Barn Owl Care
- Thread starter Jessica Dring
- Start date
Just looking at some journals, and i didn't realise barn owls were so widespread (every continent except antarctica). I read a few things on natural foods, and it seems it is completely varied in where they come from. For example, in south madagascar they hunt 95% rodents, with the occasional small lizards and amphibians found in their pellets. However, in parts of tunisia the diet consists largely of rodents and the three-toed Jerboa (Jaculus jaculus) that accounted for more than 50% of total prey biomass. In these open habitats with xerophytic vegetation, the Barn Owl hunts almost only small mammals, mainly jerboas and gerbils, and very occasionally insects, amphibians, reptiles and birds.
In Baja California a study of barn owl pellets gave results of 282 rodent skulls, 74.4% were of Heteromyidae family 11.3% of Muridae, and 14.3% of Geomyidae. Plant and insect remains (55.5% and 9.2%, respectively) were also present. Sub-adult rodents were present in 61.9% of the pellets, and rural rodents composed 83.3% of the prey.
However i have noticed that all results from different papers suggest that barn owls show a nonrandom tendency toward rodent species especially small
and young individuals.
In Baja California a study of barn owl pellets gave results of 282 rodent skulls, 74.4% were of Heteromyidae family 11.3% of Muridae, and 14.3% of Geomyidae. Plant and insect remains (55.5% and 9.2%, respectively) were also present. Sub-adult rodents were present in 61.9% of the pellets, and rural rodents composed 83.3% of the prey.
However i have noticed that all results from different papers suggest that barn owls show a nonrandom tendency toward rodent species especially small
and young individuals.
Hi davo, yeah what you've said is pretty much right, but it doesnt really account for captive bred barns. 
I volunteered at a raptor rehab center near me one summer. It was a great experience. The people who ran the place fed the raptors and owls fresh killed pinkies for young ones, adult mice and rats, pre-killed quail and chicken chicks, and some beef. Small raptors like kestrels and screech owls were also given insects like locusts and crickets. I learned a lot there and I highly recommend volunteering at one if you truly and interested in the subject.
I don't have a barnowl myself, but i did a small course on birds of prey in the hope to buy an owl next year. Also a friend of my mom keeps a barnowl. You don't need a big aviary if you can fly them every day. But be aware that an owl can only fly towards you. You can't hunt with them as with hawks or falcons. Hunters don't keep them in aviary's, the raptors are placed on a stamp or branch the entire day. These birds only move to hunt.
Owls are different as raptors, they can get as tame as a parot and can be kept in a parot cage, if you give them enough roaming around. Mind that on owls poop is very accidic.
As food, dont feed to much chicks, these chicks only live about a couple of days and don't have a lot of nutritional valeu. They need about two pieces of prey a day, for a barn owl.
Owls are different as raptors, they can get as tame as a parot and can be kept in a parot cage, if you give them enough roaming around. Mind that on owls poop is very accidic.
As food, dont feed to much chicks, these chicks only live about a couple of days and don't have a lot of nutritional valeu. They need about two pieces of prey a day, for a barn owl.
what do you propose feeding them instead.. as the staple diet from many people I know is chicks..?
mice, but you can feed almost anything if it has been fed well, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, degu.
i've never heard of them being fed rabbits and guinea pigs here, degu are abit expensive as food.. but I will defo look it up. Cheers. Maybe feeders in the UK are a little different to elsewhere. Everybody I have known to have owls has fed them mice or chicks.
