Hand Rearing Steppe Eagles

[shaggyowls]

hi all,

i unfortunately had to lift the first of my steppe eagle eggs has she had laid them on the feeding platform, she is now down on 2 on the nest shelf, my missus was non to happy when i brought them home to incubate as last year i spent all my time incubating and hand rearing, tawny, barn, white faced and eagle owls, and 2 turkey vultures, and promised this year to leave my birds to do their own rearing of the chicks,

i have had some very good advice from experienced breeders, on imprinting/hand rearing and also trained a steppe that was 5 years old and only been an avairy bird.

but i would like to ask for recomendations on the upbringing as i would like to train this bird to fly on demonstrations,

anyone got the best way/technique

or will i have 5 conflicting responses, lol

cheers all

[WhiteTail]

How does your double clutch management normaly work out with timings?

[ScotsFalconer]

your best man to contact is Agent D. dave imprinted one last year (or the year before, i cant remeber) and its now doing well in demos i beleive.

[MickeyDredd]

I dual imprinted a steppe with my female imprint gos last year, he has turned out a very well mannered bird used for corporate days with no aggression issues whatsoever.

He required minimal, if any, weight dropping to get him flying on the creance at the start of his training.

[Miliscer]

I dual imprinted a steppe with my female imprint gos last year, he has turned out a very well mannered bird used for corporate days with no aggression issues whatsoever.

He required minimal, if any, weight dropping to get him flying on the creance at the start of his training.

Can you remember what weight he started at Mr Dredd?

Mike

[MickeyDredd]

I can't sorry Mike, my brain was rather fried at the time.......:rolleyes:

The breeder will know and I'm seeing him on Saturday so I'll ask him then and let you know.

Can you remember what weight he started at Mr Dredd?

Mike

[shaggyowls]

hi mikey,

did you hand rear him from a chick,
i have been advised just to feed the bird with minimum contact for the first 12 - 14 weeks,
cheers andy

[MickeyDredd]

Andy

Firstly, I'm no expert so I can only tell you my own personal experience with the specific eagle I helped to rear.

As regards the advice you mention below, it all depends on how how you want to raise the bird as to the contact you have with it.

Last year the breeder incubated the eggs and hand-reared for I think around 7 days. My gos had been rearing a couple of HH chicks for a couple of weeks just to make sure she would do the job and then I swapped the HH chicks for the eagle.

I dual-imprinted the eagle. Initially I would take the food into the aviary and give it to the gos when she came off brooding the youngster and she would feed it, as it got bigger I would then take the food in and put it on the food shelf until eventually I would put the food in the food chute from outside the aviary and then enter the aviary from the opposite end from the food chute. At all times I would stand right by the nest as the gos fed the eagle so that the eagle was completely at ease with my presence and there was no direct association with me as regards actually feeding the eagle, it was always fed by the gos.

when the eagle was around 4/5 weeks old I tried to hand feed it one day as an experiment, it didn't want to feed directly from me at that point so the process seemed to work, I then left the gos to feed it and it did eat so it wasn't due to it not being hungry.

I reared it until it was around 8 or 9 weeks old I think, can't remember exactly, as it began to get mobile and the aviary/nest set up wasn't suitable for such a large bird and I didn't want any feather damage.

HTH
Mike

hi mikey,

did you hand rear him from a chick,
i have been advised just to feed the bird with minimum contact for the first 12 - 14 weeks,
cheers andy

[FalconGriff]

We hand raise all out Tawny eagles which are to be used for displays I never try to hide the food and when they are flying I fly them very high as I want them to soar and have no problem with mantling or screaming.

[Malar]

Sorry to go off but Griff, do you openly hand feed all imprints from egg to flying free? With regards the steppe, would a good pair of ferrug or reds not rear it??I worked with an imprint female steppe at a centre, she was an ankle grabbing face biting cow! Not reared by us but dangerous none the less.:twisted:

[FalconGriff]

Certainly do! I have been breeding these eagles and raising them for my own use for over 25 years!! Literally thousands of people have watched me fly them with no problems. They are flown just the once a day when they right up maybe 2000 feet come down to a lure and then jump to the fist for a full crop.
I not saying it would suit everyone but as far as I am concerned, Ïf it aint broke, don't mend it!". I have also sold to other experienced bird handlers and they have been very happy with the results. As well as this the first one I did was put in with a male when she was 25 infertile eggs first year now every one filled. She is now 32 and we have just hatched the first of this year with her sat on another one. For me its the best of both worlds a very tame bird that you can fly as high as kite and then it breeds naturally for you.

[Malar]

Sounds superb! Will hopefully add a male Tawny to our team in 09 or '10this sounds a great was to fly them on demo. :)

[shaggyowls]

thnaks for the pm's and advice,

again i dont know what to do best,

my heart is saying imprint it from day one,
but that will mean only i will fly it, and as i own a centre it makes my job more demanding,
i haveseveral birds that will only fly to me or when i am in the flying arena, especailly the great gray and the eagle owl.
???????????????

i would love to bring it up with my family as i have done with a lot of birds, ...

but a steppe is the biggest sine the ee owl i hand rearedlast year,,,

ah well,

a few more days to decide

thanks all

[shaggyowls]

How does your double clutch management normaly work out with timings?

this is the first year she has had fertile eggs, i only paired her early lasy year and the female was an imprinted hunter,
she called for human company, but this year she has let the male have his way with her,

i didnt really expect the first clutch to be fertile,

amazing to see them moving now,

will let you know if the eggs hatch under the avairy birds,

cheers andy

[shaggyowls]

will everyone excuse my spelling and grammar,
also my c on my keyboard dosent work so well, lol

cheers andy