Jul 13, 2009

Rocky and the Abileneians

I'm in the process of introducing the two different groups of raccoons that are living in 2 separate enclosures. Each group consists of 3 raccoons. One group is 12, 14 and 15 weeks old, the other group is from one litter and they are 9 weeks old.

I wasn't about to dump them all into one enclosure and hope for the best, so I figured I take the youngest of the older group, Rocky, and put her with the little ones...OMG. What a growling, barking, huffin and puffin! And as soon as I'm out of the door, Rocky cries bloody murder!

I have no experience with this, so I can't tell when it's all show or when it gets serious, so I've been sitting in the enclosure most of the day with a cup of coffee, sweating, observing, with the camera of course, and interfering when I thought it was going to get ugly.

I put a pool out, which the 3 youngest ones, the Abilenians, have not seen yet but it's familiar to Rocky. I figured it might be helpful to her to see something she knew.



and then I decided to let them meet:






Lena and Ian play-fighting

It'll take a while until all 6 get along, I can see that already, but I have all week to get the 3 older coons in with the little ones so we can work on the enclosure flooring next weekend, putting down these babies: