found owl to rescue. need advice.

[VIPinthailand]

my gf came back home with an abandoned owl.

so how we feed this bird. normally I got cats or dogs, first time I got a owl.

going to be released later when it can fly.

now seem the bird is little stressed from the motorbike trip, we tried to give shrimp with a straw. he is not eating.

any help appreciated, any vet here?

[recycler]

I think it's a Colared Scops Owl, they are common here. Funny that your girlfriend took it home, Thais normally don't like owls as they are considered ghostly animals of the night.

Owls are hunters and eat prey, raw meat, but I don't think it will go for shrimp, try chicken or soft pork or start catching mice.

Make sure that the chicken has no bird flu, I found one about 8 years ago and it died because of bird flu as did my parrot a that time.

They are really magic birds!

[pod8460]

Get you girlfriend to go to the food market and buy red ant eggs. The thais eat them. I feed a sparrow like this and it servived and after about 1 month flew away. You have to feed it every hour or so. Good luck.

[TJM55]

We hand-fed our owl jing-jokes (lizard) head first and it worked excellent.

[isanbirder]

It will probably only take live food, though the ants' eggs might work. If you try any kind of meat, it would have to be raw.

[Gandtee]

I good story. I rescued a zebra dove which had fallen out of the nest and was being eaten by red ants. As it comes from the pigeon family, I fed it milk and cereal with a syringe. It is still alive after fourteen years. Don't fall in love with the owl! You would be a 'Twit to Woo'. Good luck.

[Mrjlh]

I once worked at a wildlife rescue center. Handle quiet a few owls and hawks of various species. I doubt if the owl has been hand fed from birth. If that is so its food needs to be "live". They do not eat carrion or dead animals in nature. They live of live mice, small birds, chickens, some insects, lizards, and snakes. They easily go into shock by human presence. They fear you more than you do them. You need to feed them in an totally enclosed area with several perches off the ground. Mice will bite them if they don't have a perch. Release the live food and walk away. Don't be visible. They will let their natural instinct take over. Check occasionally.

The other option and the best one is to release it back into the wild and let nature take its course. May seem cruel but they are survivors. It may also be the owl was sick or injured and there is not much you can do the help it. Place it high up in a well covered tree. Other birds will attack it so you need to give it a chance.

[evadgib]

'Abandoned' Owls should ideally be taken back to where they were found as mum is unlikely to be far away.

HTH

(I learned this the hard way as a kid!)

[Mrjlh]

Now that I saw the picture it still has its baby down feathers. evadgib is correct, take it back to where she found it. Mother feeds it regurgitated food. Don't think you want to do that. If you can place it up in a tree near by. Let nature takes its course. The long you have it the more likely it will imprint on you as the parent. Force feeding them by syringe is not fun. Especially grinding up dead mice and bugs in a blender. Yuck!

[Tawng]

Looks like a barn owl to me.

[Rooo]

Moved to Pets & Vets Forum.

[thaibeachlovers]

No way I'd feed live animals to it. IMO either take it back to where it came from and let nature take it's course, or kill it.

[csabo]

Owls eat lollipops

[rdcny1]

It is a Barn Owl...in the wild the parents would bring it dead mice/rats...small snakes, lizards and even birds. Their diet is quite catholic (will pretty much eat any animal).

Sadly, most of the advice given so far is 100% wrong. Please ignore what others have wriitten. ("It will probably only take live food, though the ants' eggs might work. If you try any kind of meat, it would have to be raw." That's incorrect...ants eggs? and "Mother feeds it regurgitated food. Don't think you want to do that. If you can place it up in a tree near by. Let nature takes its course. The long you have it the more likely it will imprint on you as the parent. Force feeding them by syringe is not fun. Especially grinding up dead mice and bugs in a blender." - again totally wrong...adults do not feed regurgitated food to young this size. Folks should really not say/write anything if they do not know...it makes matters worse. Barn Owls won't imprint on people who handle them either.)

If you contact me off-list I can send the contact info of two Thai veterinarians (Maw Kaset Sutasha for example) that might be able to take the bird from you. In the meantime, see if you can trap a mouse, and give the dead mouse to the Barn Owl...leave it in its enclosure. Give the young owl a quiet place - and leave it alone. (They get enough water from the food they eat.)

Robert DeCandido PhD

[willyumiii]

I once worked at a wildlife rescue center. Handle quiet a few owls and hawks of various species. I doubt if the owl has been hand fed from birth. If that is so its food needs to be "live". They do not eat carrion or dead animals in nature. They live of live mice, small birds, chickens, some insects, lizards, and snakes. They easily go into shock by human presence. They fear you more than you do them. You need to feed them in an totally enclosed area with several perches off the ground. Mice will bite them if they don't have a perch. Release the live food and walk away. Don't be visible. They will let their natural instinct take over. Check occasionally.

The other option and the best one is to release it back into the wild and let nature take its course. May seem cruel but they are survivors. It may also be the owl was sick or injured and there is not much you can do the help it. Place it high up in a well covered tree. Other birds will attack it so you need to give it a chance.

I agree 100%.

I was a wildlife Tech for the USDA forest service for about 10 years and worked with owls probably 80% of that time.

I hit a screech owl with my jeep one night.

Took him home and nursed him back to health and released him at the same spot I had hit him months later.

The story got out and soon I was waking up to injured owls in cardboard boxes left on my porch in the night!

Sadly I only had a bout a 25% survival rate...I Finally put out word that I would take no more injured owls in.

In a nut shell, Mrjlh is correct.

They are birds of prey and only eat live meat.

The #1 prey where I lived was mice.

I purchased some from a pet store and let them breed.

The mice were soon plentiful.

I tried force feeding some of the badly injured birds with a small chunk of beef on a long stick. ( be careful, owls can give you a nasty bite)

Force feeding was very difficult and those I tried it with did not survive.( starvation or injury infections, not sure of the reason)

Good luck.

It's a good thing you are trying to do.

But prepare yourself for failure.

Most do not make it.

And when they do make it... you have known them so long by the time they are ready to be released, it hurts to see them go.

Again...Good luck..Choke Dee!

[rdcny1]

a Barn Owl (this might be a Grass Owl though that species is considerably less common than Barn Owls) that age (pre-fledging) will not know what to do with a live mouse/rat. And adults bring the young dead mice anyway...

So I re-iterate - try putting a dead mouse in the enclosure - see what happens...give it 24 hrs. If nothing happens you might put that dead mouse on a stick and try to force feed...but you will likely have less luck with this approach for a variety of reasons.

My best suggestion is to contact a local veterinarian - I know two that work with wildlife exclusively - and they work mostly with raptors. Send me your email and I can supply their contact info.

As for putting the owl back in the wild and letting it fend for itself - unless your GF found it near its nest, this approach is not going to work...the goal here is to get the young owl healthy and eating...then figure out what to do with it. This young owl (if put back in the wild) will not be able to hun (goodness, it cannot fly right now). That is why someone is going to have to feed it - dead mice. It most likely does not know how to hunt anything yet...and has only been fed dead things by its parents.

If your GF found this owl near its nest, chances are that there are other young in the nest...(who will make a lot of noise at night). So you might be able to track down the nest...but that is not easy either.

I have been doing raptor research in Thailand since 2003...and in the USA since the 1980s...and I have worked on Eastern Screech-owl reintroduction programs and studied nesting Barn Owls...so I know a little.

Regards,

Robert DeCandido PhD

[lucifer666]

I used to have a Barn owl and it ate chicks that died during hatching ( the local poultry farm had these things by the million, and froze them). This apparently was a thriving sideline to the owners of birds of prey. I had it for several years, so if you need any more info on how to care for it, send me a PM .

[VIPinthailand]

our owl comes from a Buddist temple in Pattaya who falled and has been saved by workers. we can not place back the baby owl with his mother. the roof is very high. we can see the mom up there. no other babies apparently.

if we bring back the baby owl there in the hope that mom comes down to feed him , it will be attacked by dogs and cats.

on a good side note, last night he eats raw chicken put in his bec. we will try again with shrimp and liver.

if you know any bird shelter or someone who want have a new friend in the area of Pattaya(must know birds and take care of them) , please let me know.

[lucifer666]

If you fail to find a shelter, let me know. I'll take care of it.

[dogpatch55]

I think feeding dead mice would a good idea

[VIPinthailand]

few days later we found a second owl. we placed them together in a crate and we fed them with liver, chicken, all raw meat.

both birds seem to not enjoy to eat. we had to fill their mouth or they were not eating, not even asking for food.

2 days later one bird stranded strongly. standing on the back, placing his back on the side of the crate , after one day we found it dead.

same thing happen to the second bird , dead after 48 hours. exactly same way, falling on it s back...

my gf and I are sad because we don't know what was wrong. I think birds let themselves to die if taken too early from their mother or they got a killer flu.

rip