Does anyone here, have experience in training small.....?

[Gustavo]

Hi guys, i just started training a 7 month Tropical Screech owl, and i´m looking for some tips, i ´ve been hearing that is hard to train small owls, so i wanna learn more about it.

Does anyone here already trained Screech owls?

THanks

gustavo

[OhMyGod]

do you have a picture of your bird?

[Afshimo]

We have a young tropical schreech owl, we have just started training too. We have trained a few little owls to train, like the little owl (lol) white faced scops owl, barn owls and the bigger bengal eagle owl, but mainly for display. Its fun once they learn what to do!

What we do is handrear them for a while, till they have all the feathers down and hard. Then we get them to hop to us for all their food, then we half it, say if its a chick, half the chick, and get her to jump 2 times and finish the chick on your fist. You can do this inside if you prefer. We dont use a creance with training handreared owls, never needed too! Cut the food into tiny pieces, as the bird is tiny! Then, just keep them jumping from the floor or a perch till they start flapping their wings properly, and making small flights. You have to hold your fist about 3ft away for them to properly see the food and will take a few weeks to associate it with food, as they learn slow sometimes! Once they are hopping, you can take them outside, or where ever you want to fly them, let them have a good look around, leave them to look for about 15-20mins, as they are very nosy. Then, show them the food and get them to jump. They might fly to you if your lucky. Keep making the distance larger, so they have to fly. They get the idea after abit lol. Give them encouragement, give them a quick cuddle or scratch the head, as another reward, and they will look forward to flying. Make sure after each flight, they get their full rations, this will make them want to stay around rather than bunking off after flying. It takes time, but they will learn.
Good luck with your owl! Any pics please??

Han

[Gozzhawk]

!*@~ sake how many owls have you lost or killed or worse do you CUDDLE and FONDLE the owls in front of the public. **** me with a stick let them look about for 20 mins , what is that teaching the owl ?? OH the steam from my ears could heat the whole village!!!

[Gustavo]

Hi Guys !!

Well, Filó (TSO) is learning very fast, i did a lot of things by instint, which i found out later that i did some things well, without knowing, and after reading and learning from other falconers, now i have a much better view of it, and for now shes doing 5 meters hops to my glove, and she is starting to respond faster each time, even tough i´m only training her 3 times a week, and i´m passing through all the steps people usually pass, like the first time she was outside, she didnt care about the food and kept looking every thing around, and now lets see how she will do, in fact that i´m not doing any weight control, i just don´t want put her health in risk, because she is so little and its easy to make a lethal mistake.

Is pretty much it , and as soon, as i have some news, will tell.

See you later
Gustavo