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How to feed an owl at home
How to feed an owl at home if a predator has become a pet? It is worth thinking about this before the owlet managed to settle in a city apartment.
How to feed an owl at home?
How to feed a domestic owl: recommendations for adult birds
The process of giving food to a bird of prey is an occupation that requires strong nerves and iron endurance. It is strictly forbidden to feed the bird with meat or pieces passed through a meat grinder.
This is explained by the special structure of the digestive system. In its natural habitat, the bird eats its entire prey. That is why it is important that the poultry receive wool, feathers, blood, bones and meat when kept at home. Only in this case can we hope for a long and healthy life of the feathered predator.
No substitutes will be able to provide the bird with the full functioning of digestion and, as a result, good health.
Why clean meat is bad for an owl
Bones, wool and feathers are indigestible components, but it is they that ensure the full functioning of the digestive tract of the predator. After entering the stomach, they form special dense lumps (pellets), which the bird later regurgitates. If you give the bird fully prepared meat, that is, devoid of bones and feathers, then pellets will not form. As a result, there is a violation of the digestive process, which affects the peristalsis of the entire digestive tract of the predator.
In addition to the bones and skin necessary for the owl, the predator also receives the necessary vitamins and microminerals from small animals. The bacteria that fill the victim’s intestines produce the necessary components in large quantities. That is why you need to feed the bird with unpeeled carcasses.
So how to feed an owl? Here will work:
· Live mice;
· Day-old chickens;
· Small birds.
Some owls do not give up fish and frogs, as well as beetles. But this type of food should not act as the main one.
Sometimes owls enter the house with very small chicks, at the age of two to three weeks. You need to feed such babies with mice.
Before the chick is four weeks old, small pieces of mouse meat can be fed. Basically, the owlet should receive meat (this is how the mother feeds him in natural conditions). The amount of hair and bones should be kept to a minimum. After the chick is one month old, he can receive a whole mouse.
The diet of owls should exclude any foods that a person eats.