Habitat - Outdoor :: Raccoon threat

[floydsdad]

I'm planning a new outdoor home for Floyd, but I'm a little apprehensive since we live in prime raccoon territory. I haven't seen any in the yard, but I'm sure they're out there. I could keep them out with chicken wire over the turtle pond, but I'd rather have a more aesthetic solution. Any suggestions?

[jozzep]

A netting over the pond is pretty much the only solution i can think of to keep the turtles safe.
You can also put "turtle tunnels" with 4" pvc pipe covered with rocks or gravel on the bottom of the pond where the turtles can hide from predators.

[floydsdad]

I plan on putting in the tunnels, but since he's been indoors all his life, I'm afraid he'd just think a raccoon was a big cat.

[floydsdad]

It just dawned on me. Floyd is about 8". Would a raccoon even bother a RES that size?

[SuNicDa]

You might want to put up a fence around the pond.

[Linus]

Well in our old pond we did have one of our 5" turts get taken by a racoon but we were awake at the time and chased the racoon away. He dropped the turt but she was missing a leg after the attack.

She recovered and we placed a chicken wire cage over thepond and it was fine for a few years.

Then one day the racoon ripped open the tiny hole in the chicken wire for the fountain. She grabbed the same turt and killed her. = ( This was many years ago.

So when we recently redid our pond, we installed a nice looking cage on it.


Each piece folds over to open the pond for easy access.

[theartbook35]

Raccoons are very smart animals (so are turtles), and if they want to get into your pond, they will find a way. You should think long and hard if you are worried about Floyd getting hurt.