barn owls care sheet

mcrickydiva · #1 (**permalink**) 30-03-2007, 05:16 PM

Baby: a box to keep it in, I find canary breeding cages work great for this, 4 solid walls and a wire front which can easily be removed. I use towels on the bottom and change them everyday, just need to be chucked in washing machine and can be used again and again until the bird is old enough to go outside. If the chick is under 2 weeks old I give them a heat lamp, once older than this room temperate should be fine. I keep mine indoors till they are fully feathered, if its good weather I take them outside and let them play on the grass or take their cage outside so they can get some air.
Feeding the baby: I feed the babies a mixture of mice and day old chicks. Its not pleasant but you do have to cut up the food into small enough pieces for them to be able to knock back…chicks aren’t to bad, mice tend to pong a bit. I don’t add vitamins to the mice as they tend to have more nutritional value anyway. When the babies are still small I tend to cut the beak and legs (from the knee down) off of the chicks, just because they have sharp claws and beaks and I don’t want it to scratch the insides of the birds throat. As the bird grows you can increase the sizes of pieces of meet you give it. Vitamins are available from the IBR (Independent Bird Register). When you collect the bird from me I will give you a list of their stock etc. I feed my babies every 2 hours when they are first taken from nest, and then increase it to every 4 hours. I will feed them whenever they start asking for food, I would rather they be to fat in the first 10 weeks than to skin and grow weak bones and poor feather condition.
Adults: Most owlets are ready to go out to the aviary at 8-10 weeks, you could start by putting them out in the day and bringing them back in at night, but normally once they are out there, they want to stay there!
My aviaries for a single bird are 8ft tall x 8ft long by 4ft wide, but you could easily house them in 6 x 6 aviaries or what ever you have space for as long as its not smaller than 6 x 6 as remember when your asleep at night this is when they are going to be flying around so they need to be able to spread their wings. They will fly in day very happily to you but at night is when they are mostly active in the aviary.
You will need scales to weight the bird before you fly it. You can buy professional ones from falconry stockists online or even eBay, but you can just as easily make some out of kitchen scales, just attach some kind of perch for the bird to sit on.
You will need a glove for when you fly your bird and carry it anywhere. Some people wont use a glove for barn owls but its better for the bird has it has something tougher to grip and its better for your hand!!! You can get gloves off eBay or online stockist.
The bird will need jesses/anklets/swivels/leash, this is for when you are carrying your bird about to make sure you have a secure grip on it, these can be ordered online by just typing ‘falconry equipment’ in www.google.com and many falconry equipment dealers come up!
If you intend to fly your bird a falconry bag may come in handy, these can also be found on the same sites.
When training the bird you will need to use some kind of training line, I use ones around 100yards long, you start of close to the bird and getting it to fly to you, and then step back each time until its flying that 100yards to you straight away without trying to bugger off. Once you are happy your bird isn’t going to bugger off and the first chance it gets the training line can be taken off and you can fly the bird free, it can take several weeks to get your bird to do this but with hand reared birds it’s a million times easier especially if you have hand reared it.
You shouldn’t exercise your bird (or any animal) near busy roads or built up areas where it could get easily lost of injured! Also be aware of other peoples dogs when your out flying it, its best to go somewhere fairly quite, because just because my dogs are fine with my birds and your dogs may be to (seriously my baby owls sometimes sleep in the bed with the dogs!!!) it doesn’t mean everybody’s dog will like your birds.
To really good references you might like to look at for training owls is
‘Understanding Owls’ by Jamima Parry Jones (book)
And
‘Owls’ Jamima Parry Jones (video)
I feed my adult owls between 1-3 day old chicks or mice per day, this varies on each bird, you will find your bird has an optimum flying weight, birds of prey are naturally lazy and wont fly unless they are hungry, and from weighing your bird every time before you fly it you will work out that if your bird flies badly one day its to heavy, and if its coming straight to you every time with out waiting its probably at a good weight, or maybe slightly under, but again this varies with each bird and is something you will naturally find.
I think iv just about covered the basics, most can be sorted by common sense J
If you have any more questions or if you think iv missed something out then email me at twisted-illusions88@hotmail.com

Anthony · #2 (**permalink**) 03-04-2007, 04:04 PM

Good caresheet mate

Good rep left

martin day · #3 (**permalink**) 04-04-2007, 01:57 PM

ive been looking everywere for barn owl care sheets nice one m8
im really thinking about getting one but im worried it would keep the neighbours up all night are yours noisey ?

mcrickydiva · #4 (**permalink**) 04-04-2007, 02:30 PM

well iv got 7 BOP and all but 1 are owls and i live in a relitivly built up area....and iv had 1 complaint in over 4 years and that was from a twaty neighbour who complains about everything....so yep they make noise...but it night...u hear owls!! and a lot of people have said they enjoy hearing them...iv certainly never missed a nights sleep from them...i have more trouble from my parrot...even when shes got a cover on her!!!!!:p

martin day · #5 (**permalink**) 04-04-2007, 09:05 PM

what parrot do you have ?

mcrickydiva · #6 (**permalink**) 05-04-2007, 01:46 AM

just a ringneck but its more trouble than any of my other birds

martin day · #7 (**permalink**) 05-04-2007, 08:56 AM

ive just got a yellow one last week
hes quite bitey bless him

mcrickydiva · #8 (**permalink**) 05-04-2007, 04:15 PM

bitey? wait till he settles in and screaaaaammsssssssss the house down!!!!lol

Nursey · #9 (**permalink**) 06-04-2007, 01:19 AM

good guide there mcricky, perhaps you should tell the weights they should roughly be so they have something to go along with

i also suggest joing a good falconry forum either before or after you collect your birds, comes in handy for referencing.

HABU · #10 (**permalink**) 06-04-2007, 01:22 AM

whish we could have raptors, i can have a lion or a bear but not a kestrel or owl, doesn't make sense.

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