# Best bait for raccoons?



## GBov

Last night the raccoon that has been eating the cats food decided to have a go at the finches in our big flight cage.

Signed his own death warrant really, could handle the lost food but not the stress on the birds. He couldnt get in but he could and did frighten the birds BADLY :grumble:

So am borrowing a live trap today so thought I would ask what the best bait is for catching the varmints?


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## KnowOneSpecial

Black Oil Sunflower Seeds. 

All of the other stuff (tuna, cat food, etc.) will also attract cats. If you want to trap a bunch of barn cats, go that way. But if you want something the cats don't care about but the racoons adore, try a big pile of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds.


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## Bearfootfarm

> Black Oil Sunflower Seeds.
> 
> All of the other stuff (tuna, cat food, etc.) will also attract cats


They will also attract birds and squirrels

Many say Marshmallows make good bait.

I like cheap sardines, and don't much worry if I catch a stray cat too


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## Ryan NC

PB&J mixed and spread on marshmallows will put it in the trap while avoiding most every other non-target... Have caught lots of ***** on it but also a few cats, squirrels, opossum, and one crazy fox so be ready for some non-target regardless of what you use... if you can round the cats up for a night or two I'd simply use cat food in the cage where the food dish normally is.


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## Allen W

The cat food he has already been eating.


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## PD-Riverman

Sweet cake like 1/2 of a honey bun---Has never failed me.


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## Ardie/WI

marshmallows.


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## Riverdale

Ardie/WI said:


> marshmallows.


Amen.

In the past 2 years, I have sent 45+ '***** to the "Great Garbage Can in the Sky" using marshmellows.

When I used catfood/tuna/sardines, I would get as many cats and/or skunks as '****.

The lil bandits have a serious sweet tooth.


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## GBov

Well, he resisted the sunflower seeds last night. Will bait with catfood tonight and see how it goes. Every cat in the neighborhood eats with our cats so will probably catch a few but as its a live trap, what harm eh?

Will try the marshmallows next week if I still havnt caught it by then.

Anybody have a good recipe for raccoon meat?


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## mothernature

Guess the cats are safe from the roaster pan?!


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## GBov

mothernature said:


> Guess the cats are safe from the roaster pan?!


Well, mostly LOL!


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## Mona Lea

We always have good luck using vanilla wafers for bait. I pressure cook the raccoon until tender with a couple of apples and an onion. Drain, then put it in a roasting pan, sprinkle lliberally with salt, pepper, and sage. Bake until brown, covering with bbq sauce for the last 15 minutes or so of baking. Will take around 30 minutes in a 350 oven. Be sure to remove all the fat and kernels from the **** to make it taste good!!


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## GBov

Mona Lea said:


> We always have good luck using vanilla wafers for bait. I pressure cook the raccoon until tender with a couple of apples and an onion. Drain, then put it in a roasting pan, sprinkle lliberally with salt, pepper, and sage. Bake until brown, covering with bbq sauce for the last 15 minutes or so of baking. Will take around 30 minutes in a 350 oven. Be sure to remove all the fat and kernels from the **** to make it taste good!!


Why take the fat off? Its been eating mostly catfood so it looks a right butter ball.


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## littlejoe

GBov said:


> Signed his own death warrant really, could handle the lost food but not the stress on the birds. He couldnt get in but he could and did frighten the birds BADLY :grumble:


Really? You bait all the cats in the neighborhood in, by your own admittance, then get mad at a **** showing up and scaring your birds. They would get used to him, as well as they have all of your cats.

All of those cats you feed are killing machines! They decimate our wildlife! They don't just kill to eat, they play until somethings dead or injured bad enough they lose interest.

I'm not a greenie, but you need some perspective on wildlife! 

I don't like cats, but I still have ONE. That's all i want or need! If more show up, they are disposed of. If I needed more to handle a rodent problem, I might have two? But you can bet they wouldn't be reproducing.

If a **** showed up on my step, you can bet he'd be a goner, but I wouldn't be baiting one in either. Think I'd do away with the cats first.


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## GBov

LittleJoe, we have 3 rescue cats to help keep the rats down to manageable numbers and a queen showed up with two kittens a couple of months ago so she now thinks we belong to her.

Between the 6 of them they kill one or two rats a day and about 5 snakes a summer. We sometimes manage to save a snake or two from them but they do get a few. Oh, and they share a few birds with us but not too many, they arnt that interested in birds, they MUCH prefer rats :happy:

They earn their keep but as I feed them outside the other cats in the neighborhood share their food. Its not been much of a problem.

The masked bandit is a problem. It is very large and my kids are rather small. My cats and neighbors cats are vaccinated. It isnt. And as its now trying to get into my kids finches and my quail, its got to go. 

I would never trap it and release it into the "wild" as it would cope about as well as my cats would. Being an urban '**** it has no ability to find food in a truly wild environment.

It cant stay here and it cant move and just killing it is a shame and a waste. Am rather looking forward to seeing what raccoons taste like as the only one I have seen while hunting had three babies with her so I simply enjoyed watching them fishing amongst the Cyprus knees.

I kill NOTHING for no reason but this big beastie is a gonner IF it goes into the trap INSIDE of the pool cage, using the hole it made on the roof to get down onto the flight cage or comes through the cat door like the cats do.

This isnt a case of cats V wildlife, its simply a case of an animal being a danger to me and mine and a bit of free meat.


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## oldasrocks

My neighbor had the same problem with ***** eating his cat food. He had one giant **** that couldn't get into the largest live trap so I build one big enough for a black lab and we caught him. He caught several smaller ones too and brought them to me to dispose of. I didn't have the heart to kill anything so painted a red spot on them to see if they traveled back to his house and they didn't.


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## Ryan NC

Sorry folks, in season no justification needed imho... at least it not getting dropped off somewhere to become someone else's problem or die of starvation in the wild. I applaud you for this! 

Make sure to wear gloves when cleaning it, ***** can carry a type of ring worm that is transferable to humans via their feces. 
As for cooking it, make 100% sure to get the glands out!!! The two in the front arm pit area are a bit hard to find the first time, if you cut them by accident trim the area pretty well and like mona said remove as much fat as possible. The meat is really good *IF* properly cooked. Just a heads up however it does smell a little funny when it's cooking, kinda like a roast smell that ya can't tell if it's a pork or beef roast... Ya know it's a roast but something is just a little different. The flavor is best described as kinda like pork... Haven't come up with an accurate description for the flavor but it sure don't taste like chicken! lol As a side note, a good slow boiling followed by a short pressure cooking does wonders for older *****. ;-)


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## littlejoe

If you just wanted to eat some ****, you just needed to say so.

I'm not advocating catch and release (as into someone elses' problem), just the baiting and your problem?

BTW... I Imagine the **** would cope, starve, die somehow, if left to it's own... out of it's urban environment. You sound like a suburbanite transplanted trying to justify yourself!

It ain't 'bout that! You'd be surprised how many tame cats go wild in thier enviroment. And, how do you know all the cats at your feeding station are vaccinated?

Get your ****, eat it well, but don't give the rigamoral about trying to save the birds, when you're feeding an army of cats! Do it to get rid of it, and to keep your kids safe. Then, enjoy the benefits!


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## copperhead46

I found a dead hen in the chicken yard yesterday, just her head had been eaten. We put her in the trap and this morning mr. **** was in there with her. Guess he came back to finish the job, but she turned out to be his last supper.
P.J.


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## tamsam

Honey bun will usually get him. After you catch him keep him pinned if you plan to eat him and feed bread and milk for a week or so. We did that when I was a kid and it helps take away some of the gamey taste. Plus a **** is almost like a chicken. He will eat almost anything he can chew up so that helps flush out his system. Hope you luck and enjoy a **** meal. Sam


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## Scavenger

I have used sunflower seeds to catch *****. They loved to climb on the bird feeders in my yard and eat the seeds in them. It might take a night or two, but eventually they will go in the trap.
That recipe for **** sounds really good. I have never eaten **** but want to try it. I just want to make sure I fix it right!


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE

Allen W said:


> The cat food he has already been eating.


i second this , he was already comming for it and thinks it's safe




that said i have great luck with chicken bones , just toss one i a cage after we have a chken dinner , i think at least around here it is a very common item for them in the trash so they know it' s smell well 

down side is it catches as many cats as it catches everything else


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## GBov

So far have caught two of our cats lol.


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## WstTxLady

something sweet. that way the skunks & cats wont be attracted.


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## Ray

I gotta go along I use peanut butter with a marshmallow all stuck onto a piece of Graham cracker to sit it on. caught many many, **** and opossum, out of the feed bin and garden both. best wishes, ray


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## GBov

Ray said:


> I gotta go along I use peanut butter with a marshmallow all stuck onto a piece of Graham cracker to sit it on. caught many many, **** and opossum, out of the feed bin and garden both. best wishes, ray


With THAT bait I would most likely catch my kids!


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## Ryan NC

GBov said:


> With THAT bait I would most likely catch my kids!


New way to gain "me time"  lol 

Give the PB & marshmallow a try, cats don't seem overly attracted to it and you can't catch the **** if kitty is in the trap...


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## Usingmyrights

I've been helping a trapper with his sets for a few years now. He targets everything in the woods and uses sardines for his smaller ****, opposume, feral cat traps. For just raccoons he recommends marshmellows as others have stated. Of course there's all ways cat food (dry and canned), tuna, fish, etc. My parents had a small koi pond out back with something getting into it. Found a dead koi one day that was still intact and floating in the pond. I used that as my bait and came up with the critter a couple days later.

ETA: If your cage doesn't have really small opening in the back, put something around the back end so the raccoon can't just reach through and steal the bait that way. That'll allow you to put it all of the way in the back so that its more likely to step on the trigger. Though a big raccoon might still be able to reach over it without setting it off. Its also possible to set the door on the very end of the little hook so that it takes less pressure to trigger. Just going to have to play with it and see what works. It may take a couple days depending on how hungry he is and if the scent bothers him


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## GBov

Well, graham crackers and peanut butter did the trick last night. Of course it would, I feel rotten this morning, sore throat and head ache and really really tired.

The tired might have something to do with LARGE raccoon, wire cage and metal food bowl 5ft from my bedroom door. It didnt half make noise last night lol.

Cant say enough good about that bait though, it practically squeezed itself into the cage to get to it and its a good sized cage!

Now to get some rubber gloves and the 22.


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## NJ Rich

A trapper on another web site recommends sardines. You can eat the sardines since you only need the smell of the oil will attract the raccoons. He nails the sardine can to a tree or post over the trap or put in your Harv-a-Hart box trap.

I always wanted to try roasted raccoon.


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## Usingmyrights

Never tried roasted, but BBQ is pretty good. A former co-worker brought some in one night. Kind of a cross between roastbeef and turkey.


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## GBov

How important to taste is taking the fat off? I took what I could off but it was covered in an inch thick layer of the stuff so quite a bit of it remains.

But its cooking in the oven now with mushroom soup and onions and when its all tender will have mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, corn bread and caulflower.

Am well looking forward to dinner!

Have put the skin in the freezer to try tanning at a later date. How long in the freezer will kill any parasites? I know if you feed wild rats to pet snakes 6 to 8 months in the freezer will render any worms harmless so was wondering about '****'s potential nasties?


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## Ryan NC

the bath in the acid base will kill anything the **** might have had, with an inch of fat I'd say it was healthy and happy eating your cat food ;-)

Trappers skin and dry the fur the same day, if you try tanning it now you are more than fine... It's the flees that are a bugger round here!

how'd your meal come out?


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## Anabaptist

Believe it or not we caught several in a trap with no bait. We just set it up where they were getting in our turkey pen. Usually, peanut butter on bread will work, but the possums and squirrels love that too.


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## GBov

Ryan NC said:


> the bath in the acid base will kill anything the **** might have had, with an inch of fat I'd say it was healthy and happy eating your cat food ;-)
> 
> Trappers skin and dry the fur the same day, if you try tanning it now you are more than fine... It's the flees that are a bugger round here!
> 
> how'd your meal come out?


Could have sworn blind that I had posted about how it tasted but I just must have imagined it lol.

It was FANTASTIC!!!!!!

Why dont more people eat them? 

My only complaint was I went with the trim all fat crowd but now wish I hadnt as the fat that I missed was sweet and soft and yummy. 

It dressed out with a fantastic amount of meat that tasted like beef mixed with goose and a hint of turkey.

I didnt eat the liver, kidney or heart but wanted to ask if anyone here eats those bits? I did give them a long hard look - I love organ meat - and they looked clean and healthy but thought I might ask before eating them instead of finding out there might be a problem with eating it.

Oh, about the skin. I was racing a hot day and lack of skill in skinning it so LOTS of fat and connective tissue and even a bit of meat here and there :ashamed: so thats why I was asking about any potential, whats the thing they can carry? Hook worms, round worms? Cant remember but dont want to get them! As scraping the skin is going to take time and be a bit messy it doesnt bother me waiting a year even to give it a try, tanning wise if thats what it takes to kill off any parasites.

Acid base? Please dont stop with just a little tease like that, you can tell a bit more about tanning, really, we all would LOVE to read more on the subject :thumb:

Oh, and the bowl of cat food that use to last four hours at most is now lasting two days. No wonder he was so fat!


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## Mulish

I've had luck using marshmallows as bait for ***** in the past. This last Sunday night I lost a hen to a ****. Dug out my trap and set it, marshmallows as bait. Walking over to the hay shed, I glanced over at the trap, well how about that, got the sucker. Went back to the house to get my 22. Walking over to the trap, I got close enough to see that, holy cow, not a raccoon, but my large standard chinchilla rabbit, eating a marshmallow. He has been on the loose since March of last year. I never have tried to trap him, he just seems so happy to roam the property. 

Well, who knew that rabbits would eat marshmallows!


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## GBov

Mulish said:


> I've had luck using marshmallows as bait for ***** in the past. This last Sunday night I lost a hen to a ****. Dug out my trap and set it, marshmallows as bait. Walking over to the hay shed, I glanced over at the trap, well how about that, got the sucker. Went back to the house to get my 22. Walking over to the trap, I got close enough to see that, holy cow, not a raccoon, but my large standard chinchilla rabbit, eating a marshmallow. He has been on the loose since March of last year. I never have tried to trap him, he just seems so happy to roam the property.
> 
> Well, who knew that rabbits would eat marshmallows!


:hysterical:


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## Anabaptist

I'm going to have to try marshmallows. My peanut butter contraction has not been working, but I reckon the wet weather destroyed it.


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