raccoon help

any suggestions for a coon that is in an attic with its babies and refuses to enter a cage trap. I have tried for a week with four cage traps set with fish, dog food, peanut butter and fish oil. She has to walk right by the traps to get to a garage door that she lifts up to get out at night and hunt for food. I would use a foothold but the place has cats all over. Thanks in advance

Sounds like she has been in a cage before. If she has, she will be hard to get into another cage. Sometimes a bigger cage will work. Maybe a dp trap. Something different. Do you know what you are going to do with the young when you catch the mother?

I started with two regular sized coon cage traps and then added two big bobcat cage traps with gillutine doors. She won't go in any of them. I feel I could catch her in a dp but worry about the cats. I went into the attic again today with a spot light and the coon was with her babies and boy are they small. So if I catch the mom I plan to extract the babies and put them in a dog crate and relocate the mother and litter ten miles away.

Set the traps outdoors, blow her mind with smell and she needs to see something wade up a paper towel. Put some bait outside the trap also. They eat with thee nose. I have been using those single slice spam. But you may get other animals. Try grape jelly. I never put any bait on the ground, I always put it on a leaf or something. JMO

I will try the trap outside. I have put bait outside the cages and she won't touch it. I have enough bait in each trap if she gets caught she will eat good for the night.

What are you using for bait?

can of sardines in one, dog food and fish oil in another, lucky charms in the third and peanut butter and dog food mix in the last

If you can get the kits when she is gone and put them in a cage where she would have to go threw the box trap to get to the kits .

I agree but every time I go there she is in the attic.

Catch pole...be gentle.....have rabies vaccine....and remove the kits w/ gloves....if not....refer

Someone attempted to remove a raccoon from this ridge line with a positive set, which turned into a SS. Be careful with positive sets especially when their young are present, they will tear through to make entry, or exit safely. I didn't bother trying to utilize the roof for trapping after I heard the horror story from the tenant on the last person who tried to trap for it. Opinions will vary but I ground trapped for it by placing a couple of in your face traps around the travel routes to the house and placed a trap around the trash cans. Did not use any fish based lure or bait, just a sweet paste with a heavy odor. I believe in cage presentation and that sometimes you have to get creative, but it isn't the end all be all method.

thank you everyone for your replies and help. I am going to try a few different things this weekend and see what happens. The thought of trying to corner her and using a catch pole sounds to risky for me, especially walking on studs and realizing one slip and
I go through the drywall. She is also very aggressive when I get within twenty feet of the pups. Have a great day, Guy

Very well put thought process. Knowing your abilities and limitations will bring you a long way. Takes time to learn to handle animals, and even when you think you're sound in that training, other obstacles arise. Keep learning, it will come and the thought of removing an animal with a catch pole will be second nature. Just realize due to the fact wildlife is so unpredictable there are big risks in removing them in that manner. Not only for you but the homeowner/tenants as well.

Here is a video I put together for trap shy raccoons:
https://youtu.be/bnG8f2w5OGI

Nice traps and video. JMO..but you don't need to use a specific trap for trap shy raccoons. If someone is having issues with avoidance with traps before they go out and drop a ton of money on a single cage for an animal. They should use a camera to see what that animal is doing or if the animal even approaches the trap and then try to correct or improve the trapping method by actually seeing what the animal is doing. Every Tech should have a camera in their bag of tools for the job.

The Trap that was secured to the roof they avoided like the plague and tore into the roof to avoid the Trap. When I asked the tenant where the tech placed the ground traps, the traps the tech used in the yard were nowhere near the travel routes to get up onto the roof for the raccoons. Both avoided similar cages that were used by another tech, both went into similar cages used with nothing more than just lure and exposed trap bed floor/pan. Nothing more than a $50 cage, no fancy complicated bait and lure systems. Set and go trap method. The tech gave some lame excuse why the raccoons wouldn't go into the cages. They made some money and stopped trapping services. Does it always work like that...nope but knowing the animal you're after will benefit you along with using cameras to see what the animal is doing. Downside to this job was as I pulled up I caught the tenant feeding the raccoon in the cage.

Dog proofs and 220s have usually worked for me on a trap shy raccoon. Catching the pups and putting them in a cage sounds as though it should be a sure thing. I have never had it work for me.
Good luck.
Our success rate is very high with eviction products when the pups are very small and in a confined space like a chimney or small attic. Eviction paste is a important tool . It eliminates trap shy worries.

Just finished a raccoon job , Set a cam & made sure mom coon went outlast night, Removed 3 young from wall nest yesterday, Closed soffit opening & set cage trap. Mom was waiting this morning. Love when they go that fast & easy.

finally caught the mom. I tried everything to remove her, including eviction lure. The home owner called me and said the raccoon was up a big pine tree so I went out there and removed the kits from the attic and placed them in a small cage trap and then set a big cage trap in front of them. The next morning I had her waiting for me and a nice pay check. I learned a lot from this experience.

Raccoon raised the garage door?

GOOD JOB !

I had one pry a loose board and go in my chicken house ever night and eat eggs. The board would flop back against the chicken house after it went in and out. How it found that loose board I will never know. Sometimes they can be pretty frustrating. That one took me a couple nights to figure out. Ha!

Good job on the coon. We have to kill them all here in IL. If I can do it I find them and shoot them with CB caps. The home owners usually do not care. They just want them out of the house.

Many go to a positive sets with longer wire trigger cage traps. I don't get many chances since our coon numbers have been low, but when I have used this set up it has worked great. The trap can be secured to a wall vertically or horizontally, using a flush mount set up or a nose cone made to fit. A trap with a built in nose cone will also work. I keep in touch with others who do this regularly who have told me that a smart coon can sometimes hole up for a week or two.