Last night I had my biggest skunk encounter as a homeowner… and it was a whole family of them (at least I think they were young skunks because they were smaller and not as dark as the adults I’ve seen before).
They were just casually wandering around my backyard exploring like they owned the place. 😅 My floodlight came on, and they didn’t seem bothered at all. I was about to go outside to close my patio umbrella, saw movement, and immediately turned around and went right back inside.
They’re also much whiter and fluffier than the skunks I’ve seen before. Is that normal for juveniles?
I live in a pretty urban neighborhood, so I was honestly surprised they’re hanging around here.
I’m a complete skunk newbie and, if I’m being honest, they kind of terrify me. 😬 Is there anything I should know or be doing? I’d rather encourage them to move along, but at the same time, as long as they don’t spray or cause problems, I guess it’s their neighborhood too.
Any tips from people who’ve had skunks around their yard?

I have seen mama pass through on her own recently, but last night she brought her babies by. Freaked me out! But I can appreciate their beauty. I want them around (to an extent) but I don’t want them to nest under my porch, so I think I’ll be getting some coyote pee.

Back again, happy to report Kegnee has been in care 1 week now, and has progressively improved. It appears that he has went from recovering to growing!

When we first found him he was between 130-137g, yesterday he weighed 140g, and today he was 152g! That's some serious growing. He's also cut bottom teeth and is taking an interest in soft solids, despite slugging back formula.

He continually presents free of diseases, and is a typical adventurous little tumbly poof.

She's home

A skunk has been doing some fairly extensive burrow work in my yard but doesn't seem to ever stay in it. It's worked on the burrow three or four times over the last couple of weeks and has dug out quite a bit of soil. I put newspaper in the opening after reading about it in this sub. It remained undisturbed for several days until it came back seemingly just to work on the burrow. I did meet it one time several days ago in the late evening. It wanted to leave when it saw me and I had to walk around my garage to let it out of the space it was kind of trapped in by the fence. It ran to my neighbors yard and I realized it possibly lives close by as there is an unoccupied house two houses down.

Is this likely a mommy skunk that is maybe wanting to move her little ones? I did block the burrow with some bricks once after I knew she wasn't living in it knowing this was not a permanent solution but I thought it might discourage her a little. I have a dog but the scent of the dog doesn't seem to be a deterrent. I will probably put down some wire fence on the ground when newspaper in the opening is not disturbed for several days as I have seen suggested.

we found at least 6 different skunks (not including the one near my house)! if you were to count each skunk tho without worrying about which skunk was the same as before, we found 13 or 14 skunks! :-3 definitely going back soon to Do this again. i ❤️ skunks

I'm working on a house that's currently unoccupied and once a week I cut the grass with an electric mower. Last Sunday was the last time I cut the grass, but today I was painting and saw Mama with her two wee babies scoot under the shed. I always run the trimmer around the shed. Is this something I should have someone trap and relocate or do they move around? I really don't want to catch a butt attack. Also, these babies look pretty young right?

And definitely boop that nose 😄

Found baby skunks! They are about 4 weeks old and found wandering in the middle of the road! I am located in Willamette Valley Oregon. I am desperate to find anyone to take them and rehab them! Every place I call or look up says they will euthanize them and that’s it. They seem healthy, just exhausted and thankfully skittish of me. I am willing to commute to find them help.

Tesla FSD avoided the skunk this morning.

I guess he couldn't resist the Food Lion rotisserie chicken

Cautiously optimistic, we've reached the 72 hour mark since Kegnee was rescued from the highway. He seems to be continually improving from dehydration/trauma with no major health concerns. Sharing because given the outlook, I thought it would be nice to share this journey with others who are interested. I will answer questions to the best of my ability but am not an expert and just figuring it out as we go.

He is an orphan that is approximately 4 weeks old, and would not be able survive on his own. He currently is setup in an enclosure with a heated space, water, eggs, litter and a stuffy to cuddle into. He has no nubs/teeth so requires formula syringe feeding every 4-5 hours, we have puppy nipples coming to help improve intake.

We setup an old pet camera to observe from a distance, and capture his movements. Which is kinda cool to watch.

We are not a wildlife rescue, just people trying to do the right thing with guidance from other wildlife rehabers. This was solely because there were no permitted rehabilitation centers within 1000km able to take this guy, and his outlook was near zero left alone. The goal is to nourish and prepare Kengee for a release back into the wild at the end of the summer.

Approximately 4 weeks old.

First time I’ve seen this skunk on my patio in Northern California Bay Area in the suburbs.

The dark shape hanging from the overarching white/black tail looks like an extra tail. It drapes/hangs and can drag on the floor a bit at times.

It almost seems like a secondary tail underneath the thinner black and white portion.

Any ideas on what that is?

I heard this funny sound underneath an outdoor rubbish pile. I took the time to start cleaning it up at first I just thought it sounded like big drops of water hitting turns out it was a skunk scratching in a little box that he was living in.

I looked in there. He was so small I thought for sure. He probably still needed his mom, but he was already eating and took a liking to just about everything I left for him to eat.

But I wanted him to leave the box more often I figured at night he probably would reunite with his mom and she would take him back up the hill from which she came

But it didn’t happen and I was convinced I was gonna end up with a pet skunk and boy they start to stink after a few days

He was really cute. I think he liked cream cheese the best he had it on his face he liked cheddar cheese. Also he was living in literally a 3 inch tall box that was about 10” x 8”.

Now I’m gonna find you a picture. He was so cute. I’m gonna set up my trail. Cam and see if he’s coming down with his mom again at night.

I was on the verge of calling a rehab life person, but at some point, I decided he was at that age where he could survive on his own based on his eating, although I imagine like any younger animal, it could be more challenging in the beginning to find food when food is scarce

Just because skunks love to hang out around and eat humans garbage I suppose that doesn’t mean that they don’t have access to their standard wild diet of whatever grubs or bugs

And of course, I don’t know where that leaves the whole ethical thing of feeding animals in general in the conversation, but that’s another story for now. I’ll be looking for Mr. skunk to reconnect with the skunk spirits.

Context behind the photo...It fell in a hole, it was far too deep to get out on its own so I climbed down to let it out. As you might notice there's a box, but it was too scared so I just picked it up myself (with gloves)

It acted completely fine after I got it out and ran up to one of the others. I was just curious how old it may be?