What Do Raccoons Eat?

Raccoons are opportunistic animals and they have a tendency to consume almost anything that they can find. They eat a wide variety of foods starting from small animals, birds, insects, fish, crabs, and many others. They are omnivores and also like to have plant-like materials such as various types of fruits and grains. Very often they may be found near your garbage eating any kind of trash food.

What Do Raccoons Eat?

Raccoons are very fond of eating and they will literally eat almost everything. Being Omnivorous animals, they have a wide range of food. Amongst animals, they prefer to feed on mice, rabbits, turtles, fish, birds, crabs, and insects. Raccoons also eat a lot of plant products like nuts, corns, berries, acorns, grains, seeds, and fruits. They also happily consume pet foods and human garbage.

What Are The Human Foods That Raccoon Loves To Eat?

Raccoons are often seen to trespass into your home and steal your food from the kitchen. They mostly love to have vegetables, nuts, eggs, fish, turkey, fruits, and chicken among the human foods which are also good for their health. If you have a pet raccoon in your home, it is recommended to avoid feeding simple carbohydrates and give more foods that provide abundant nourishment.

Why Raccoons Are Always Hungry?

Raccoons just love to eat by nature and they never shy away from any kind of food. It may sound funny but unlike other animals, they live to eat rather than eat to live. Raccoons also help in maintaining the balance of nature by eating a lot of unwanted beings like snakes, mice, various kinds of insects like yellow jackets, and many more. So, their hunger actually helps nature.

What Are the Favorite Foods Of Raccoons?

There is, as such, no favorite food of a raccoon as they eat almost everything. However, they generally eat small mammals and birds while living in the wild. According to recent research, the list of favorite food items of a raccoon comprises berries, eggs, nuts, and insects. When they live near any water source, raccoons love to catch reptiles, fish, amphibians, and shellfish.

What Are The Foods That Raccoons Cannot Eat?

As we already know, the list is extremely long when it comes to the food of raccoons. However, there are certain exceptions like Onions, Raisins, Macadamia, and Chocolate which are toxins for raccoons. Bread and Garlic are not toxins but can surely upset the digestion of raccoons. Accordingly, some other foods which can cause health problems are Candies, Cocoa, and Coffee.

Final Words

If you think that a raccoon will become friendly if you feed it, you are wrong. It is, in fact, a bad idea since this will habituate the raccoon to live nearby your house and become dependent on you for its food. Raccoon is a wild animal and feeding it will bring the animal in close proximity to human beings which may pose danger to you, your family members as well as your pets and neighbors.