So you think you want a pet owl ?

If you desperately want a pet owl then you’re on the right blog! Welcome! On this blog, you will learn everything you need to know before you can even begin to consider owning an owl in the future.

What most people don’t know, is that it takes a trained person to take care of an owl. Caring for an owl isn’t like caring for a cat. If you buy a cat, bring it home, give it food, water and love, it will automatically grow to love and respect you. Spray it with a water sprayer every time it’s naughty, invite some friends to come over to make it more social and you’ll end up with a nice, well behaved cat. But with an owl, it’s NOT that easy. If you truly want a pet owl, you’ll have to get into falconry because it takes at least the base knowledge of falconry to own a smaller owl. Yes, that’s right, I intentionally said a SMALLER owl. A lot of people contact me saying they want an eagle owl, a great horned owl or even a snowy owl as their first owl. Larger owls are NOT for beginners! Most people see my YouTube videos with Lookie (my barn owl) and automatically imagine themselves with a larger owl that’s just as sweet as my barn owl. The problem here? Small and large owls differ completely from each other in character and temperament. Barn owls are the most gentle and sweet owls to have as a pet owl and will give you the most affection. Eagle owls, great horned owls and snowy owls however are more aggressive in character and have more temperament. You can’t cuddle with them like you can cuddle with a barn owl. Most people also don’t seem to be aware of how dangerous larger owls are in comparison to smaller species. It’s like they only see the cute face and fluffy feathers but not the huge talons which can exert up to 750 pounds per square inch of pressure.

You can’t just buy an adult owl on the internet!

Most people who see me with Lookie think they can just buy an adult barn owl on the internet and expect it to be as sweet and well behaved as Lookie. WRONG! The adult owls that are for sale on the internet or on other markets are usually non imprinted, untrained owls! What does this mean? It means you’ll be stuck with a mean unmanageable owl that’s shy and aggressive towards humans.

But how come your owl is so sweet and social?

Well, before an owl can be a pet, it must be imprinted on you! And here’s where the necessity for falconry knowledge comes in. In falconry training you learn how to imprint a bird, how to raise it, how to socialize it, handle it in all different stages (you can’t handle an owlet the same way you would handle an adult owl), how to train it and how to resolve behavioral problems that might flare up along the way. You can read as many owl books as you want, they will not teach you how to safely handle an owlet without accidentally killing it. Not to mention that many owl books are full of errors! If I would get a dollar for every person who came to tell me that owls have crops because they read it in a book or saw it in a documentary, I would be rich! Just so you know: owls don’t have crops. That’s what distinguishes them from raptors (most people think owls are raptors but they’re officially not). Only raptors like buzzards, for example, have crops.

So now that you know that there’s a LOT of knowledge to gain before you can actually consider owning your first owl, I’m sure you want to keep following this blog because article by article, I’ll explain the basis of falconry. On this blog, you’ll learn in which countries it’s legal or illegal to keep an owl. You’ll learn about other important falconry laws and I’ll teach you the basics of raising, keeping and training owls. Whether you want to keep an owl in the future, or are just interested in falconry for fun, this blog will teach you what no owl book in the world will ever teach you...