[mou] Starving owls

[Laura Erickson]

If anyone comes across a downed owl that needs care, it's critical to get 
it to the Raptor Center ASAP.  There are also two licensed rehabbers in 
northern Minnesota that I know of--Emily Buchanan in Duluth (218-348-8745) 
and Regina Kijak in Two Harbors (218-834-4129).

In the late stages of starvation, time is of the essence.  If you cannot 
reach the rehabbers or simply cannot deliver the bird within minutes rather 
than hours, especially if you found the bird downed, you must offer fluids 
before even thinking of feeding it.  Feeding a mouse to an owl in the late 
stages of starvation can cause the bird to go into shock--owls empty their 
stomach contents before regurgitating a pellet each day.  When they're 
dehydrated and suddenly have a full stomach, they must replenish their 
stomach fluids with fluids from their lymphatic and blood systems, and that 
sudden siphoning off of fluids in a dehydrated bird can kill it.

What should you do?  Robert Nero once gave me the following advice to first 
make sure an owl is comfortable with a human: bow your own head (a 
submissive behavior for owls) and then stroke its forehead 
feathers.  Unlike hawks, owls "allopreen," and this helps assure the bird 
that you are not going to kill it.  Then offer fluids.  Water will work in 
a pinch.  Cooled boiled Sprite, Seven-up, or even Coke may be a little 
better.  Far better is Gatorade, and best of all is unflavored Pedialyte 
(in the baby food section of most grocery stores) or Ringer's solution (the 
basic saline solution used in IVs).  DON'T force any fluid down any bird's 
throat, and don't use an eyedropper.  Rather, hold a bowl of the fluid in 
front of the owl's face, and with your finger drip just a couple of drops 
on the bird's beak--as the bird's rictal bristles detect it, the bird will 
swallow.  Most of them quickly start drinking on their own.  Be careful not 
to get too much fluid on the bird's face because these substances are 
sticky.  Again, only offer small amounts, and do your best to get the bird 
to a rehabber ASAP.  But if you're still pressed for time, after the bird 
has had a few small drinks, the best first food to offer is Gerber strained 
chicken, which has enzymes added to break down the proteins, making it 
easily absorbed.  Tease the bird's beak open and give it a very tiny 
amount.  Usually after tasting it, owls will readily take if off a 
finger--it's goopy, so be careful to not get the bird's feathers 
messy.  And again, this should only be offered for a short time before 
offering a fresh dead mouse, with fur and bones--otherwise the stomach can 
become infected from moist matter building up with no substantial fibers to 
help it form and eliminate a pellet.

Again I must emphasize that these techniques are only to use in absolute 
emergencies, and only if you can't get it to a licensed rehabber 
immediately.  It's illegal to possess any owl, and your emergency aid can 
be a curse rather than a kindness to the bird if you don't know what you're 
doing.  Also, data are being kept on these birds' initial condition which 
are altered by intervention, and the Raptor Center has state-of-the art 
facilities that deal far better than we can in those first critical hours, 
so it's far better to rush the bird to the Raptor Center than to try these 
techniques except in dire emergencies.

If anyone has numbers for other rehabbers or facilities up here, please 
post them.  It's not a bad idea to keep some of these numbers by your 
phone.  Also, if anyone has sounder suggestions for these emergencies, 
please let us all know.


Laura Erickson
Duluth, MN


Producer, "For the Birds" radio program
<http://www.lauraerickson.com/>

There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of 
birds.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of 
nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.

                                 --Rachel Carson