Question about Testudo and raccoons

cdmay

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I have a question for those of you who maintain the smaller species of Testudo (i.e. hermanni) outdoors where raccoons and possums live.
Do you provide some form of screened protection or do the 'coons not bother them? I have never had any issue with raccoons attacking my tortoises before but then when I was breeding hermanni years ago, there were no raccoons around where I lived. Now I have both 'coons and possums that come into my yard almost nightly but they seem to ignore my adult red-footed tortoises, unless they are nesting. In the case of nesting female red-foots, I have caught 'coons literally catching eggs with their scuzzy little hands as my females are laying them.
Again though, they've never bothered with any red-foot that I've maintained outdoors that have been as small as six inches.
I have heard from friends in the past that a raccoon will indeed take an adult hermanni even though they are not much smaller than the juvenile red-foots that I've kept outdoors for years.
 

Tom

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We have lots coons where I am and the coyotes are really thick here too. They never bother my larger tortoises, but I lock everything up at night, both because of temperatures and to keep them safe.

My young russians all live in giant out door fully covered cages with wire that extends 18" into the ground. I've never wanted to test whether or not they would mess with smaller tortoises. Many people in my area have russians or smaller DTs living outside loose in their back yard with no problems, but I suspect FL might be different.
 

Yvonne G

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I have seen dead raccoons on the road that runs by my house, but have never seen any on my property or around my pond. I have a dog, but she's an indoor dog. I don't know if smelling dog pee on the property makes a difference to a raccoon.

Every so often, for weeks at a time, I'll have to clean possum poop out of my box turtle waterers, but have never seen any dead or chewed up box turtles.
 

bouaboua

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I take no chances with all of my tortoises. They all in the lock-down at dusk. Also for the night temperature reason.
 

Jodie

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I have heeard some pretty bad stories about raccoons. This will be the first year mine will be outside 24/7. I intend to keep both my Leopards and Russians in a locked night box.
 

dmmj

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If you have coons your tortoises are in danger. They will kill ( the coons) and eat as many as they can get a hold of. A very very secure night box, or just bring them in, at night those would be my reccomendations.
 

HermanniChris

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What I do here (and yes coons are everywhere) is explained in detail on this page of my site: http://www.hermannihaven.com/#!care-and-maintenance/c1my5

I worry more about Dalmatians and Westerns as opposed to my large Easterns (8-9"+) but a coon can still get away with one. A friend of mine had an almost 10" female Eastern carried off by a raccoon and mauled at the end of his yard. They're no joke. I don't cover our big ibera greeks or Marginateds though. However, as I explain on that site above, we set traps EVERY NIGHT. For all other species we breed (Red foots, Radiateds etc..) it depends on their size as to whether or not they get covered. Babies of course do.
 

dmmj

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The main problem here is they don't carry off, they kill and eat on the spot ( lost several red ears like that) and they don't frighten as easily as they used to.
 

bouaboua

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What I do here (and yes coons are everywhere) is explained in detail on this page of my site: http://www.hermannihaven.com/#!care-and-maintenance/c1my5

I worry more about Dalmatians and Westerns as opposed to my large Easterns (8-9"+) but a coon can still get away with one. A friend of mine had an almost 10" female Eastern carried off by a raccoon and mauled at the end of his yard. They're no joke. I don't cover our big ibera greeks or Marginateds though. However, as I explain on that site above, we set traps EVERY NIGHT. For all other species we breed (Red foots, Radiateds etc..) it depends on their size as to whether or not they get covered. Babies of course do.
You have a great web-site Chris.

I referring your site to many of my Chinese Hermanni lover. They all benefit from it! ! !Thank you Chris for create and maintain a such wonderful website.
 

cdmay

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OK, thanks all. Pretty much what I thought already.
HermanniChris...awesome stuff! Many thanks.
 

Iochroma

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I cage everything. Raccoons are demons. And don't forget cats will also take babies. Rats are predatory when the mood strikes them. They're much harder to keep out, dang them.
 

bouaboua

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OK, thanks all. Pretty much what I thought already.
HermanniChris...awesome stuff! Many thanks.
I also use this......I bought it and set it up at once when I see any suspicion of unwanted and unwelcome back yard visitor.

001 (1).JPG

001 (2).JPG

Then we caught two of them..

001 (3).JPG
 

HLogic

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I was just checking this thread for new posts and something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Three raccoons no more than 20 feet from the door. Unfortunately, they disappeared before I got the counter-raccoon device prepped. I guess it's time to fertilize the back lot (again) and actually get the electric fence installed..no rest for the wicked...
 

Merrick

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I have a question for those of you who maintain the smaller species of Testudo (i.e. hermanni) outdoors where raccoons and possums live.
Do you provide some form of screened protection or do the 'coons not bother them? I have never had any issue with raccoons attacking my tortoises before but then when I was breeding hermanni years ago, there were no raccoons around where I lived. Now I have both 'coons and possums that come into my yard almost nightly but they seem to ignore my adult red-footed tortoises, unless they are nesting. In the case of nesting female red-foots, I have caught 'coons literally catching eggs with their scuzzy little hands as my females are laying them.
Again though, they've never bothered with any red-foot that I've maintained outdoors that have been as small as six inches.
I have heard from friends in the past that a raccoon will indeed take an adult hermanni even though they are not much smaller than the juvenile red-foots that I've kept outdoors for years.
I have had experiences where coons would still attack adult reds the coon would just eat the head [emoji34]
 

TortsNTurtles

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What I do here (and yes coons are everywhere) is explained in detail on this page of my site: http://www.hermannihaven.com/#!care-and-maintenance/c1my5

I worry more about Dalmatians and Westerns as opposed to my large Easterns (8-9"+) but a coon can still get away with one. A friend of mine had an almost 10" female Eastern carried off by a raccoon and mauled at the end of his yard. They're no joke. I don't cover our big ibera greeks or Marginateds though. However, as I explain on that site above, we set traps EVERY NIGHT. For all other species we breed (Red foots, Radiateds etc..) it depends on their size as to whether or not they get covered. Babies of course do.

We have raccoon s and I have been going back and forth on what to do. I can make a huge enclosure for my guys but worry about raccoon and dogs. This looks perfect a good size while protected.With these lids I could probably make it 16' by 16' or larger.
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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We never had coons but about 3 yrs ago they were doing road construction about 5 miles a way and one night a family of coons came into our cultsask and hit my back yard they might of ate 2-3 baby Hermanns , ate the heads off a nother 2-3 baby's , ate the head off my Greek male ,ate the head off Hermann male ,and put most of them in the water dishes , and killed 1-2 adult Russians . And they messed up my nabors yard so bad that they called the police and we found out in AZ it's eligale to trap them or to mess with raccoons . They mess the box turtles , leopards , or marginals .
 

HLogic

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We never had coons but about 3 yrs ago they were doing road construction about 5 miles a way and one night a family of coons came into our cultsask and hit my back yard they might of ate 2-3 baby Hermanns , ate the heads off a nother 2-3 baby's , ate the head off my Greek male ,ate the head off Hermann male ,and put most of them in the water dishes , and killed 1-2 adult Russians . And they messed up my nabors yard so bad that they called the police and we found out in AZ it's eligale to trap them or to mess with raccoons . They mess the box turtles , leopards , or marginals .

Recheck the laws. It is illegal in many states to trap native wildlife but not if they are causing damage. Do not rely on officials to give you the complete story. They typically go with the 'easy' answer, "It's illegal." I don't think it is illegal anywhere to protect your property from nuisance wildlife - like installing electric fencing or other deterrents. I quickly checked AZ laws and found that a hunting license may allow you to shoot the vermin...

http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/game_raccoon.shtml
 

TortsNTurtles

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Yep, when coons come on our property they are killed. We do have hunting licences. We have a rabies problems around here with the raccons so we don't even take a chance.
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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Recheck the laws. It is illegal in many states to trap native wildlife but not if they are causing damage. Do not rely on officials to give you the complete story. They typically go with the 'easy' answer, "It's illegal." I don't think it is illegal anywhere to protect your property from nuisance wildlife - like installing electric fencing or other deterrents. I quickly checked AZ laws and found that a hunting license may allow you to shoot the vermin...

http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/game_raccoon.shtml
Sorry I live in the city no discharging weapons in the city. But I haven't seen them sense the construction finished . Thank you
 
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