Raccoons are often seen as masked bandits of the night, rifling through trash cans as they stalk around looking for easy meals. But is this really an accurate representation of what raccoons eat?
While raccoons do thrive in cities by eating leftover compost and food scraps, these human made foods aren’t actually their original, natural diet. These opportunistic omnivores also consume a vast range of plant and animal matter from the abundant fruit in backyard apple trees to hosts of crayfish and frogs living in country streams.
But discovering what raccoons are actually eating near you depends on observing your local environment and understanding their foraging habits within it.
So today we’ll go deep into the complete diet of a raccoon. We’ll cover their favorite and most abundant foods, as well as how their diets change with the seasons and your local ecosystem!
The Raccoon’s Comprehensive Menu: What They Actually Eat
While raccoon diets are highly variable according to local conditions, here’s an overall breakdown of the common food categories and specific items raccoons are known to eat:
Plant-Based Foods:
- Fruits: Apples, pears, plums, grapes, cherries, melons, persimmons, berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc.)
- Nuts & Seeds: Acorns, walnuts, peanuts, beechnuts, hickory nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds.
- Grains & Vegetables: Corn (a major favorite, especially from gardens/fields), peas, potatoes, squash.
- Other Plant Matter: Grasses, roots, and other vegetation when preferred foods are scarce.
Animal-Based Foods:
- Invertebrates: Insects (grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, grubs), earthworms, snails, slugs.
- Crustaceans: Crayfish (a significant favorite, especially near water).
- Amphibians & Reptiles: Frogs, salamanders, small snakes, turtles and their eggs.
- Fish: Small fish caught in shallow waters.
- Birds & Eggs: Bird eggs and nestlings when accessible (including backyard chickens & ducks)
- Small Mammals: Mice, voles, young rabbits, squirrels (less common, mostly opportunistic).
- Carrion: Dead animals they come across.
Human-Provided Foods (Often in Urban/Suburban Areas):
- Garbage: Leftovers, food scraps from trash cans and dumpsters.
- Pet Food: Cat food and dog food left outdoors.
- Bird Seed: From bird feeders.
What Are The Favorite Foods of Raccoons?
Raccoons are a lot like people in that they tend to crave foods that bring the highest caloric gain for the least amount of effort. This often includes fruit, nuts, frogs, crayfish and food scraps from the garbage.
But even more than specific “favorites” foods, it’s really more about the overall abundance and concentration of those foods.
- In places with lots of farms and orchards for example, raccoons will gorge themselves on crops like apples and corn.
- In wetlands and creek beds, raccoons absolutely love the abundance of frogs and crayfish.
- In more urban areas they go for the easy pickings like pet food and scraps from the garbage.
The main factor is how much work they have to do in order to get it. If they can get something else in greater abundance for less effort, they will.
Is It Okay To Feed Raccoons?
Raccoons are very cute and highly intelligent animals which often leads people to want to leave food out for them.
But while knowing their favorite foods might make it tempting to leave out treats, there are significant ethical considerations that strongly advise against feeding your local raccoons for several key reasons:
- Dependency: Raccoons can become reliant on human handouts and lose their natural foraging skills.
- Disease: Feeding congregates animals, increasing disease spread (like rabies or distemper) among raccoons, and potentially to pets or humans.
- Nuisance Behavior: They can become bold, aggressive, and destructive to property or crops when they associate humans with food.
How to Appreciate And Observe Raccoons Safely and Responsibly
So, if feeding raccoons is actually harmful, then what is the best way to safely appreciate and observe these fascinating animals?
Instead of luring them with food, it’s actually possible to predict where they naturally forage. By understanding how their food choices change between wild habitats and urban settings (which we’ll explore in detail next), you can begin to identify potential raccoon foraging hotspots in your own area.
- Is there a creek nearby rich with crayfish in summer?
- An oak tree dropping acorns in fall?
- A neighborhood where trash night coincides with their activity?
Thinking like this allows you to find chances to observe their natural intelligence and adaptability from a respectful distance, without altering their behavior or creating dependency. This deeper understanding is the key to truly appreciating raccoons responsibly.
Now, let’s dive into how their diets adapt, giving you the insights to see raccoons in your local area.
How Raccoon Diets Adapt: Wild Habitats vs. Urban Environments
Raccoons are one of the most successful mammals in North America largely due to their incredibly adaptable diets. They’re absolute masters of finding and exploiting the most abundant food resources in any given habitat.
But this also means that where a raccoon lives will dramatically shape what it eats and how it finds its meals. So let’s explore the key differences:
Raccoon Diets in the Wild (Natural Habitats)
A little known fact about raccoons in the wild is they rely heavily on foods that live around water sources like creeks, streams, wetlands and ponds.
Here, their famously dextrous paws are perfect for feeling underwater for crayfish, frogs, salamanders, snails, and small fish, which are often their most common staples.
At certain times of year, wild raccoons will also be drawn further away from the water’s edge to forage for plant matter like fruits, berries, nuts (like acorns and hickory nuts), and seeds. They’ll readily climb trees to access these resources.
While not primary predators of larger animals, raccoons in the wild will opportunistically hunt insects, grubs, mice, and voles. They are also notorious for raiding bird nests (both on the ground and in trees) for eggs and hatchlings during nesting season and will consume carrion they encounter.
Even in largely “wild” or rural farming country, raccoons quickly learn to exploit human-related opportunities. They might raid corn fields, vegetable gardens, orchards, or even chicken coops if poorly secured, demonstrating their knack for finding easy calories even outside city limits.
Raccoon Diets in Urban and Suburban Settings
In cities and suburbs, the raccoon diet shifts dramatically towards resources provided, intentionally or unintentionally, by humans. The single biggest factor becomes readily available, high-calorie human food waste. Raccoons become experts at navigating neighborhoods at night, targeting trash cans, dumpsters, and compost bins.
Beyond garbage, urban raccoons heavily rely on other easy handouts. Pet food left outdoors overnight is a major attractant and often becomes a primary food source. They also frequently raid bird feeders for seeds and suet.
Suburban landscapes offer other opportunities. Raccoons may pilfer fish from decorative ponds, feast on fallen fruit from ornamental trees, or raid vegetable gardens. Their intelligence and dexterity allow them to overcome simple latches and barriers.
This easy access to food often leads to higher raccoon population densities in urban areas compared to wild ones. It can also lead to behavioral changes, such as reduced fear of humans and, in some cases, begging, behaviors that underscore the importance of not intentionally feeding them.
Ultimately, whether in a dense forest or a busy city, the raccoon follows the same principle: find the most energy-rich food for the least amount of effort. Their widely varied diet across these different environments is the ultimate testament to their intelligence and remarkable adaptability.
What Do Raccoons Eat in the Winter?
In the abundant seasons leading up to winter, raccoons focus on eating as much as possible to store body fat, which is crucial for surviving the cold months. Depending on the climate’s severity, they can lose a significant portion of their body weight during winter.
In regions with harsh, freezing winters, raccoons may enter a state of torpor, a deep, hibernation-like sleep for several weeks, allowing them to conserve energy when food is scarce.
When they do venture out in the cold, their omnivorous nature is a huge advantage. They’ll seek out remaining nuts buried under snow, insects hibernating under bark or in leaf litter, and any carrion or small, vulnerable animals they can find.
I have often seen raccoons hunting frogs even in the dead of winter. They have a remarkable instinct for locating areas along streams and wetlands where ice breaks allow them to dig for hibernating frogs.
In warmer climates or urban areas with consistent human food waste, raccoons face fewer winter challenges, often continuing to eat basically the same things as they do in all the other seasons.
Do Raccoons Hunt?
While not technically predators in the purest sense, raccoons can be highly effective hunters under the right conditions.
In the wild, raccoons are surprising common hunters of small creatures like frogs, snakes, crayfish, and even insect hunting can be a highly rewarding source of nutrient.
Raccoons are also very well known to steal eggs or hatchlings from birds nests when the opportunity arises.
While it would be technically possible for raccoons to occasionally catch a small rodent like mice or squirrels (especially fresh babies still in the nest), they’re not known for their mammal or bird hunting skills.
If you live in a place that has lots of raccoons and notice an intense ball of birds alarming in the forest during spring or early summer, it’s quite possible you could be hearing the alarm signature of a nest robbing raccoon.
Along with hunting activity, raccoons are fair fishermen. They like to live close to the water and will regularly catch small fish and shellfish to munch on. Crayfish and mollusks are a few favorites that they like to pick out.
Ultimately, their hunting efforts, like all their foraging, are driven by opportunity and the principle of maximizing caloric gain for minimal effort, especially when prey like frogs or crayfish are particularly abundant.
Become a Raccoon Detective!
As we’ve explored, one of the major keys to understanding raccoons is knowing what they eat in different contexts.
This is especially true when it comes to raccoons because there is really no set diet other than whatever is most abundant in your specific area.
Whenever you find raccoon tracks, you can be sure there’s a food source nearby, so ask yourself:
- What season is it? Are there any foods in particular abundance right now like bird eggs in spring or apples in fall?
- Where is the nearest water? Are you close to any creeks or frog ponds with small catchable critters?
- How much human activity is in the area?
- What have you observed in the past about how raccoon diets change during spring, summer, fall & winter?
The most important thing is to make note of what they’re eating in your local area at different times of year.
Make some notes about what raccoons are eating in your area, and you’ll be on your way to knowing this highly intelligent animal much more intimately!
Great post! I DISLIKE raccoons (OK, I’m afraid of them :-)), but still of course want to know more about them as a naturalist. This post helps me piece together the places I see tracks – mostly near streams! – and link that info with food sources.
I never thought of the angle that looking at the easiest and closest food sources is a way to track raccoons. They definitely go for the low-hanging fruit!
I will use the food/habitat link to avoid these guys – good to keep in mind on walks where I’ve seen their mini hand prints.
Yeah! We sometimes call this ecological tracking because it uses understanding of ecology to dramatically speed up the tracking process and sometimes even bypass the need to find footprints.
Of course Diana, the bigger question is why are you afraid of Raccoons? Haha, thanks for sharing!
In the past few weeks we have discovered a Racoon visiting our garden at night. Digging up plants and almost a Rose bush. While I would not wish to harm the Racoon, I would like to know how to prevent it from completely destroying the flower garden. We live in North Phoenix Arizona!
You could try lightly mulching around the base of your roses with a strongly aromatic plant like lemon balm. I’ve been having excellent success keeping raccoons out of my compost using this method. Repeat every week or as needed to keep the scent fresh!