Living with a Barn Owl...
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
As you all know I currently have a 'baby' Barn Owl, Bear, now living with him is hard work! To be honest, I think raising a Barn Owl is more tough than raising a human baby. Although Bear has been as good as gold, he still has his moments that really rather annoy me. Anyway, I thought I would give you the low down on what it's like to live with a baby Barn Owl!
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When I first got him, he was only 3 and a half weeks old, meaning that he had baby fluff and couldn't do all that much. He wasn't really walking at this point, more waddling around on his elbows. With him like this, it meant that I could bring him with me basically anywhere in our little carry box. At this stage he could easily fit in there with a teddy bear in there as well.
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| The day we got him! |
He slowly got more comfortable with me, and recognised me as the food giver and 'Mum'. As he got more comfortable, he gained his confidence and started to walk!
I have to say although he didn't look too much like a Barn Owl at this point, it was one of his cutest moments! Especially when he would run to you, and stumble in the process!!
Everyone was a little confused when I would say he was a Barn Owl, as he resembled nothing at this point. Not too many people found him cute to be honest, but his baby fluff was adorable and oh so very soft!
At this age, you have to cut up all their food, remove the insides, cut the feet and heads off and give wings, legs and bodies. He was eating 2 chicks in the morning, 2 around 2pm and then 2 around 10pm for bed. We all found this extraordinary! Not even our big birds, e.g. Scoob our Snowy, or Koby our European Eagle Owl would eat that much! But he quickly gobbled it all down! Also at this stage, he was too young to put anklets on, so he would just roam my bed and his box, making it quite hard to pick him up without grabbing him between the legs!
Up to 8 weeks, he was sleeping in a cardboard box with a couple blankets in, beside my bed. For the first couple of weeks, he would have the hot water bottle and teddy bear, then cut down to just the teddy bear, and quickly running out to just blankets when he learnt that he could use him to get out the box! He was a crafty little owl!
He quickly began to grow up on me, day after day he would lose baby fluff and you could start to see adult feathers growing. The first to come through were the tips of his wings! Please don't laugh at him, I know he looks stupid! He had the big heart shaped face, huge beak compared to it, and he was just a bundle of white fluff, but unless you spent time with him you wouldn't know how much fun he was! He fixed my heart! And then melted it with his cuteness!
Gradually the feathers around his face began to change into what they are now! The black around the bottom of his face, I thought would disappear after a couple weeks, but nope! Still here, and I couldn't be happier! I cannot believe it, but this was taken on the 4th January! That was only 17 days ago, and he has changed drastically since! He was 6 weeks, and the amount that he would 'moult' was amazing. I had fluff flying around my room from where he would clean himself and it would just come out! And also the 'dandruff' - what I called it - would come out like dust! Basically he would cause a mess wherever he would sit or lay. Up till around 7 weeks, he would actually lay down and go to sleep. He would at first go to sleep on his elbows, and then basically dive bomb for the floor. He would then twist his head around to where it was comfy, and sleep. He looked like he was dead! Although it was cute, it was terrifying!
Recently though he has learnt that he can sleep standing up, and on one foot! When a bird is sitting with one foot tucked away, it normally means that they are content and happy. They will do it when they find their spot whilst sitting on someone or something, more often then not, their perch.
This is a picture of him at 8 weeks, and the change that has happened since has been truly amazing to watch! He has grown up to not just a Barn Owl, but a friendly, loving adorable Barn Owl!
At this stage, he hadn't quite gotten all his feathers. He also made it impossible to sleep! We decided that at 8 weeks, as he would be too tall to take out in the carry box, we would gear him up. Unfortunately, you cannot see in the picture, but I put a set of anklets on him, with flying and mews jessies. We found this was a much better way to control him, and get him used to wearing them. He has since gotten used to them, he doesn't bite them much, and has gotten used to being tied down or sat on the glove. Although he may be adorable, he is a little bugger at night, he is constantly wanting to come up on the bed and sleep with me, however once he settles down and finds his spot then he goes to sleep very quickly, and is normally quite quiet!
This is my little Boo Bear now. He turned 9 weeks yesterday, and is the most adorable Barn Owl ever! The problem we have now is that he currently weighs 13 ounces, and has very limited spots. This means we do not know what gender Bear is! The limited number of spots, normally means that it is a boy, however I have not heard of a boy that weighs 13 oz!
I currently know that he is okayish with dogs, and good with hoovers, loud music and people stroking him. We also learnt that he is fine with the box, I don't know how he would last over night but he went in fine and just sat there for a good 10 minutes!
If you would like more Bear updates then comment below, I could do an update every month or so!
I hope you all liked this post! Comment below what you thought!
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Until next time!
Love,
xoxo
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