I am looking to raise a Great Horned Owl nestling anyone have any recipes for food and amount and frequency of feedings.

Unless you already have a Journeyman Falconer's License, what you are proposing is illegal. If you had gone through a Apprentice program with a Redtail, you would have gotten enough information on the feeding of raptors and would have the guidance of an experienced falconer. If you already have the owlet, turn it over to your local wildlife officials to avoid prosecution. If you already have a Journeyman's license and your advisor is of no help in feeding owls, use mice. Lots of mice. Contact www.northwoodsfalconrey.com for a list of suppliers of good quality raptor food.

twilli:

Well, you have been properly instructed by a citizen of our great "Golden State on what to do! Funny, he didn't tell you what to do with a a very small predator bird in the meantime. Assuming that you are so stupid as to follow his advice (Want to be questioned by NY Conservation, NY State Troopers, etc) let me offer some words before the bunny huggers arrive to take him/her off your hands. Warm milk mixed into warmed (not hot) chopped beef fed very slowly is good if the bird has eyes open, is alert and "snaps" (with the beak) If without feathers and only has "fuzz" then get a local vet to help out. ( Somebody who will help you not to get arrested as apparently our California tree hugger would like - but will help you to get this bird to get old enough to fly away -without the aid of bureaucrats who run so called "wild life assistance" programs.

Feed a raptor milk and beef? This isn't a kitten, it's a bird. They don't eat milk, especially baby owls don't eat milk. If you already have the thing, feed it chicken. Beef it far too rich for a bird. Rabbit will work, as well, but contrary to your fellow Empire Stater, wildlife rehab people, licensed by the Fish and Game, know a low more about feeding baby birds than he gives them credit for.

Best bet is to contact New York State Falconry Assn 3086 Haskell Rd, Cuba NY 14727-9432. Birds are fragile. That's why falconer's are required to be licensed!

Take Oldsarge's advice if you want the owl to survive !!! There is nearby me, in NE PA, a raptor rescue center .If you want to help raptors you should contribute to one of these organizations and bring the owl to them [since it's illegal to keep wild creatures in NY without proper licenses].

I was introduced to falconry in Oregon by a woman Master Falconer. She also worked for Oregon Dept. Fish & Wildlife, and now works for US Dept. of Fish/Game.

Trust me. These "bureaucrats" know their stuff, and also get it done!

But I'm reminded of the counsel -- If you find a baby bird, leave it alone! Momma will be back for it! They end up on the ground from time to time while learning to fledge.

And you don't want to be messing with a baby GHO if the mother shows up.Her talons will do a great amount of damage to you !!!

I would go visit the locaal zoo and try to get acquainted with the birds of prey keeper.

We rescuded this GH owl along our drive in Dec 2006. Since it was late in the day we were told to feed her chicken, pork or beef liver. Mice would be better if we could catch some.
She had a broken wing. By the time we found her and got her to the rescues vet she had to much infection to save.




Those raptor rescue groups know what they are doing and I take my hat off to them. Amazing the people who called me back after I had left messages I had Hootie and needed help for her.

Al

I think Owls are neat birds, dumb as a box of rocks and worthless for falconry, but neat!

I have a couple of books on falconry and a few dvds. One by that Jemina Parry (I think that's her name).

Anyway she works with some owls, but they are kind of dense.

Euros call Great Horned Owls the North American Eagle Owl. I guess we lucked out as far as birds go and got the 3rd biggest owl in the world on our continent.

They are the only member of the Eagle Owl group in the Americas, and like I said 3rd largest owl over all.

Not sure of their purpose in falconry. I guess they are more of a display bird than anything.

I love barn owls too, it's really too bad I haven't seen one in quite a few years. I have never seen one in Europe and I haven't seen on in the states in probably 10 years.

I know they are really on the decreese because they eat a really specialized diet of voles and mice and need to live in mixed woodland. Something that is shrinking!

Beebe and Webster describe the Great Horned Owl as the ideal for the suburban journeyman or master falconer. They are capable of easily taking rabbits that are cropping the greens on golf courses after hours and can equally well lift waterfowl clear of the pond hazard and deposit the kill on the bank. The drawback is that they must be acquired as "blue-eyes" and imprinted. This makes them treat the falconer as parent. Plus, they live a loooong time and can never be returned to the wild.

I'm not sure about the decrease in barnowls. In most of the U.S. farmers are becoming aware of their rapacious appetite for crop eating rodents. Nesting boxes are easy to make and install or they will be perfectly happy to live in your attic, given the chance. In the UK it is gov't policy to encourage their increase.

The problem with barn owls is they like to hunt near roads and that's usually how they end up getting whacked.

It's really a shame, I love all of our birds of prey probably to a fault.

I was driving from Casper to Riverton, Wyoming in December and I saw over 60 birds of prey on the drive.

Golden Eagles and all 3 kinds of western hawks(Buzzards) and a few buzzards (turkey vultures) (Euros call our Hawks and some of theirs Buzzards, for US a buzzard is a vulture) .

Kind of hard to beleive how in a good area they can really be common.

There are 2 Great Horned Owls living in trees in my neighbors back yard. They have been there for about 2 months. They leave at about dark to go hunting and return just before sunrise. Real neat to watch.
Regards, Keith

About 30- years ago we had a real issue with barn owls getting into elevated deer hunting blinds in west Texas for nests. We eventually had to put widows on all the blinds or there was a 100% chance the owls would be in them and what a mess!
Back then, the hunters would pitch any chicks and clean out the blinds.
I kept a fledgling chick in all white down feathers and raised it a while. Perhaps 2-3 months. It was the meanest varmint I have ever witnessed. I named it Bielzabub. I fed it canned alpo dog food on the end of a squewer. It grew up just fine and completely featherd out. I gave it to a country type zoo who new better how to care for it.
You could not put your hand in that cage without a thick elbow length leather glove. It would sieze you with those talons.
I think I would leave raising these animals to professionals.

I met a falconer that works here in Maine. He has a masters in orinthology and worked for some falconry center in Dubai.

We got to talking about owls and he told me he thought they were beautiful but stupid as could be.

Told me that if you could keep an owls attention for long enough to train them to hunt with you are very lucky.

I guess he trained some European and Asian eagle owls in Dubai but they never got to the point of trusting them in falconry.

So far I have never met a master falconer that thought a owl was worth dealing with.

When we were kids we raised an owl once....we fed it mice, and we were lucky there were plenty of mice around that year. We'd just clobber the mice and while they were still fresh & warm, dangle them over "Orly" by the tail....he (it?) always knew what to do with them. He'd just swallow them whole, and leave the tail stick out the corner of his beak for a half an hour or so. It freaked the girls out, so we loved it.

It was a kind of a miserable bastard and we never could teach it anything, but it was smart enough to keep coming back year after year for free groceries. It didn't want anything to do with you unless you had a free mouse (or some raw meat) for it.

GHO -- I have one in the trees behind the house. I think I've seen it fly between the house/barn. Also, one night it was sitting in the field. I thought it was a cat. Then it flew up to the fence post.

I "hoot" at it at night. It hoots back. So that's "my owl" and he takes care of himself.

Owls are too cool.

http://www.break.com/index/owl...-in-slow-motion.html