# Owls?



## Harbinger (Dec 20, 2008)

Just wondering has anyone ever kept any owls before?


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

i have a barn owl, LoveforLizards keeps them aswell, think theres another few keepers on here but cant remember there names : victory:


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## Harbinger (Dec 20, 2008)

I didnt have a clue people kept any untill i saw some video's on youtube. The only time i ever saw someone keeping them was on like wildlife sos where young ones are given to volunteers. What are they like to keep?
Have no intention of getting one just curious.


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

without wishing to sound overdramatic, :censor: hard work. my males spending his nights screaming for a female at the moment :roll: they need large aviarys and (not so much with mine) food costs can really start adding up. they also get moody and are very capeable of taking chunks out of you if they want, or even accidently as my little hellbeast did the other day. they also need flying at least every other day.

of course, they are worth every second of hardship :flrt: i love mine dearly, even though i call him every name under the sun :lol2:

the majority of owls kept by private keepers are captive bred (i have all manner of paperwork to prove mine is), its generally only specialist wild raptor rescues that can legally keep a wild born bird : victory:


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## SilverSky (Oct 2, 2010)

i have an owl, this is Simba, shes a vermiculated eagle owl, and shes my baby :flrt:


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## ipreferaflan (Oct 8, 2009)

I work at an Owl and Primate sanctuary.

We have quite a few.


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## LoveForLizards (Apr 20, 2008)

We have two barn owls and a european eagle owl :2thumb:



miss_ferret said:


> my males spending his nights screaming for a female at the moment :roll:


Awwwww :flrt::flrt: Our pair have bonded this year, no more calling from the female and waking up at stupid hours in the morning to find a random male barn owl from the local woods in the garden! Had 4 eggs off of them a couple of weeks back but decided not to incubate, get enough trouble from the two we have... :whistling2::lol2:


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

im honestly thinking of getting him a female just to shut him up :lol2: between him and the wild tawnys caling to each other all night, things are getting a tad loud out there :whistling2: no intention of breeding (flooded market and so on) but i could give the eggs a swift boil then let her sit them, think that would work?

be honest though, how hard is introducing them? do you still fly yours? i know a couple of breeders iv spoken to fly one or both of there breeding pairs but as iv not done much research beyond the basics of breeding, is this reccomended?

sorry to hijack OP :blush:


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## LoveForLizards (Apr 20, 2008)

miss_ferret said:


> im honestly thinking of getting him a female just to shut him up :lol2: between him and the wild tawnys caling to each other all night, things are getting a tad loud out there :whistling2: no intention of breeding (flooded market and so on) but i could give the eggs a swift boil then let her sit them, think that would work?
> 
> be honest though, how hard is introducing them? do you still fly yours? i know a couple of breeders iv spoken to fly one or both of there breeding pairs but as iv not done much research beyond the basics of breeding, is this reccomended?
> 
> sorry to hijack OP :blush:


We let Skye lay an entire clutch (she lay the 4 over a 7 day period, then we allowed her to sit them for a further 3 days), pulled them all at once and she hasn't shown any signs of distress at all. We've done it twice now (she lay eggs last year, too), both with the same result. I'm not sure how it'd go if a female was more broody and kept laying until she was allowed to sit some, but I would imagine putting in 'dud' eggs would be just fine. Can't see them sitting them for too long before they realise nothing's happening. 
As far as introductions go, I can only give my experience on it... which was absolutely fine. :2thumb: I expected them to take ages to settle down together but whilst they didn't bond straight away, we didn't have fights or aggression at all. They were first introduced when Skye was fully mature and Casper (original name, eh?) was 9 weeks, we had 3 people on hand and they were introduced indoors, first both tethered on separate perches close to each other, then on a large perch untethered, then both were let free, and we eventually moved them into the aviary. Keeping in mind both Casper _and _Skye were creche reared for the first 4 weeks, then imprinted in a pair until fledged. There's a very occasional spat over perching places or food but that's a hiss and a boot away with a wing or such. The person who bred ours has introduced many different owls to each other as far as I'm aware and little-to-no problems, all of hers are imprints.

Casper is flown occasionally, but our two have very much gone to the attitude of oooh look, a leaf/ball/stick/dead mouse, let's go get it!! So it's usually lengthy flights on the creance, jump ups, flying inside the house and knocking over _every single thing_ possible and they love "hunting" small toys. If ours weren't so, uhm... dappy :whistling2: they'd both be free flown, but how things have panned out it's obviously not the way it's happening with us. Nothing wrong with flying them when they're part of a breeding pair, though. 
Personally I'd say there's nothing wrong with doing that if you only know the basics of breeding, as long as you understand the risks involved etc. Oh, and if anybody tells you "If you don't give them a nest box, they won't lay eggs"... It's tosh. :lol2:


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

thanks you a star :no1:

its something il have to really look into i think.

i think its a barn owl thing, munch (short for munchkin, at least you can shout casper without embarassment :whistling2 is being a git at the moment so hes back on the creance for the time being.

the imprinted thing was something i was a bit bothered about, munch was creache reared until 4 weeks then i handreared him. he has a nest box, but its very much his bacholer pad....


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## chrisnelaine (Apr 16, 2011)

Hi 

My name is Chris, I've been keeping Owls for the last 10 Mths now I have 2 owls 1 Barn owl called Phezz 











and a African Spotted Eagle Owl called Bubo










Chris


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