Stinky Garden Family

Hi, Opossumboy --- Skunks are susceptible to rabies and distemper, and their distemper and rabies can be carrier to your dogs and cats, so it is best to not feed them and entice lots of them to congregate for the food. Example, with trigger warning: A number of years ago, we had a cozy situation with raccoons, lots of them coming for food, and then they passed distemper on to the local dogs and we had lots of pets dying.

This story stinks.

When your aromatic family decides to move from your backyard, if you are not interested in them returning to raise their next family, I have successfully deterred wild animals from making a home under my shed by using ammonia soaked rags in the hole they used to enter.

One dark morning I ran out in my boxers to retrieve the paper. The cat was there so and I bent down to pet it only to have a skunk tail raised, literally in my face. We both froze, the skunk eyeing me over his shoulder. The skunk relaxed and walked away.
One day I saw the dog backing into the house rather than turning around. I looked out to see a skunk go under the fence. He's been squirted before.
The skunks kill and eat the snails in the lettuce bed, killing every one without breaking the tender lettuce seedlings. I kept finding snail shells amongst the lettuce then figured it out. Truly amazing and wonderful critters.

They figure out how to get in through pet doors, but not always how to get back out.

We keep our yard dark at night and my night vision is excellent. Years ago, as I stood outside stargazing on a new/no moon night, I suddenly realized there was a small figure coming directly toward me------small flashes of white stripes. Uh-oh. It was too late for me to get out of its path, so I froze. The Skunk walked up, stopped and then sniffed my ankle. I could feel its wet nose. As soon as s/he realized I was a warm body, off s/he went. ----------- I have seen Skunks hunting so boldly in my yard that they ignore my flashlight and even my calling out to them. We love having them around. Word of warning, though: If a Skunk lets loose with its full mephitic (ha) payload under your house, it will take upwards of three months for the smell to dissipate.

I love skunk families. Love to see a mama waddling along with a trail of little ones behind her. And then when the babies get a bit older, they tussle with each other, tumbling around in a ball so that you can’t tell one from another. Slinky, flexible little guys.

I have a mom with 4 babies in my yard and I adore seeing them every night. I keep the bird baths clean & full and one on the ground low for them.

Very cute picture and story.
When they get "big enough" to start walking around they stick to Mom in such a way that you can't see how many of them there are. All you see is a whole bunch of wiggling black and white fur. It is so cute .
Last year I managed to count them as they left the backyard and had to (more or less) file one behind the other : there were 7 of them ! Good luck Mommy finding them food !

We had a family of skunks sharing our yard last year. Our dog and two cats and they got along just fine. Cats ignored them completely and the dog would follow them around the yard, maintaining a nice social distance. Very cute to watch. The skunk would stop, turn around, look at and check on the dog. Dog would stop, sit, and patiently wait for the critter to move on. Then the march continued. When the skunk got busy doing something else, the dog lost interest and walked away. The only odor issue was that skunks mark their path and the dog would sniff at it, so her snout had a little skunky smell sometimes. Just a little. No problem.

Where I grew up keeping skunks as pets "wood's kitties" was legal. But animal rights people justifiably worked to put an end to that de-skunking/de-sexing process that helped to make the cute things "safer" for humans.

Congratulations Jackie! How totally cool. Maybe you’ll know the answer to this: Is dry cat chow ok for skunks?

I used to put a bowl of cat chow out for the two orphan raccoons I raised and released. Pretty soon the two raccoons turned into a mob descending on me every evening. Then a skunk got in on the act. I remember once when I was going out in the twilight with chow: The skunk was blocking my way, so I put my foot under it and sent it flying several feet. It didn’t seem to mind, but just thundered over to the food bowl with the raccoons.

Very cool.... Hope you enjoy their company.