Tawny Owl Chick

This little chick was found on the forest floor with no sign of the parents.

The chick came to us in reasonable health, although he/she would not have survived long on the ground with no parents. After a hours or so in an incubator to get him warm, we could feed him. Owl’s have to be fed on as natural food as possible. They normally rip parts off their prey and eat all of it, including the fur, feathers and bones and later bring up a pellet of bones and feathers.

We keep a stock of bird of prey food in the freezer, ready for such occasions. After three feeds where we has to force feed, he now readily takes prepared food off us. It will be another few weeks before he will eat completely on his own and several more before we can consider moving him to an aviary to prepare him for release.