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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

HELP found a sickly Scops Owl! (1 Viewer)

RubberShoes

New member
Hi guys, so I work on a ship currently in East Asia and we discovered a Scops Owl on board. I believe it is a Ryukyu Scops but not certain. The problem is we have nothing on board to feed the little fella, so far we have been giving him raw beef and chicken but would like to keep him alive until we get back near land and can release him. Any suggestions?
Thanks
 
Hi Jon, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately we are too far from land at the moment, around 600 miles, so looks like nothing is coming out this far.
I will set a few bug traps though because you never know, right?
 
What it's going to lack is 'roughage' - indigestible stuff that it uses in natural circumstances to bind up pellets, but also contains some nutrients not found in muscle meat. If the chicken has any bits with skin and a few down feathers on, feed it those. Maybe also a few small bone fragments (e.g. chop up the slender bone of a drumstick).

Also if there's any mice on the ship, catch them for whole food. But only if you can guarantee no rodenticide is being used onboard.
 
Hi guys, so I work on a ship currently in East Asia and we discovered a Scops Owl on board. I believe it is a Ryukyu Scops but not certain. The problem is we have nothing on board to feed the little fella, so far we have been giving him raw beef and chicken but would like to keep him alive until we get back near land and can release him. Any suggestions?
Thanks

You should be OK feeding the raw beef and chicken as long as it doesn't contain any preservatives or any other additives. Owls are less able to dissolve bones and pellets often contain near complete skeletons. I would say you're doing everything you can under the circumstances.

If the owl stops eating you might have to give it fresh water to re-hydrate it, if it's eating then it should gain enough fluid, you could try putting a bowl of water into wherever you're keeping the bird in case the food is too dry.
 
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