Wildlife Guides · Baby Animal Identification
Baby Raccoon Age Chart: How Old Is That Kit?
Real rescue photos and measurements for every stage, from a two-ounce newborn to a kit ready to leave the den. Age it first — because with raccoons, the age decides whether you wait for the mother or call for help tonight.
About the photographs on this page. Every image here was taken by licensed wildlife rehabilitators at CritterAid Wildlife Rescue and is used with their permission. Rehabbers are trained and carry pre-exposure rabies vaccination — the gloves-always rule below applies to everyone else.
On this page
Before You Touch It
This section comes first for a reason. Raccoon kits are not baby rabbits or baby squirrels, and the handling rules are not the same. Two health issues make bare-handed contact genuinely unwise even with a kit whose eyes haven't opened.
Wear gloves. Every time, at every age.
- Raccoon roundworm. Baylisascaris procyonis is carried by raccoons throughout much of the United States and is shed as eggs in their feces. Human cases are rare but can be severe, and children are at higher risk because of hand-to-mouth contact. The eggs are extremely durable in the environment. The CDC's raccoon roundworm overview covers the risk and what exposure looks like.
- Rabies. Raccoons are a rabies vector species across most of their range. A kit too young to have opened its eyes is not a meaningful rabies risk, but the rule exists because people misjudge age constantly — and because any bite or scratch from a raccoon of any size means calling your local health department, not waiting to see.
- State law. In most states, possessing a raccoon without a permit is illegal, and some states restrict or prohibit rehabilitating rabies vector species altogether. Rules differ enormously by state, so check yours before you move an animal anywhere.
- Keep children and pets away entirely. Not "supervised" — away.
None of this means a kit that needs help shouldn't get it. It means you handle it with disposable gloves, in a ventilated cardboard box with a towel, and you wash thoroughly afterward. Then you make a phone call rather than a plan.
Baby Raccoon Age Chart, Week by Week
Raccoon kits develop far more slowly than most backyard mammals. Where a cottontail is independent in three weeks, a raccoon kit spends roughly two months in the den and stays with its mother for the better part of a year. That long timeline is exactly why age matters so much here — a kit found alone is a very different situation at three weeks than at three months.
Born blind and deaf in a tree cavity, chimney, or attic. The mask is already there — visible as dark pigment across the face before the fur is thick enough to show it properly.
- Weight: roughly 60–75 grams at birth, about 2 to 2.5 ounces
- Length: 4–5 inches, nose to base of tail
- Eyes: sealed · Ears: canals closed
- Coat: thin and light; faint mask pigment; tail rings barely visible
- Umbilical cord: may still be attached in the first few days — the single most definitive newborn marker
- Sound: a high twittering chirp that people routinely mistake for birds in a chimney
The coat fills in and the mask begins to darken from faint pigment into the marking everyone recognizes.
- Weight: about 100–250 grams
- Eyes: still closed
- Coat: soft and dense; mask darkening; tail rings emerging
- Movement: squirms and pushes; no coordinated crawling yet
The markings arrive in full. By the end of week two the mask is unmistakable and the tail rings are sharply defined, which makes this the easiest stage to identify from a photo.
- Weight: about 250–400 grams
- Eyes: still closed through most of this window
- Coat: dense grey-brown; mask fully dark; tail rings distinct
- Paws: front paws clearly hand-like, with long separated digits and pale claws
- Movement: crawls and pushes with the hind legs; cannot stand
The eyes open somewhere around 18 to 24 days, with the ear canals opening at about the same time. This is the single clearest milestone on the chart: open eyes means at least three weeks old.
- Weight: roughly 400–600 grams
- Eyes: open, dark, initially unfocused
- Movement: pushing up onto all four legs, wobbly and unsteady
- Teeth: first incisors breaking through
Now recognizably a small raccoon. Walking properly, climbing inside the den, and very loud — chittering, churring, and squalling constantly.
- Weight: roughly 700 grams to 1.2 kilograms, about 1.5 to 2.5 pounds
- Movement: walks confidently, begins climbing
- Behavior: the front paws start doing what raccoon paws do — grasping, turning, investigating everything
The kits start following their mother out of the den on foraging trips, usually after dark. Weaning happens gradually across this window and into the third or fourth month.
- Weight: roughly 1.5–2.5 kilograms, 3 to 5 pounds
- Behavior: travels in a group behind the mother; climbs well; still nursing intermittently
- Found alone: still abnormal at this age — kits this size do not forage independently
Fully weaned and foraging, but still traveling with the mother and often with siblings. In northern climates like Michigan, kits commonly den with their mother through their first winter and disperse the following spring.
- Weight: 3 kilograms and climbing toward adult size
- Appearance: essentially a small adult — the mask, rings, and proportions are all mature
- Found alone: a healthy, alert juvenile at this stage may genuinely be fine — judge on condition and behavior, not on the absence of a mother
Baby Raccoon Size Chart by Age
If you can weigh the kit, weight is the single most reliable way to age it — more reliable than length, since raccoons vary widely in build. A kitchen scale and a towel-lined container will get you within a week of the true age at any stage under two months.
| Age | Eyes | Weight | Mask & rings | Movement | Alone = ? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–1 week | Closed | 60–75 g | Faint pigment | Squirms only | Needs help |
| 1–2 weeks | Closed | 100–250 g | Darkening | Squirms | Needs help |
| 2–3 weeks | Closed | 250–400 g | Fully defined | Crawls | Needs help |
| 3–4 weeks | Open | 400–600 g | Fully defined | Stands, wobbly | Needs help |
| 5–7 weeks | Open | 0.7–1.2 kg | Full | Walks, climbs | Needs help |
| 8–12 weeks | Open | 1.5–2.5 kg | Full | Follows mother | Usually needs help |
| 4–12 months | Open | 3 kg+ | Full | Independent forager | Often fine |
A newborn raccoon weighs about as much as a deck of cards. By twelve weeks it is roughly the size of a small house cat. That is the whole span of the chart above, and it happens in under three months.
Is It Even a Raccoon?
Worth thirty seconds before you use the chart, because newborn mammals look remarkably alike and a misidentification sends you down the wrong care path entirely. Baby squirrels in particular get called raccoons constantly.
It's a raccoon if…
There's a dark band across the eyes, even faint. The tail is short, thick, and shows rings. The front paws are hand-like with five long separated digits and pale claws.
It's probably a squirrel if…
The tail is long, thin, and hairless or lightly furred with no rings. There's no mask band at all. Newborns are bright pink and completely bare rather than lightly furred.
Opossums are the other common mixup: pointed white face, no mask, naked rat-like tail, and joeys are pouch-bound at sizes where a raccoon kit would already be furred. If you're unsure, photograph the tail and the front paws specifically — that's what a rehabber will ask you for.
The Reunion Window
Here is the part most people get wrong. A raccoon kit found on the ground is very often not orphaned — it has been dropped mid-move. Mother raccoons relocate their litters regularly, carrying kits one at a time in their mouths, and a kit that slips loose gets left behind while she completes the trip with the others. She comes back for it.
She also cannot come back in daylight. Raccoons are nocturnal, and a mother will not approach a kit in an open yard with people and dogs moving around. Nearly every failed reunion fails because someone tried it at two in the afternoon and gave up by four.
Give her one full night before you do anything else
Warm the kit. Put a bottle of warm water or a sock of uncooked rice, microwaved briefly, under a towel in the box — never directly against the animal.
Place the open box at the base of the tree, chimney, or structure where you believe the den is, or as close to where you found the kit as is safe. Not indoors, not in a garage.
Bring pets in. Keep people, lights, and noise away from that side of the house. Watch from a window if you want, but do not go outside to check.
Gone means she took it, and you're done. Still there after a full night means she isn't coming, and now you call a licensed rehabilitator with the kit's age from the chart above.
Human scent will not make a mother raccoon reject her kit. The idea that touching a wild baby dooms it is one of the most persistent myths in wildlife, and it costs animals their best chance every spring. If you handled a kit with gloves and then put it back out, she will still take it.
When It Genuinely Needs Help Tonight
Skip the reunion attempt entirely and call a rehabilitator straight away if any of these apply:
Visible injury or blood
Including anything that has been in a cat or dog's mouth. Puncture wounds get infected fast and often aren't obvious under fur.
Cold, limp, or unresponsive
A kit that doesn't react to being handled is in trouble. Warm it and call — do not attempt a reunion with a kit in this condition.
Flies or fly eggs
Small yellow-white clusters around the eyes, ears, nose, or genitals. This is an emergency and it moves quickly.
The mother is known dead
A roadkill adult near a den, or a litter found after a tree came down or a chimney was capped. There is no reunion to attempt.
One more: a kit that approaches you, follows you, or shows no fear at all is not friendly — it's usually a kit that has been alone long enough to be desperate, dehydrated, or unwell. Treat it as urgent rather than charming.
While you wait for a call back, the right holding conditions are a ventilated cardboard box with a soft towel, somewhere dark, warm, and completely silent. Offer nothing to eat and nothing to drink. Cow's milk, kitten formula, and water from a syringe all cause serious harm to raccoon kits, and a dehydrated animal cannot process food safely anyway. That is a rehabilitator's job, not yours.
Why Raccoons Aren't Like Rabbits
If you've read advice about finding baby wildlife before, most of it was probably written about rabbits or deer — animals whose mothers deliberately stay away and whose young are independent within weeks. That advice actively misleads people about raccoons.
| Cottontail rabbit | Raccoon | |
|---|---|---|
| Eyes open | 7–10 days | 18–24 days |
| Leaves the nest or den | 15–20 days | 8–12 weeks |
| Fully independent | 3–5 weeks | 8–12 months |
| Mother's pattern | Visits twice daily, otherwise absent by design | Dens with the kits; travels with them for months |
| Found alone | Usually normal — leave it | Usually abnormal under 3 months |
The practical upshot: a palm-sized rabbit alone in the grass is a success story, and a palm-sized raccoon alone in the grass is a problem. If you're trying to identify a different species, our baby rabbit age chart and baby squirrel age chart follow the same format with the developmental timelines that actually apply to those animals.
Finding a Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator
Rehabilitators are licensed by the state and are overwhelmingly unpaid volunteers working from their own homes. Raccoons are among the most demanding animals they take in — long care timelines, strict disease protocols, and permit restrictions that vary state to state — so call early rather than after a few days of trying to manage it yourself.
Most state wildlife agencies publish a searchable list. Michigan's is the DNR Directory of Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitators; search your own state's natural resources or fish and wildlife department for the equivalent. Note that not every rehabber on a list is permitted for raccoons specifically, so say "raccoon kit" when you call.
Have three things ready: the age from the chart above, exactly where you found it and how long ago, and whether it was warm or cold when you picked it up. Those three answers determine what happens next.
Photo credit
All photographs on this page were provided by CritterAid Wildlife Rescue, a 501(c)(3) wildlife rescue in Tarpon Springs, Florida, and are used with permission. CritterAid takes in orphaned and injured wildlife year-round and runs entirely on donations. If this chart helped you, please consider supporting their work.
Common Questions
How old is a baby raccoon when its eyes open?
Around 18 to 24 days, with the ear canals opening at about the same time. Open eyes are the most reliable single marker on the chart — a kit with open eyes is at least three weeks old.
How can I tell how old a baby raccoon is?
Work through three things in order: whether the eyes are open, the weight, and whether it can stand. Eyes closed and under 400 grams puts it under three weeks. Eyes open and walking confidently puts it past five weeks. Following a mother outdoors puts it past two months.
Is a baby raccoon alone always orphaned?
No. Mother raccoons move their litters one kit at a time and sometimes drop one along the way. If the kit is warm and uninjured, warming it and placing it out at dusk near the den site gives her a full night to retrieve it, which she frequently will.
Will the mother reject a baby raccoon that has been touched?
No. Human scent does not cause a mother raccoon to abandon her kit. Handle with gloves for your own safety, then return the kit — it does not reduce the chance of a reunion.
Is it safe to handle a baby raccoon?
Only with gloves, and only briefly. Raccoons carry Baylisascaris roundworm, whose eggs are shed in feces and are durable in the environment, and raccoons are a rabies vector species across most of their range. Keep children and pets away entirely, and wash thoroughly afterward.
How do I tell a baby raccoon from a baby squirrel?
Look at the tail and the front paws. A raccoon kit has a short thick tail with rings and hand-like front paws with five long separated digits, plus a dark band across the eyes even when faint. A baby squirrel has a long thin tail with no rings and no mask at all.
When do baby raccoons leave the den?
They begin following their mother out on nighttime foraging trips at roughly 8 to 12 weeks. They do not become independent then — most stay with the mother for eight months to a year, and in northern states they commonly den with her through their first winter.
Can I keep or raise a baby raccoon?
In most states it is illegal without a permit, and some states restrict rehabilitation of rabies vector species entirely. Beyond the law, raccoon kits raised by hand rarely develop the wariness they need and frequently cannot be released. Contact a licensed rehabilitator instead.
Keep Reading
Newborn Raccoons: The Complete Guide
The full picture — what kits are called, what they eat, how dens work, and everything this chart doesn't cover.
Baby Rabbit Age Chart
The same stage-by-stage identification for wild cottontails, whose timeline runs the opposite way.
Baby Squirrel Age Chart
Week-by-week photos and measurements for grey squirrel pups.
All Wildlife Guides
Identification and habitat guides written from a working 30-acre habitat in mid-Michigan.
The Whispering Woods
A children's book about a girl named Elara, a puppy named Scout, and the forest animals they meet — written on the same 30 acres of Michigan habitat where the wildlife in these guides actually lives.
See the bookPrivate Lands Wildlife is a 501(c)(3) wildlife habitat nonprofit in Gratiot County, Michigan. This guide is educational and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, veterinarian, or public health authority. If you have been bitten or scratched by a raccoon, contact your local health department immediately.