What does Racoon Hair look like???

[chuckzoo]

I found some a very small bunch of hair on the top of my coop. It is primarily white with the ends tipped black and is very shiny, is this racoon hair?

 

[Rooster#3]

maby a darker gray possum???

 

[mickistoy]

only if it is an albino racoon. if it is an oppossom it will be rather short. not sure what area you are in as to what native animals you have. i would suggest looking at your department of natural resources website. they should have pictures of native species listed.

 

[Funky Feathers]

Here's what raccoon hair looks like. Isn't it cute?

 

[mickistoy]

cute coon fattie!

 

[chuckzoo]

Thanks.
The hair is almost synthetic or plastic looking and rather shiny, about an inch long.

I am in Alabama but live in a subdivision. It doesn't look like cat fur at all.

 

[chuckzoo]

I don't think it is a racoon unless the underbelly is white. I looked at some photos of possums and think it may be that although I have not seen one up close. I am from South Africa and we didn't have possums there.

 

[dieselgrl48]

Well unless you have a Very secure coop I would get a live trap.Racoon's will INILiATE your chicken's.We have have trapped a few possum's but think they mainly went for the egg's or feed never had too much trouble with them.Sound's like Coon fur to me but maybe something else.I wont post how many coon's We have went through and the loss of bird's with them.They are little Houdini's on 4 leg's.Cute but Deadly when it come's to chicken's.And yes I have 2 ferret's but they are chicken killer's too so they only have free range monitored time inside house.I keep hearing people here talking about Mink's

. I dunno maybe some here I have never seen one of these "Mysterious"Mink don't know what I'm looking for.I gather something a little bigger than my ferret's.Have looked up some pic's but never seen anything like that YET.Hope you find your critter.

 

[chuckzoo]

Thanks.

Someone on one of the posts mentioned that animal control will lend you a trap? Is this true? I really think I need to relocate this critter since I don't want to lay awake at night worrying about my chickens.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
I have known folks to paint florescent pink stripes down the critters back (spray paint for laying out jobs) to show the home owner when they released said critter how far it would travel back to a food source (25 miles).
Relocation does not work between pushing your problem onto someone else and the critter trying to find food and being challenged by other critters because of territorial reasons that and if the critter you relocate is diseased you just infected a bunch of more animals at the new location. Coon fur is a fairly coarse fur not fine like a mink or rabbit there should be mostly guard hair this time of the year there is hardly any fur at all.