keeping raccoons out of cats food?

To avoid raccoons feed only during daylight hours. If you are feeding when dark, you need to stay out while the cats are eating. In fact, you should stay out the whole time they are eating anyway if you want them to become accustomed or re-accustomed to human presence.

You can very gradually place the food closer to where you are sitting and standing. Don't be totally motionless or silent or they will freak when they find that the food-machine can move. And don't just sit or they'll be terrified when they see how big you suddenly are.

Make sure you have a definite plan or goal to trap. Only feeding is kind but cruel in the long run I think. Keeping them well-nourished is increasing their reproductive fitness.

If you are definitely going to get them fixed, continue feeding. It can get expensive, even with only a couple hungry extra cats.

In addition to the 9-Lives or Friskies consider raw. If you buy meats on sale it is cheaper than cat food.

I have been feeding "my" strays a mix of cheap canned and raw. I should say "stray" because one just departed for her new home with her new person 50 minutes ago!

Seredipity. The woman met the cat 3 times before agreeing to take her. I had already made the clinic arrangments for spay, testing, flea, vaccines - which were done yesterday, and she even reimbursed me for the whole thing. All I had to do was keep her at my place overnight since the woman works 11pm to 7 am.

So what I am getting at is if some of these strays are in fact stray and not feral, they can be retamed and you may be able to re-home yourself.

Keep the raccoons at bay by staying out, get cats used to you, try meats on sale, and most important - have a plan.

Don't leave the food unattended overnight.

Have feeding times, leave the food down for 20 min. then go back out and clean it all up. Trust me, the cats will catch on QUICK! and show up for meals right on time, usually within a week.

Another option is learn portion sizes.

Don't fill a huge bowl and walk away. Watch and see how much is eaten, and the next night, only put that much in. If they eat it all, there's no left overs for those raccoon bums.

Remember, bacteria and parasites also like leftovers. By cleaning it all up after a few minutes, you're making for healthier meals.

Raccoons are intelligent, opportunistic animals. You have provided them with an easy meal. There is no way to stop them from coming. They are creatures of habit, and will visit this easy food on their nightly foraging trips as long as food is available. You can feed the cats indoors. You could watch when they are fed to make sure there is no food left for the raccoons.

I hear ya. I find the best is to feed them early in the morning. They are most likely to have eaten most of the food by the time the racoons wake up.

If it is doable, try feeding them individually as well. That might be a ways off for you though.

FYI, vinegar doesn't help much with the spray smell. The best is a product called Nok-Out. Google it to see how to get it locally. Very safe around humans and animals and works very well on cat pee smell

Bring the food in at night. Raccoons tend to come out and forage for food at night so I'm sure that's when they're taking the food. Just put it out during the day.

Problem is, though, by feeding these ferals you're encouraging the spread of disease. If one of them has Feline Leukemia, for example, and you're allowing them to eat from the same bowls then they can spread the disease through their saliva. A far better solution would be to have a no-kill shelter come out and trap them and spay/neuter them and rehome them if they're not too feral.

well if your sure its racoons and not the cats when ur sleeping lol then when u see the cat but out sum cat food and ocne its done eating it then bring it back inside and wait

but no matter what u will attract all kinds of animals once my cat got lost and i thought if i put out cat food it would come back and if i didnt see it to bring it in atleast it would eat but squirls and mice and i dont think theres raccoons here but if there was im sure theyd eat it to and when u leave out the food at a certain time everyday they get a routine and they will go there everyday around that time to eat so if u do that ull have anote of cats to feed but if thast what u want ull feed them and not all the other animals

With our barn cats, we trained them to eat from a high plastic table outside. We had the food on the steps but the coons and skunks thought they'd like a hand out.

Once we put it up high and out of the way of climbing access, the coons/skunks found another food source. Neither of them could jump ON the table from the ground like the cats could.

easy, get a bigger cat.