Do Racoons Wash Their Food

Many captive born raccoons have been observed to wash their food showing that the behavior is instinctive.

Do racoons wash their food. They actually don t wash it all they just eat it as is. Many people believe that raccons wash their food because they are trying to avoid eating dirt or that they are trying to soften their food. Raccoons in captivity have been observed washing their food which is actually repeated dipping and rolling of food items in water. The short answer for why raccoons wash their food is they don t.

Raccoons usually wet their food before eating it. Their hands have many more touch receptors than ours and they use their hands both as tools and as sense organs. In fact their scientific name procyon lotor literally means washing bear. There are some types of raccoons that don t really mind eating the food without washing it.

One of the most puzzling things raccoons do with their nimble paws makes them seem like germophobes. People often think that they are washing their food but that is not the reason for the habit. Whenever they eat near a water source apparently raccoons wash food by dunking it in water and rolling it around in their paws. Believe it or not this practice isn t considered to be washing by experts but instead a form of sensory finding out.

Scientists speculated in the past that raccoons suffered from chronic dry mouth or a shortage of salivary glands but studies disproved those theories. Because of the fact that raccoons use their front paws to be able to grasp and use tools it has developed the idea that a raccoon will dunk its food into water rolling it around before it decides to eat it. The washing behavior aids in this as the water makes their paws more sensitive. The short answer is no.

Despite popular belief that says otherwise they do not 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. Food that does not come from the water is often rubbed between their fingers or rolled on the ground. Raccoons are actually very tactile animals.

In the wild a raccoon often gets its food from water using its hands as a way to see under the water. The longer and more interesting answer is raccoons spend a lot of time around water where they search for food by probing the nooks and crannies among the pebbles and. It often looks like raccoons are washing their food especially seeing as they have food in their hands and repeatedly dunk it under the water in a washing motion. They can be compared with humans on this matter as there are so many people who are very confident to eat their food without feeling the need to wash it.