Hello and welcome back to Animal Wonders!

I’m Jessi and this is Ringo the raccoon! Ringo loves to play with all kinds of things and his hands are always busy getting into something or other.

And Ringo received a bunch of fun toys as gifts so I can’t wait to see which ones he likes best. [CHEERY INTRO MUSIC] Ringo is a non releasable raccoon that came to Animal Wonders in 2020. He’s grown from a teenager into an adult and while he’s incredibly fun to hang out with, he’s quite the handful at times. Raccoons are very active animals, so in order to keep Ringo happy and healthy, we provide him with a variety of enrichment items.

Each one is designed to elicit a natural behavior he might do in the wild. For example, raccoons are always looking for a good meal, and they use many of their senses in the search. So hiding his meals in objects that make him search for his food is a nice way to have him actively forage.

Or putting food in puzzle feeders makes him have to think about how to get to the treats. So what better way to keep him busy than by giving him lots of toys! Thank you to everyone who sent him a toy, I’m excited to see what he does with them.

And to make this even more fun, I want to make it into a game and see which one he likes best. Now in order to know which kind of toy he prefers, I’d like to have him give each one a score so we can see how they rank. And whatever toy ranks highest, I’ll make sure he gets plenty of them.

I need some kind of scoring system to keep track, so this is what I’ve come up with: The toy will get one point for each kind of interaction Ringo gives it. So the toy gets one point if he: Smells it Touches with his nose. Touches it with his hand Licks it.

Bites it, or Puts it in his water bowl. These are the toys I’ll be giving to

Ringo: a clear puzzle toy, a feather stuffy, a red moon ball, coconut with shredded paper, and a green plastic donut on a branch. So without further ado, let’s get this raccoon some toys! Let’s start with the clear puzzle toy with balls inside. This could also include bits of his meals or treats in the future.

Live narration Score Next we have the feather stuffy. I wonder if he’ll enjoy those feathers! Live narration Score And now let’s try the red moon ball.

Will he roll it or pick it up and put it in his water? Let’s see! Live narration Score.

Next up is the coconut with shredded paper. Another puzzle toy that could hide some treats inside. Today it’s just filled with a bundle of crinkly paper.

Will he reach inside to feel around? Live narration Score And finally we have the green plastic donut on a branch. I’m excited to see what he's going to do with this!

Live narration Score. Ringo, that was so much fun! I think he thoroughly enjoyed himself!

And many of the toys can be used again as forage feeders to hide his food in so he has to search with his busy hands. Here you go buddy! *puts food in a few puzzle feeders to keep him busy while we finish filming. So with a final tally, the ___ was the winner, which means he’s definitely going to get more things like that in the future!

If you’d like to send Ringo his favorite toys I’ll add them to our Amazon Wishlist, the link is in the description. I’ll also add a few others to give him some new options as well! I hope you enjoyed seeing Ringo explore and have fun!

Please remember that Ringo is not a pet and raccoons do not do well in human homes. Ringo is a non releasable wild animal and Animal Wonders has special licensing and an educated staff to help care for him because raccoons are challenging to care for! But it can be fun and rewarding and we love doing the hard work if it means Ringo is happy and healthy.

Thanks for watching! If you’d like to see more of our animals and how we care for them, be sure to subscribe and we’ll see you soon! Bye! [BOLD OUTRO MUSIC].