Melodi
Disaster Cat
I hope to post a picture or two later - yesterday afternoon just before some really strong thunderstorms, my husband found a tiny baby owl right at our front steps.
It is very young, eyes are open but still covered in fuzz with one or two tiny pin feathers.
By sheer "chance" the cats had not killed it (they were just looking at it) though one of them probably brought it to the house as a "gift."
It has a broken wing but it otherwise uninjured, husband looked up on the net what to do after sticking it in the incubator with the eggs for an hour, when it was still alive he got the brooder light going and has it in a tiny box of straw under the brooder light.
We have a freezer full of mice (they don't carry serious diseases here so we freeze the cat gifts for the snakes, and the snakes haven't been away that long from the Winter to have eaten much).
So he looked up everything online again, made baby owl mess per instructions and the little one ate just fine, it is coming out the other end just fine etc.
I was worried when the National Wildlife people just told us to keep it for a few months (this type of owl is engendered in Ireland, but not worldwide) and told us to take it to the vet etc - I was not happy because I know Ireland and we didn't really want a pet owl for the next 15 to 30 years!
Thankfully we've got another wild animal rescue on the phone, they are driving up right now to collect it - their specialist vets can determine if the bird can recover enough for re-wilding or will enter the captive breeding program they sponsor.
I'll go get some photos now before our little house-guests goes to his or her new foster parents that actually know how to care for him (and don't have 20 cats circling the door to the room with the brooder in it).
It is very young, eyes are open but still covered in fuzz with one or two tiny pin feathers.
By sheer "chance" the cats had not killed it (they were just looking at it) though one of them probably brought it to the house as a "gift."
It has a broken wing but it otherwise uninjured, husband looked up on the net what to do after sticking it in the incubator with the eggs for an hour, when it was still alive he got the brooder light going and has it in a tiny box of straw under the brooder light.
We have a freezer full of mice (they don't carry serious diseases here so we freeze the cat gifts for the snakes, and the snakes haven't been away that long from the Winter to have eaten much).
So he looked up everything online again, made baby owl mess per instructions and the little one ate just fine, it is coming out the other end just fine etc.
I was worried when the National Wildlife people just told us to keep it for a few months (this type of owl is engendered in Ireland, but not worldwide) and told us to take it to the vet etc - I was not happy because I know Ireland and we didn't really want a pet owl for the next 15 to 30 years!
Thankfully we've got another wild animal rescue on the phone, they are driving up right now to collect it - their specialist vets can determine if the bird can recover enough for re-wilding or will enter the captive breeding program they sponsor.
I'll go get some photos now before our little house-guests goes to his or her new foster parents that actually know how to care for him (and don't have 20 cats circling the door to the room with the brooder in it).
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