From North America to Asia and Australia, raccoons are everywhere. They are rodents that can eat virtually anything including chocolate and even be a great threat to your hens and chickens, even squirrels and rabbits. But that doesn’t mean they eat everything, there are some food which raccoons cannot eat. But can raccoons eat carrots? Is carrots in the list of food that raccoons can eat? Here’s the answer.
The Concise Answer…
In short, raccoons can definitely eat carrots without any problem. In fact, carrots are a great part of their diet. However, raccoons come out during the darkness of the night. They are nocturnal animals, which usually hibernate through the winter and make their first appearance in the early spring months. At night, when raccoons see shiny things, they will try to steal it. Here’s why raccoons love shiny things.
Raccoons are reluctant to come closer to humans. That’s why they detect their presence in the area and try to move away from them. Their smell is what makes their presence in a place detectable. That smell comes from their urine that is stronger than in other animals. It seems like they have a concentrated urine deposit in their bodies and urinate everywhere they can to ensure their territorry.
Do Raccoons Like Carrots?
Carrots represent a great proportion of the raccoon’s daily dietary intake. That’s why it’s necessary to know more about these extraordinary little neighbours and their relations with carrots. Let’s take a deep dive into the special raccoon characteristics and what makes raccoons unique among other animals and pets.
Lately, we have seen people who love to adopt rodents, approaching and breeding raccoons. If you are one of those people who would like to adopt alternative pets, then raccoons are the best choice for a Christmas present for your children.
The primary nutritional base for raccoons in captivity is vegetables and grains. However, raccoons don’t prefer green and leafy vegetables like spinach and lettuce, and they tend to like earthy products and those with roots like potatoes and carrots. Potatoes and carrots are a good treat for raccoons since they like to dig. Not only dig, raccoons are pretty skillful that can jump very high. Here’s how high can raccoons jump without being hurt with video.
When they find themselves on a farm, raccoons dig where carrots are grown. That gives them a lot of energy and enjoyment of finding food. Don’t forget that raccoons are natural predators and like to chase their meal. However, you may always offer them carrots or any other grain treat (like wheat) in captivity.
What Are The Benefits of Carrots?
Carrots come from flavonoid vegetable family which is rich in Vitamin A and other useful minerals. Their volume consists of more than 85% of pure water, making them an ideal food for any animal that wants to have a regular calorie intake combined with rehydration.
Since carrots develop their flesh inside the ground, they are protected from sun exposure. That gives them the chance to allow the green leaves above their roots to collect the sunrays and absorb the necessary oxygen to perform photosynthesis.
The main photosynthesis resulting molecule is carbohydrates, and these molecules connect in longer polymer chains and enclose so much energy compared to any other macromolecule. Carrots are full of polysaccharides. The main photosynthesis resulting molecule, and they are ready to release it when anyone consumes and digests them.
Feed Carrots to Raccoons
It’s always better to feed raccoons with fresh carrots cleaned from any kind of mud or dust being abundant in the farms. Bigger carrots have a higher carbs concentration and can saturate raccoons’ appetite for much longer.
The carrots’ stiffness makes them an ideal food for raccoons. As we all know, raccoons in captivity cannot consume raw meat easily, and that’s the main reason they need stiff carrots to sharpen their teeth and keep them in the best possible condition.
Raccoon breeders may stack a large portion of carrots to let their raccoon population grow faster than ever before. All orange carrots have at least 3 grams of pure carbs inside, and they could keep one medium-sized raccoon busy for at least one day. Some other bigger raccoons may need more carrots, and it all depends on their daily activity.
Female raccoons during their pregnancy may need more calories to feed their fetuses. Giving carrots to your raccoons will cover more than 80% of their daily needs in calories intake and more than 90% of their water needs.
Which Carrots Should You Avoid Giving to Raccoons?
There are some carrots that you should avoid offering to raccoons. You need to know that carrots may develop botulinum toxin germs on their roots. That’s why they can have a toxin developed to their mass and negatively affect the raccoons’ health if, by any chance, they consume such carrots.
It’s necessary to have all the carrots vacuum cleaned, ensure they are fresh, and not spend too much time in the refrigerator. Carrots are generally a good source of nutrients for raccoons and a splendid way to cover their vitamin needs and enforce their teeth. Since raccoons are nocturnal animals, they need vitamin-A for their eyes to ensure that their retina layer is constantly in good shape.
Not to mention that carrots are relatively cheap compared with any other type of food. Raccoons will love you feeding them fresh carrots daily and will soon grow that much you could never expect that it would happen. Vegetables are the best alternative to proteins for all rodents, and since raccoons have become lovable pets, it’s good to know that carrots can become their primary source of energy.
Are Raccoons More omnivore or vegetarian?
There is a big theory about the nature of raccoons. Many animal scientists believe that the primitive raccoon populations were all carnivores. That helped them differentiate from other rodents and helped them to acquire sharp teeth that were necessary to allow them to cut meat and digest their prey.
As time passed, raccoons needed to evolve like any other species. During wintertime and before they enter the status of hibernation, raccoons were struggling to find prey. That was the main reason leading them to adopt vegetables and grains as another source of energy.
Even though they needed higher volumes of veggies to survive, they altered their energy consumption profile to ensure they had the necessary means to remain stable for another day. Their preference would be to consume root vegetables like those people like to consume for their concentrated carbohydrate reservoirs.
In other words, raccoons have been genetically modified to consume carrots even from the first developmental stages of their species.