Do Racoons Wash Their Food Before Eating It

Instead it s all about making their paws more sensitive to touch so they.

Do racoons wash their food before eating it. This behavior has led to a widespread belief that raccoons wash their food before eating or that they need to soften their food. That being said if you see them near a freshwater source you may catch them dunking their food in the water before eating it. Raccoons in the wild can be seen rubbing their hands together even when they are not holding anything. Even if they do they don t look too happy about it.

However there is more to it than that. Raccoons are sometimes thought to be fastidious about cleaning. In keeping with their non fussy reputation raccoons don t bother to wash their food before eating it either. Scientists speculated in the past that raccoons suffered from chronic dry mouth or a shortage of salivary glands but studies disproved those theories.

Raccoons in captivity have been observed washing their food which is actually repeated dipping and rolling of food items in water. In fact their scientific name procyon lotor literally means washing bear. The old story is that raccoons wash their food before eating it. Raccoons usually wet their food before eating it.

One of the most puzzling things raccoons do with their nimble paws makes them seem like germophobes. Some other kinds of racoons eat without washing their food. And it has been noticed that racoons refuse to eat if they cannot find water around. But there is one kind of furry mammals called racoons which wash their food before eating.

Read on to learn why raccoons wash their food and what that means. What they discovered is that the propensity for raccoons to dip food in water actually has little to do with washing it. They do this not to wash it off but to better figure out what it is with the many sense receptors in their hands. Whenever they eat near water source raccoons wash food by dunking it in the water and rolling it around in their paws.

The myth might have originated by watching raccoons in captivity who will often dip their food in water before eating it. Most observations of raccoons occur around water leading to the myth that they wash their food before. Researchers suggest they may be examining it and removing any unwanted parts. Whenever they eat near a water source apparently raccoons wash food by dunking it in water and rolling it around in their paws.