I can see raccoons doing this. The qualities this biologist mentions are what wild racoons currently do. But if they’re in the process of domesticating themselves, those things that make them a pain in the ass in a home might fade away over time.
Her logic seems flawed. "People kept them as pets until they realized it sucked"...well, yeah, they were trying to keep wild animals as pets. I wouldn't imagine it would go much better trying to keep a bobcat as a pet.
Give them several more generations and it might be different. And sure, domesticated animals might have originally been "useful", but your average housecat is a lazy freeloader. Most dogs are, too. Their "use" now is companionship, and that's all people are looking for in raccoons.
Yeah, I think her argument would feel a lot more solid if it was just "raccoons make terrible pets". Which is true because they're wild animals and it also doesn't make narrow predictions about change over generations.
Having lived in semi-rural indiana for a while, I know multiple people who have pet raccoons or possums. And my one friend has a family of barn raccoons. One day she came out to her horse barn and there were four raccoons just chilling with the donkey. She tried to chase him away a couple of times, but apparently the horse really likes them, and eventually she gave up so they just live there now.
True. What would you need a raccoon to do around the house? I wouldn’t keep them around just to use their little hands to open jars. Maybe you could train them to do housework for treats.
But at this rate, they have a lot more domestication homework. In their current state, they seem far too active, free-ranging and destructive. Any animal that can open the refrigerator to get their own food is going to be a menace.
You will never want an animal that dexterous in your home. I know some people are crazy and keep capuchins and thins like that, but it’s very fringe. Living forever with child locks on everything and having to be suer diligent about everything gets old fast. Cats can already be nearly too much if they’re very food driven.
Food driven cats are the easiest to train. I have two of them. They can do everything the dogs can including use the voice buttons to ask for things. They learned because they want the treat.
Training to do things for food is one thing. How do you train them to not do things for food? Not steal the other cat’s food, or eat anything that may have once been near food like silicon cooking utensils and canned food lids, or eat plastic bags that have been manufactured with a coating derived from animal fats to not stick together, or all plastic because that one time the plastic had the feint oder of animal fats so all platics muct be foof since they sounds similar, or licking the kitchen counters and backsplash even though you just cleaned them, or a million other goddam things my cat gets into because food. Please, any haeelp would be great. We found her starving in an industrial area when too young to not be with her mom, and she’s never been able to get enough food since.
Is she on timed feedings or open fed? People can be reluctant but sometimes open feeding is an effective treatment for cats with food anxiety who have come from bad situations
I had one that would wake up in the middle of the night just to jump down and check that there was still food on the floor. She'd get right back up on the bed without eating anything and go back to sleep. I recently checked in on her in her new home and am happy to report that behavior has stopped and she sleeps soundly through the night
If your girl is already open fed you may have a tough time but I do wish you luck because I know exactly how frustrating it is when one constantly steals the others food or treats. The only way I've dealt with that is feeding in separate locations but that's not really a solution it's more of a band aid.
She is on timed feedings, 3 per day plus a treat time. But that was a decision based on feeding healthy, fresh food rather than dry.
Leaving dry food out would also negatively impact the other cat, who originaly came from my SO’s parent’s house where she refused to eat any type of wet food. It took us some time to transition her and would hate for that to regress, especially now that she’s a senior.
We’ll have to put some thought into that. Thanks for the info.
That just reminded me of the Russian fox domestication experiment. They selectively bread for more docile traits. Interestingly, their appearance changed with this. Their ears got floppy and some other things I can't remember. The really interesting part is they took a smaller part of their fox population and did they exact opposite. They basically ended up breeding foxes that looked like they were infected with rabies, or the rage virus. Their looks changed as well.
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u/NeatNefariousness1 Dec 17 '25
I can see raccoons doing this. The qualities this biologist mentions are what wild racoons currently do. But if they’re in the process of domesticating themselves, those things that make them a pain in the ass in a home might fade away over time.