Owls may seem like cute and cuddly birds but believe me this isn’t true. They are not supposed to be kept as pets. They are truly wild birds and they belong in the wild.  The desire to keep owls as pets started after the release of the first Harry Potter book. Harry Potter has a beautiful white owl called Hedwig and this gave people the idea that  owls can be kept as pets. People started considering dogs, cats, guinea pigs too mainstream and owls started appearing exotic and interesting as pets. Sorry to burst the bubble guys but in most countries keeping a pet owl isn’t even legal. The only people who are allowed to keep and breed owls are professionals who have been certified as trainers or are permitted to take care of baby or abandoned owls. After the harry potter craze got over, thousands of owls were abandoned and released into the wild by people who couldn’t take care of them anymore. Keeping an owl is no joke. They need lots of space and cleaning their cage takes a lot of work. Usually an owl lives for about 20 years and bringing one home would mean devoting twenty years of your life in its service.

Owls need a twenty feet aviary and they are really expensive moreover owls need to flap their wings for about five times before landing or else they get a chest infection. The Harry Potter craze resulted in people buying owls without even thinking if they could keep them or not.  There was a certain lady who kept two owls in her bedside cabinet in her bedroom and a man who kept an European Eagle owl which has a wingspan of about five feet in his one bedroom apartment. This was the kind of madness which was prevalent after the release of the Harry Potter books. We cannot blame J.K Rowling for this phenomenon because that’s how the minds of people work. If they see something in a movie they must have it. They don’t stop to think about the consequences of bringing an owl home. Owls aren’t supposed to be kept as pets at all. They are predatory birds and no matter what you do they cannot become cockatiels.

REASONS WHY AN OWL CAN’T BE TREATED AS A PET

They cannot be left unsupervised

Owls imprint on the person who has brought them up from a young age which means that they will not accept the care of another person easily. This means that in case you plan to go on a vacation or a business trip you cannot just simply give your owl to your neighbor and hope that your owl adjusts to him. Taking an owl with you on a business trip can be equally tricky because the airlines require a lot of permits before they let you take your owl with you to another country. Moreover traveling can also be stressful for your pet owl.

Destructive in nature

Owls are very destructive in nature because they are predatory birds.  Their natural instincts make them want to “murder” everything in sight whether living or non living. Given the chance they will rip apart you curtains, sofas, woodwork and anything else which they can lay their claws on.

Banshees during mating season

Owls behave no less than banshees during their mating season. During the morning hours and late evening owls start hooting loudly and human imprinted owls perceive themselves as humans and their hoots are directly aimed at their owners so the humans have to hoot along in order to avoid a very angry owl.

Owls are no dogs

Owls don’t like being petted and touched so if you love your hands don’t go around touching owls even if it has been fully trained and knows you well. No matter how much you train an owl a wild animal will always be a wild animal, it’s just how they are built. You cannot keep it in a cage and train it and hope that one day it will behave like a cockatiel or love you like your dog does.

Unpredictable birds

Owls are quick and powerful birds that have sharp talons which can be very dangerous. Even people who have years and years of experience in handling these birds have lost their eyes or have been severely scarred due to these unpredictable birds.

Frequently mess up their aviary

Whether an owl lives in an aviary or in your house they create a lot of mess. A full time crew will not be enough to clean up the mess your owl will make. Owls molt and poop a lot and sometimes drop smelly balls of fur and bones mixed with a tar like substance. Your house will never be the same again and if you keep your bird in an aviary make sure to clean it regularly to keep the place clean enough for your bird.

Keeping an owl as a pet is a strict NO NO. Not only are they not meant to be kept as pets but it is also illegal to keep a pet owl at home in most countries, they are wild animals and should be treated as such. If you are really addicted to owls then sponsor an owl at a bird sanctuary where you can go visit it whenever you like and it will also give you great pleasure to know that you saved an owl’s life. Pets are to be loved and they cannot be treated as a fashion accessory. People must stop getting pets just because the leading character in a movie had them. The poor animals have to suffer due to man’s incompetence because he still doesn’t know what is right and what is wrong.

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It has been observed that every child or even a grown up in some cases, yearns to have an owl for a pet after watching the popular Harry Potter series of movies. Everybody wants a handsome snowy white owl like Hedwig. And why not! Owls have it all in their looks. Each of the owl breeds have this royal air about themselves which make them all the more desirable. However, it is highly recommended that having an owl for a pet is only for those who are professionals at handling them. In some countries, it is even illegal to own owls. In some parts of India, owls are considered a bad omen. J.K.Rowling, author of the famous Harry Potter series herself has said “If anybody has been influenced by my books to think an owl would be happiest shut in a small cage and kept in a house, I would like to take this opportunity to say as forcefully as I can; you are wrong”.

Owls have a temperament of their own and are very moody. They wish to live life by their own terms. Captivating them and trying to tame them would be harmful to them as well as the people around them. Many people assume that it would be cool and awesome to have owls for pets but they have no idea about the lows of caring for one.

The International Owl Centre gives the following ten reasons why having an owl for a pet is light years away from a good idea.

Trips/Tours are difficult;

It is very unhealthy for an owl to travel. Owls are very cold towards strangers and hence will not be very happy about the presence of hundreds of other co passengers. Plus owls kind of have an obsessive compulsive disorder. Anything out of the regular schedule bothers them. You can’t even leave them behind unattended because that will piss them off more.

Owls can be very destructive;

The killing instinct is natural in them. They drift into ninja mode with anything that sets them up in a mood. Pillows, soft toys, clothes, blankets or anything that can be shredded instigate them into a battle. They also like dropping things placed at an elevated platform. So, yeah, sadism redefined!

Noisy mating season;

Owls are night birds, which is a known fact. That is not to be forgotten even when mating is taken into account. They keep hooting and calling during mating season and remember again, this all happens at night time. It will be really disturbing if your slumber is interrupted by creepy hooting noises, plus you will have to pull lots of strings together later to be in your neighbours’ good books, mostly to no avail.

Owls are not the mushy type;

It’s a human tendency to get really mushy with animals and people they love. We love to cuddle, pull the cheeks, and play with the fur and stuff. Watch out for the claws and the beak though if you ever try that with an owl. Owls do not like to be cuddled or petted or even touched. They would rather have you hate them than get all touchy and mushy.

High maintenance;

Daily grooming, feeding, attention, cleaning is a must. You also need to fly them regularly. And you need to get really huge cages so that they do not get cranky and get lot of exercise.

Long term commitment;

Owls live for very long if well taken care of. Small breeds can live up to ten years. Some of them could live as long as thirty years which is almost half of an estimated human life span. Hence if you are committing to taking care of an owl, then you are in it for life.

Sharp beak and claws;

There is an easy prescribed way of knowing the dislikes of an owl or there is a hard way to figure that out that may result in you ending up bruised and bleeding. If owls do not like what you are doing around them, they will let you know and they will make sure that the way in which they do that, you will remember it till you take the very last breath of your life. It is recommended that you have heavy gloves for protection and in spite of that, accidents happen when the owl tends to scratch the bare exposed skin.

Specialized care;

Most veterinarians are not efficient enough to take care of owls. They are usually trained at taking care of cats, dogs and other usual pets. You need to find out if you have a vet specially trained to take care of owls nearby, because sometimes, the symptoms of ill health in owls are very subtle and hence you yourself must be trained and informed. This is one reason that getting permits for ownership of owls is difficult and requires specialized training.

They are a mess;

They shed feathers in thousands in a year, puke out fur pellets and undigested food whenever and wherever they feel like it. Their excreta is extremely unpleasant smelling which is very frequent to owls like all other birds and they leave stains behind. It requires nonstop cleaning when dealing with an owl.

Food;

You can’t just walk into a pet store and ask for tinned owl food. Owls are strictly carnivores and they require their daily dose of whole animals (rodents) for proper maintenance of their system. You will have to cut up nasty animals every day for the rest of your life if you wish to have an owl. If the idea makes you feel weak in the intestines then you better drop the idea right now.

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