SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Wildlife Center of VA - BNOW Update

PATIENT: Barn Owl, #12-1152
LOCATION OF RESCUE: Orange County, Virginia
CAUSE OF ADMISSION: Silo Collision
ADMISSION DATE: June 5, 2012
PROGNOSIS: Good

September 3 update
The rehabilitation staff report that Barn Owl #12-1152 has not been passing mouse school this weekend. The rehab staff will be checking the owl’s mouse tub today, but if the owl did not pass again last night, it will be fed dead prey again so that it does not lose too much weight.

September 7 update
When the rehabilitation staff checked on the Barn Owl’s mouse school tub on Monday, they found that the owl had passed! Mouse school was continued … though the next night, the owl failed. The night after … it passed again! Seeing somewhat of a trend, rehabilitator Kelli opted to mouse school the owl every other night — and to fast the owl in between the live prey training. The owl’s weight is stable, and the rehab staff feel that perhaps the owl isn’t getting hungry enough for mouse school when its fed dead prey regularly.

If the owl continues to pass every other night, the staff may be able to start planning for a release!



September 12 update
The vet staff caught up Barn Owl #12-1152 on September 10 for a foot and feather check and routine blood work. When they weighed the bird, they found that the Barn Owl’s weight had significantly decreased — indicating that the owl was not regularly passing mouse school, despite the missing mice in the tub. Rehabilitator Kelli stopped live prey training and fed the owl a regular meal of dead mice that evening.

Since several rounds of live prey testing have not resulted in much success for the owl, the rehabilitation staff will move the Barn Owl to A3 — the Center’s largest flight pen. This will allow the owl to undergo live prey testing in a much larger space — and a slightly more natural one. The mice will be in an escape-proof area in the Center of the enclosure, and the owl will not need to hunt the mice in an enclosed tub. The owl was be moved on Wednesday, September 12.

Read the full story on the owl HERE