Owls

[SparkkiSparkS]

Does anyone or has anyone here ever kept an owl as a pet? My mom and dad had a snow owl for a while when I was little he was a rescue and eventually was taken back to the wild. He was beautiful but from what I remember a complete pain in the @$$, and I was never allowed to touch him. I dont plan on getting an owl I was just talking about this to a friend and was curious to hear if anyone kept as a pet and how their temperment was.. also how/what you feed them. I remember feeding being a bloody mess!

 

[ann]

i can immagine it would be hard to feed them lol, i have seen adds for hand raised barn owls and videos of people petting and cuddling them, but every article on the internet says they arent friendly at all. i do however think that in some dream circumstance that probably wouldnt happen, and aside from the feeding, if the owl was friendly, they would be a cool pet. however i think they would also need a large outdoor aviary, flight training, an expensive and messy diet, also the aviary would be hard to clean and the birds droppings would probably be very messy. i also heard they caughed up pelts and bones, that cant be fun to clean up after . i think it would be really cool to have a tiny owl like the elf owl, but really friendly, able to keep indoors, and easy to feed. unfortunately i dont think thats possible. i think its OK to keep owls in zoos and animal parks if the animal is taken care of properly. hope i helped
this is not me in the photo, i just found it, but i guess this means its possible

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[mcw009]

Well, keeping owls as "pets" is completely illegal, to start with.

I've done a fair amount of wildlife rehab, including at a raptor-specific center, and I regularly handle glove-trained owls.
Some of these owls do like to be petted, others are just waiting for the chance to claw your eyeballs right out of your face.

Owls really need whole animals in their diet, or they will become malnourished. We also use Bird of Prey meat, which is largely composed of ground horse. Chunks of beef or chicken are not sufficient to keep these birds healthy. For a small owl, like a screech owl, 1 mouse daily is pretty typical. Larger owls, like barn owls, will need multiple mice or a rat or two, depending on the prey's size.
And they have a charming habit of occasionally eating only the head off the mouse.

Pellets aren't that bad to clean up, once they dry. Many facilities will keep them to sell to schools for dissecting. Their droppings, however, are pretty heinous.

They're very cute but they really should never be kept as pets. It's heartbreaking how often people try to keep wildlife as pets, only to finally bring them to a rehab clinic once their malnutrition begins to obviously manifest, and they have to be put down, or are unreleasable.

 

[andrea.faerie]

I'd never keep an owl as a pet.. but we do have many species of raptors and magpies where I hunt. There is a brown barn owl with a tan face that will sit with me in my tree stand in the early morning and evenings... I've fed him a few times, squirrel, beaver, rabbit... the like, but he is very much a wild creature, i've never tried to pet him, he's nice to have for company though. The eagles we feed as well, we never get near them though. They eat the deer innards we leave for them when we get one and field dress it. I think they're just beautiful to watch in the wild, I'd never want to remove one from it's natural habitat.

 

[Remy]

I've seen some suuuper cute owl videos, but I think it would be hard to give a good, healthy home to an owl. Plus, I wouldn't like the idea of feeding live animals to it. And I can only imagine what dead-mouse-poop is like! D:

Of course, I would love to have one to snuggle with though. =P

 

[roxynoodle]

I have to agree that wildlife is pretty much best left in the wild. I did get to hold a Screech Owl once at the Toledo Zoo, which was a cool experience. It was a day when they were closed to the public for teachers to come visit. We were able to sign up for various activities and one I chose was the aviary. IIRC I was the only person who wanted to hold the owl.

I have raised some wild animals who were orphaned. But, once they were off formula and eating on their own, I stopped handling them and made sure they were back to being wild before I released them.

I do have a large number of very tame raccoons. But, I never forget they are wild animals. I won't touch them and I discourage them from touching me.

 

[Spiritbird]

Wild birds belong wild. Not in someones home.

 

[SparkkiSparkS]

I agree with you all owls would not/do not make good pets.. But I do have to say, all animals are wild and technically any of them could be tamed and be a decent "pet' parrots are just as "wild" as owls in a way..

 

[mcw009]

I agree with you all owls would not/do not make good pets.. But I do have to say, all animals are wild and technically any of them could be tamed and be a decent "pet' parrots are just as "wild" as owls in a way..

Well, not all animals are wild, actually. Dogs and cats have been domesticated for thousands of years, as have many breeds of rabbits and numerous game birds. Taming is not the same as domestication.

Not all wild animals can be tamed to make good pets, either, assuming they can really be tamed at all. The thing with parrots is that they're social animals; they live in flocks and form bonds with other members of their species that last beyond courtship or rearing offspring.
(and to be honest, I don't think many species of parrots that are commonly kept as pets should be, either, but that's a whole different discussion).
Owls don't share this trait. They tend to be solitary, except when raising their chicks. Also, what frequently happens when someone tries to raise a raptor is that when they mature, they become aggressive towards people. Imprinting does not always mean a desire to associate with people; it can mean associating people with food... and attacking them as a sort of hunting strategy.

 

[ann]

i also agree that owls should not be kept as pets, they are meant for the wild, however in the case of rehab situations like mcw009 mentioned i think its ok for the good of the animal. i dont neccesarily agree with the picture i posted of the owl being cuddled, i just posted i to prove that it was possible to an extent, but i do not recomend keeping one in that situation.

 

[lene1949]

Owls should not be kept as pets... I agree, but neither should the large cockatoos, like the Umbrella and Moluccan or any other bird for that matter...

Unfortunately they are bred in captivity, and we try to give them as good a home as possible...

 

[Pedro]

I once had an injured BOO BOOK Owl, that would have died if i didn't help it. Think it got hit by a car. Was taken to the Vets for treatment & given to me to look after until he was well enough to be released. Although he was an adult he was very easy to feed in the beginning but as he got better I had to start using tongs to feed him the mice. I was pleased when he was well & able to be released.

To keep one as a pet I don't think so. They are better off in the wild. Parrots on the other hand adapt to living with us. I look at my SC Too & how he enjoys our company each day. I can't imagine him out there fending for himself. And i can imagine my life with out him. Call me selfish i don't care.

 

[roxynoodle]

It is true that aside from maybe budgies, cockatiels and finches, parrots are still considered wild animals. I'm sure there are people here who have wild caught parrots, and the hand fed babies we buy are only 1 or a few generations removed from their wild caught parents/grandparents, etc.

But, they do enjoy our company as much as we enjoy theirs, most of them. They like our TVs, stereos, computers and all sorts of human things. My Nanday loves to ride in my truck and go places, like a dog.

My parents got their first bird right before I was born, so my entire life has been spent with these wonderful little animals. More than 4 decades now. I'm not sure how well I will handle my elderly years should I outlive them. On the one hand, I want to outlive them so they don't end up in a rescue or a home with a friend or relative who doesn't know how to deal with them, but on the other hand, it will be hard to be without one.

We do know they live much longer in captivity though. An Amazon in the wild might only live 10 years. I've heard of one in Alaska that lived to be 109! Horses and many other animals do as well. Wild horses live an average of 7 years. I have one who is about to turn 31.

 

[Remy]

When I was in middle school, I found several baby mockingbirds one sprint (at different times). My mom and I handfed them, and took them everywhere. When they were good enough at flying, we started letting them go outside without cages or leashes. They would still spend most of their time with us, but it was gradually less and less. For a long time they mostly just came inside at night to sleep. Eventually they stopped coming inside altogether, and became completely wild again, and wouldn't come near us anymore. It was kind of sad, but it was nice to see my babies back where they should have been.

I don't like the idea of taking an animal from it's natural habitat just to stick it in a cage. I'm pretty sure that Puck would be the happiest in a flock of other caiques in the wild.