If you live near raccoon territory, there will come a time when you chance upon a baby raccoon, and the mother is nowhere near it. But before you try to take care of it, keep in mind that baby raccoon tend to stray from their mother while she is sleep during the day. Don’t remove the baby from where you found it. The mother will be looking for her baby within two to eight hours. Instead of removing the baby raccoon from where you found it, you should provide it protection while waiting for the mother. When handling wild animals, you should wear gloves all the time to protect against diseases.

To protect the baby raccoon, place it in a box with high sides and a warm water bottle. This will protect the baby from wandering around. The box must have a partially open top to make sure that the mother can retrieve her baby. The partial cover can also protect the baby raccoon from the weather. Just make sure that you don’t make the water too warm because baby raccoons are sensitive to temperature.

How to Keep Water Bottle Warm While Waiting for Mother


A commercial bottle or soda bottle will only stay warm for a couple of hours. If you have rice at home, then use rice instead of water. Just make sure that you make a vent hole at the cap. Now you can microwave the rice for a couple of minutes to give it a few hours of heat retention. Then wrap the bottle with sock to insulate it and keep it warm longer.

What to do if Baby Raccoon is orphaned


You should go back to the box the next day to find out if the mother raccoon got her baby back. If the baby is still there, then you can safely assume that it is already orphaned. At this point, you need to call a wildlife rehabilitator to save the baby.

While waiting for help to arrive, you should stop yourself from feeding the baby raccoon. While it is true that puppy or kitten milk replacers can also substitute for raccoon milk, feed a dehydrated raccoon can cause death. It is important that you rehydrate the baby raccoon first before you try to feed it.

When you find a baby raccoon, you should first give it electrolyte supplements, such as Pedialyte for human babies. You must slowly give it to the mouth of the baby raccoon. Administering the fluid too fast can lead to the inhalation of the liquid into the lungs.

Once the baby raccoon is hydrated, then you can give it puppy or kitten milk replacement formula. You should not give it cow’s milk, honey or raw eggs because these food items can lead to digestive bacterial infection. To feed the baby raccoon, you can use a baby bottle.

These are the things you need to know about feeding a baby raccoon. Make sure that the baby raccoon is fed properly, or else it will develop metabolic bone disease that can lead to a painful death in the future.

Read the How to get rid of raccoons page for helpful information and to learn more about Should I Feed a Baby Raccoon I Found?