frail. Now she is a daily visitor, the cats rub noses with her, her new litters raid everything, tear up anything they have issues with, destroy planter boxes on my decks, and just last week stripped my two Seckle pear trees overnight - costing me hundreds of dollars worth of much needed income at our farmers market! (Last year they got on a deck and stripped my husband's pride and joy dwarf tangelo). We are surrounded by woods and natural streams, so critters are a way of life and we love it - but even the deer are not as destructive as the cute little raccoons. At least the deer run from the dog! I guess what I am saying is DO NOT feed them, no matter how cute they are - and thanks for letting me vent!