# Proud owner of a baby barn owl..



## vixtory

Hi all, I purchased a baby barn owl a few weeks ago.. I was told she could be kept has a indoor pet when I bought her! I have already been told that I'm foolish for buying her without researching first so please please don't shout and rant at me.. I already have her now and am doing everything I can to make sure I have everything I need for her and trying to do everything correctly! I am a fast learner! 
Angel came wearing anklets and had rope leashes.. I received her jesses, swivel and leash in the post yesterday! Her aviary is due to arrive on Wednesday... It's a very long, mostly wooden aviary with just a few panels of mesh.
I've been intouch with a lovelyi fella who keeps birds of prey and he has given me the name if a good falconary club to join..
I'd love to chat with other owl owners, my Angel is just 12 weeks old and was hand reared.. she is beautiful.


----------



## hawksport

If you're going to fly her mesh panels are a bad idea. When she sees you she will try to get to you when she is at flying weight and smash her feathers up on the mesh. There is also a chance of her cutting her feet on it. An aviary for a flying bird should have vertical bars
You should also think about telemetry. If she gets lost while flying as many do without it you have no way of finding her and she will starve to death. You should be able to pick up a decent second hand set for around £350


----------



## vixtory

Thanks for the reply.. I did want to buy a mesh free aviary but they are impossible to find! I'm a little nervous about flying her to be honest because of the flight weight issue, the more I read up about it the more nervous I become! I'm hoping to meet up with a guy that lives local to me (he keeps birds of prey) and I'm hoping to discuss it with him.. I want to go and watch him with his birds and hopefully learn from the experience.
I really did go into this blindly, I knew nothing about keeping birds of prey at all! I'm going to sit a course soon though, when kids go back to school. I'm adamant that I'm going to learn everything I possibly can about birds of prey and especially owls.
I have been told that flying owls is a amazing experience and I think my baby girl would be missing out if I didn't allow her to do what she's naturally built to do.
She already flys to glove when called.. she has free flight in my room everyday.
Also can I please ask do you feed yours from glove or not? I have heard people say that you should feed from glove but then others say no, so I find it confusing.


----------



## hawksport

Everyone feeds on the glove even if its only a pick up piece when taking a bird off a kill or off a lure. The problem with excessive feeding on the glove is that hawks and falcons can become late food imprints and they start to scream for food. That's why they need to get onto either quarry or a lure as soon as possible. Harris hawks are notorious for becoming screamers if you don't get them hunting well early on. Owls are different, they are nearly always imprinted and it doesn't affect them the same way. Flying an Barn owl you don't really have a choise about feeding it on the glove 
One of the first things you are going to learn is that falconry is the art of disagreeing with everyone else, everyone is going to tell you different
A Barn owl is quite a small bird under all those feathers, that gives you a small margin for error on weights. The difference between an over weight bird that either flys off or takes stand in a tree for hours and an underweight bird that is close to being very sick could only be an ounce
If I were you I would get some good quality scales and start to weigh him every day, weigh his food every day and chart it all down. Learn how a quantity of food affects his weight. That will change dramaticaly with the amount of flyinng he does and as it starts to get colder. Once he is flying in winter he might need 4 times what he is eating now. His weight also needs to be built up as he builds muscle 
Learn the falconers knot, always tie 2 knots and always tie him to the glove, there are so many birds lost every year when their leash slips through their owners fingers and end up tangled in trees and die


----------



## hawksport

Learn the safety position while you are putting on and taking off swivels and leash and never fly with mews jesses, use either flying jesses or permanetly fixed flying jesses
I'm re training my hybrid soon and will get some pics to show you the safety position and the jesses I use for flying 
Have a read through this. It wasn't meant as a how to train a BOP but it will give you a bit of an insight into the process
http://www.petforums.co.uk/bird-chat/184442-gyr-saker-falcon.html


----------



## vixtory

Thanks for the link


----------

