great horned owl

[Cyclone]

hello,i have been given a canadian GHO to train but its a brancher,its seven weeks old and has been handled very little during the last two weeks and it bites,baits/flys away from me and is very footy....also it doesnt sit on its perch.it doesnt feed on the fist either....
any tips? comments appreacited

thanx cyclone

[Lanner_Man]

i would imagine it will take a hell of alot of manning, GHO's are pretty agreesive birds (i think it is the only species of owl to kill a human, probably just give the chap a heart attack when he seen it flying towards him), where i work we have a pair and they are nasty as hell therefore bothered with them, hope they might mate????
but good luck anyway

[Bubo]

I agree gho's are extremely aggressive but wicked hunters when you get them hunting (and no pop shots here HM :twisted:) . You are going to have to work hard at gaining your owl's trust i'm afraid and that will mean being around him as many hours as you can possibly manage.

Your owl is still young so patience is the key word! just let him get used to you. Will he not take food from you at all?

[Cyclone]

hello Bubo,
i spent about three hours todday with him and yes he will take food from your gloved hand but is still a bit edgy about it.he still baits away from me but i managed to go in and he let me pick him up but he hissed and clomped his beak at me......................only let me du that once with him tho
cyclone

[Bubo]

that is a start cyclone. now what you can do is start having the bird on the fist, but have your fist resting on something (perch or something else familiar to the bird) This helps because it gives more of an impression of your fist being like 'part of the perch', and it keeps your hand steady which will make him feel more comfortable. Then begin moving away and try to read him, where does he feel most comfortable? close to you or held out farther? just take your time. Once he has sat there comfortably for a short while (ignore any hissing and snapping) end the session there. that way you will end on a positive note. Try and keep feeding strictly from your glove he will soon associate. And he will calm down.

does this make sense or does it seem like i'm waffling.

[Barn Owl]

i think it is the only species of owl to kill a human
Is that for real?

[Lanner_Man]

apparently, i think i read it some where, i think it was a bit of a good hit in the right place on the owls behalf. bad luck for who ever the poor person was

[Bubo]

The owl could seriously rip your face to shreds and take your eyes out but i think it is a bit over exaggerated a GHO killing someone unless that person died of heart attack or contracted something from the attack :roll:
bubo

[Lanner_Man]

a very likely version

[Cyclone]

hi bubo an every one else,the great horned is sitting extremely well on the fist and for the past day or so it hasnt baited away from me it has just sat on its perch and hissed but he let me pick him up wohooooo!!!!!!i manned him for about 2 hours today and he let me stroke him with only a nibble sometimes which is alrite....p.s i think it is the only species of owl to kill a human, -at least now if my neighbours say anthing about the birds...hehehehehe!
cyclone

[Lady-Luck]

Hello, :)
Just saw your posts and thought i would reply. :D
We have 3 GHO.One we call Horny is very aggresive(I think he has the wrong name) :lol:
the other two are very relaxed,and indeed are used for puplic displays!
Alot of handleing and trust goes a long way. :)
As your bird is still young,just work with him once he has your trust he should be fine. :)
It will take a while but once he is there as long as he stays handled he should be OK.
Don't forget though theses birds are wild animals and it is built in to be aggresive.A lot of tender care has to go into training them in the first place. :)
You sound like you are getting there though!KEEP GOING!!but be careful!! :)
All the best

[IAmTheWeasel]

We have a few falconers here that fly them with limited success. They can be trained, but many that I have heard of are difficult to hunt with because they have a very direct field of vision. They only see what is directly in front of them and even then they tend to only take one shot at the quarry with no pursuit. Our rehab center has a few of them and one grabbed the owners arm one throught the glove.....It held on for about an hour before the talons had to be cut to remove them from the arm. Their grip is incredible. I heard it was approximatly twice of what an RT can grip. With this being said, I helped raise a GHO that was a complete sweetheart of a bird. It sat the fist fine and never once tried to even clamp down on the fist.

[Fenman46]

The GHO is born with a screw loose , i had one for a while, i got mine at 3 days old ,so imprinting was not a problem,she would go from glove to glove ,fly from a post to you ,hates to follow on,but loved to chase over a short distance,they do have a lot more power than a european,your doing it the right way cyclone,,,thats all you can do is spend time with it ,and see if you can log its weight,and intake, but dont try to work it to the leash just yet {at 7 weeks just handle as much as you can}

[Cyclone]

hello every one,
i manned him for about two hours today but.....i had to cast him because his anklet came off.....he wasnt a happy chappy after but he settled down again after and then i just offered him 4 chick ripped in peices from my glove and he soon got the idea after some hissing..
cyclone