Goodbye Amigo

This morning I checked on Amigo the owl and found he was not in the cage.  Then I noticed the catch on the door was open.  In great concern I searched the whole garden but could not find him. 

I am very upset and puzzled.  It is a complete mystery.  I always close the catch after feeding him.  I can not understand how it was left open.  Is it possible a stranger walked into the yard and opened the catch to let him out?  Or was it left open by mistake when someone checked on him?

Whatever the reason, I am worried about Amigo’s chances of survival.  With a barely healed broken wing and one blind eye, coupled with his lack of exercise for the last two and a half weeks and his refusal to feed on his own, I think his survival chances in the wild are slim.  Added to these problems, white-faced owls do not normally occur in town, so he will be unlikely to find any of his kind.  However, I just have to hope for the best and that he will make it somehow.

Goodbye, my dear and beautiful friend Amigo... 

Update on Amigo the owl

Amigo the white-faced owl is still not eating on his own, so I have to push food into his mouth every evening.  He eats a mixture of minced beef, kapenta fish and pieces of mouse that I cut up for him.  I have not managed to get him to swallow a whole one.  Perhaps they are too big for him.

 Feeding time

 Trying to keep cool

On 26^th October Amigo managed to remove his cardboard wing splint.  I found it lying in the cage.  So the next day I had my sister come and check on his wing.  After examination she said the bone seemed to be healing, so she suggested leaving the splint off.

Meanwhile, his injured left eye has begun to shrink, so he may not recover his sight in that eye as I had hoped.

Amigo's story continued

Amigo the White-faced Owl is still alive, amazingly, after being hit by a car a week ago.  He has been rather inactive, probably still suffering from concussion.  One day I found him covered in ants because he had just been sitting still the whole day.

I almost thought he was completely blind because he hardly responded to any movement, only sound and touch.  But the next day he was responding, though slowly.  I just hope he does not have permanent brain damage.

Doesn't he look cute here, sitting on my hand (which, luckily for me, was protected with an oven glove at the time!)

I started him on kapenta (small fish), which he seems to like.  I alternate this with minced beef.  He is not feeding by himself yet, I have to push the food into his mouth and then he swallows willingly.  He is eating a good amount – the equivalent of one or two mice a day, which is a good sign.

Yesterday he came out of his box for the first time and was looking much livelier.

Amigo's Story

Three days ago I acquired a white-faced owl.  It had been hit by a car the night before and ended up on the bonnet, rather dazed.  On examination it was found to have an injured left eye and a broken wing. 

It did not eat anything the first night.  I called it Amigo, after the Amigo Crisps box that it came in.  Amigo happens to mean "friend" in Spanish, which is a nice name for my new friend.

The following day my sister helped to put a cardboard splint on its broken wing.  That night I force-fed it with mincemeat.

Managed to force-feed Amigo again last night.  He is not looking too happy, but is still alive, and did manage to eat a fair amount, which is a hopeful sign.  I have no idea if he has any internal injuries from the accident.  Only time will tell.

Releasing Fighter the Owl

I have now had Fighter the Barn Owl for two and a half months.  In spite of being found with a severely broken wing and an injured leg, he appears to have made a full recovery.

A few days ago I noticed him making strange hissing and whining sounds that I had not heard before, and he seemed quite restless.  So this evening (6th September) I decided to release him.  I opened the top door of the cage and after looking round curiously for a while he came out.

He flew laboriously and not very far, soon landing on the ground.  I walked over to him and he flew off again, failing to reach any tree and landing on the ground again.  So at least I know he can fly that high when he tries.  After that I saw him fly back and forth between the roof and some large trees.  A bit worrying was the neighbour’s cat hunched and alert on the ground, waiting to see if it would get tired and come down to the ground again.

On the next two attempts he flew into fences.  I was very concerned by now that he was not really strong enough to fly far enough or fast enough to survive for long.  I was particularly concerned that he might land in a neighbouring garden, because some of my neighbours are particularly averse to owls and would do anything to kill them.  So I kept approaching his landing place to try and either re-catch him or at least steer him away from neighbouring gardens.  Then finally he flew off and I could not follow where he had gone.  I searched the whole back garden, both on the ground and in the trees, but there was no trace.  Worried and very concerned for his future I gave up the search.  No sooner had I gone back in the house than one of the kids heard scratching noises on the roof.  I rushed outside to find him sitting on the roof of the house, quite a distance from where I had last seen him.  

I have left some food in his cage with the door open, just in case he gets hungry before he manages to find his own food.

I am very concerned for Fighter’s future, but against all odds he has made it this far and is, like Harry Potter, "the boy who lived" (although I don't actually know if he is male or female).  I sincerely hope he will survive his new life in the wild and that he will really prove to be one of my "success stories".

Fighter the owl recovers

2nd September 2012

During the past month Fighter has been gradually healing and getting stronger.  By the end of August his wing looked quite back to normal and his limp seemed to have gone.  He was getting quite restless and constantly trying to get out of the cage.  I decided to keep him just a bit longer to make sure he was fully recovered.

Update on Fighter the Barn Owl

I gave fighter this name because he has fought to survive, unlike many injured birds that I have tried to save.  In my last post I mentioned that Fighter, after two-and-a-half weeks, had finally started eating out of my hand voluntarily, instead of being force-fed. Soon Fighter was feeding directly from a plate, and not long after I started feeding him on small dead mice.

On the 14^th of July, after I had had Fighter for three weeks, my sister said it was time to remove the splint.  She said that by this time the bone had either healed or was not going to heal.  So with a pair of scissors and fingers, she carefully removed the duct tape and cardboard that had been supporting the bone.

She said as far as she could tell, the bone appeared to have healed.  But only time would tell.  Fighter was still dragging his injured wing, but she said that the muscles would take time to get strong again.

Fighter the barn owl

Fighter, the barn owl, was found outside the Livingstone Museum on the morning of 23rd June.  He had a broken wing and could not fly.  One of the staff brought him inside, and I later came and rescued him.  On examination his left upper wing bone was found to be rather badly broken.  With my sister’s help we fixed him up with a cardboard splint, held on with duct tape.  He appeared to be limping a bit but we could not see any obvious injury to his legs.  Luckily I had a cage ready that I keep for injured and abandoned birds that need attention.  I put some water in the cage but decided not to try feeding it until it had settled down.  My experience with injured birds is they will not feed the first day or two after being put into captivity.

The next day I noticed he was not standing on his right leg, but holding it up all the time.  I examined it and thought it felt broken, but was not sure.  I decided to leave it, since the owl was still in some shock at being held captive and was obviously still in a lot of pain, so I did not want to handle it too much.  That evening I tried feeding him with some mincemeat.  He would not feed willingly so I forced some into his mouth, which he then swallowed.  Every day I tried to get him to feed by itself, but he would not.  I even tried him on dead mice, but he would not show any interest.  So I had to go on force-feeding him.  I would shove a small mouse down his throat and he would then swallow, sometimes leaving the tail hanging out for a while.

In the cage is a little house that Fighter sleeps in during the day.  In the evenings he comes out and looks around.

For the next two weeks I would force-feed him most evenings.  It was not easy, as holding an owl with a broken wing and probably a broken leg without hurting it is not easy.  Added to this was the fact that he was very scared of being handled, so panicked every time I came near.  For the first few days he seemed quite weak and in pain, and I did not have much hope of him surviving.  I have had very little success with injured adult birds.  However, as the days went by he began gaining strength and began to attack me when tried to get hold of him for his daily feed.  So I thought I would let him feed himself and again tried putting mincemeat or dead mice in front of him in the cage.  The next morning it would be untouched.

After I had had him for about two weeks, one day I found Fighter on the top shelf of the cage for the first time.  I did not know if he had flown up there or climbed up the netting.  But over the next few days I saw him doing both.  The broken wing is very lop-sided with the splint on it, but he can still flap around quite a lot.  This was a good sign.  But still he was not eating by himself and fought every time against being force-fed.

I was really wondering what the best option was.  Firstly, he had not died in two weeks, so there was a good chance of him surviving.  But he would not feed himself and viciously resented being held and force-fed.  So what should I do?  I tried starving him for a day or two.  That did not work.  But then finally, a few days later, when I was really at my wit’s end about what to do, I went to feed him, holding his good wing in one hand and coving up his sharp, attacking claws with an oven glove, I started feeding him.  Finally he calmed down and began to take the food from my hand, for the first time.  I was so relieved, because it was a first step towards independence.  The next day I did the same and again he took the food (mincemeat) from my hand.

12 July 2012 

Today I mixed some kapenta (small fish) in with the mincemeat and put it on a plate.  The moment I came near he climbed up the side of the cage and flapped about.  So I had to catch him, but when I touched the food to his beak he soon calmed down and began eating out of my hand again.  Eventually I was able to completely let go of him and he went on eating from my hand, just above the plate.

It is encouraging, firstly that Fighter has survived more than two weeks in captivity with two rather badly injured limbs, and secondly, that he is finally learning to feed himself and getting more used to being handled.  I hope that in the next few days he will learn to feed directly from the plate and that soon he will also take dead mice by himself.  He appears to be in less pain and is getting more active every day.  Unfortunately it may take some time for his bones to heal.  But if they do heal well, hopefully he can eventually be set free and live the rest of his life out in the wild.

Update on doves

I have not updated this blog for quite a while.  Unfortunately the two little doves I last wrote about did not survive.  They were doing so well but then one day they just got sick and died soon after.