Anyone fancy this job ?

[L3nny]

[Jayneflakes]

We don't need to worry about flight weight for Alby because she is disabled.

One of her wings was broken when she was a chick and it had healed when we got her, but the healing was not perfect and her wing does not work properly.

So she is a fat bird who sits on the sofa all day, occasionally drops a really noxious fart and complains for food when she is hungry. This makes her the perfect pet for me!

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

We don't need to worry about flight weight for Alby because she is disabled.

One of her wings was broken when she was a chick and it had healed when we got her, but the healing was not perfect and her wing does not work properly.

So she is a fat bird who sits on the sofa all day, occasionally drops a really noxious fart and complains for food when she is hungry. This makes her the perfect pet for me!

I definitely dated her once.

[chris8886]

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

We don't need to worry about flight weight for Alby because she is disabled.

One of her wings was broken when she was a chick and it had healed when we got her, but the healing was not perfect and her wing does not work properly.

So she is a fat bird who sits on the sofa all day, occasionally drops a really noxious fart and complains for food when she is hungry. This makes her the perfect pet for me!

poor bird! so is she an imprint then?

[Littlepeahead]

Yummy snack!

Jayne will enjoy my 'Photo a day thread' posting today.

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

You forgot Falconry food. Our Alby has two chicks per day and we buy a box of 200 at a time. I feel guilty now.

#shudder# i remember the days when I had to unpack boxes of 200 when I worked at a petshop, to split them into more saleable bags of 10...separating contorted frozen chicks ain't easy, I can't imagine sexing them as newborns is either

[Jayneflakes]

Originally Posted by chris8886

poor bird! so is she an imprint then?

She came from a breeder who was rather out of date sadly, he was using not only the wrong size hatchling basket, but it was made of wire mesh and it was this that broke her wing as she was trampled by her siblings. She could not have been than a couple of days out of the egg when it happened. She is imprinted, but this just means that we are mummy. In particular, she is really bonded to my wifey and loves her like no other. Every breeding season now she gets so possessive of wifey that not even I can go near her in Alby's room.

Yes, you read that right. Room! Alby did not enjoy an outside aviary and got lonely rather quickly, having been hand reared. This resulted in her spending a lot of time inside and eventually we gave her a space in our ground floor flat next to the back door. During the summer she can go out as she pleases when we are about. Being a non flyer means that she is the most free captive bred owl, we do not have to worry about her flying away and starving and if we are outside, she will come to look for Wifey.

Originally Posted by Littlepeahead

Jayne will enjoy my 'Photo a day thread' posting today.

What a beautiful animal.

I was lucky enough to work in a school that had an ecologist staff member who was involved in the captive breeding of rare birds of prey. As a result I was able to hand rear a pair of Merlins, got to play with a Peregrine called Buffy and was adored by a hybrid Gyr - Saker who would fly across the class room every morning to play with me.

Willow (are you seeing a theme here?) was a magnificent bird and would sit on my shoulder as I worked in the lab. One morning she was playing and swooped on me, landing hard on my shoulder. The talons went into my shoulder and I had blood running down my back. Trying not to scream or wave my arms about was worth it because that bird just liked my company. Her owner rescued me, once he stopped laughing and she continued to play with me every day until she was too big to come to the classroom. I have a photo somewhere if anyone would like to see her?

[chris8886]

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

She came from a breeder who was rather out of date sadly, he was using not only the wrong size hatchling basket, but it was made of wire mesh and it was this that broke her wing as she was trampled by her siblings. She could not have been than a couple of days out of the egg when it happened. She is imprinted, but this just means that we are mummy. In particular, she is really bonded to my wifey and loves her like no other. Every breeding season now she gets so possessive of wifey that not even I can go near her in Alby's room.

Yes, you read that right. Room! Alby did not enjoy an outside aviary and got lonely rather quickly, having been hand reared. This resulted in her spending a lot of time inside and eventually we gave her a space in our ground floor flat next to the back door. During the summer she can go out as she pleases when we are about. Being a non flyer means that she is the most free captive bred owl, we do not have to worry about her flying away and starving and if we are outside, she will come to look for Wifey.

so she must scream pretty much all the time then in that case? tis why I like my owls to be parent reared (so they don't scream all the time and taken when it is then time of course).

[Jayneflakes]

Originally Posted by chris8886

so she must scream pretty much all the time then in that case? tis why I like my owls to be parent reared (so they don't scream all the time and taken when it is then time of course).

Ha haha, no not at all.

Currently she is sat on our bedroom door and is very peaceful. She has just woken up and is giving wifey the look that says cuddle time.

When we had her checked out by the vet for her wing, he could not believe how gentle she is or how placid her nature. He was all gloved up expecting to be pecked and bitten and what she did was jump on his hand from the carry box and wait to be tickled behind the ear.

The most noise she makes is when she is really hungry and then she give one sharp call. The rest of the time it is small twitters which are unbelievably sweet. We do get the occasional wiffle when she is grooming too.

Having seen how other Barn Owls are even with trusted owners, I have come to the conclusion that we are so lucky with out little girl. She is beautiful, gentle and when sits on her perch while we work on the bikes, all of our neighbours stop to say hello to her.

When it is breeding season, she will be very possessive over wifey!


Oh, she has gone back to sleep again, she sleeps more than the cat and both of them are currently fast asleep in our bedroom! Wifey wont let me buy the pets a pea green boat and set them off together in the Bristol channel!

me pick me i want to do it !!!