Hi Guys,
I am here to answer any animal related questions you might want answers for.
When you want a question answered please give your name, age, school or group, and your question and I will try my best to help you:
Dr Woo
Questions and Answers
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Hi Guys, I am here to answer any animal related questions you might want answers for. When you want a question answered please give your name, age, school or group, and your question and I will try my best to help you:
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Dr Woo
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From Lots of people |
What age can I become a volunteer for World of Owls? |
World of Owls is not open to the public yet, but when it does we will need volunteers. Under 16 years old: You will need to be accompanied by an adult. 16 to 18 years old: You will need to have written consent from a parent or guardian. But remember guys; to work with our animals you have to under go training and there are lots of tasks to complete, such as, cleaning poop, general maintainence, picking up litter, and a test, all before you get to handle any animal. |
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From: Michael. Lindsey School, Foster Green Hospital. Age: 6 |
To mike . You may not remember me, I saw you when you came to visit The Lindsay School with the owls. I sat at the front and enjoyed it all as I love birds, I have two doves called Mike and Snowy and one of them is losing it's feathers ,they have been cleaned and are lice free so why would this happen. By the way how are all your owls . Thank you from Michael aged 6. | HI Michael,
Great to here from you. Don’t worry about your doves. Once a year all birds go through a thing called a ‘Moult’ this means they lose all there old feathers and grow new ones. In the wild birds do this gradually but in captivity they can do this nearly all at once. Sometimes it looks like a snowstorm in my garden when my birds do this. Keep in touch if you have any more questions. Many thanks, Mike Gibb |
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Name: Ron From: U.S.A. |
I have recently aquired a screeh owl from the Conservation
officer here in the US. It was injuried when it feel out of a tree. I
was able to get it eating and has be eating quite well. My question I
have for you is should I give it a vitamin supplement? I have been feeding
a combination of chicken livers, beef, crickets and wax/ meal worms. I
have been thinking of introducing a baby mouse. If I can get him to hunt
and kill on his own I would release him back into the wild. Any info would
be a great help. |
Hi Ron,
Do you know which Screech Owl you have as there are 30 sub-species and I could better help knowing which one? If you could email me a picture I might be able to ID it. The variation in diet that you are feeding sounds good enough to do with out vitamin supplements. Vitamins are usually introduced in captive birds to supplement a diet. The chicken livers, or any liver, I seem to find send my birds a little hyper. If you have an egg hatching factory close by ask them for some day old chicks, these are the males that will be humanly culled as there is no market for them and a factory should give you them free. Also you could try a sliver of beef (with no fat) as this is a great source of protein and adds to weight gain. Mice and small rats would be a great source of food as would rabbit. As to introducing this owl back to the wild: there are a number of things you must consider.
If you are feeding this owl by hand it will become quickly imprinted to you. (Not trying to insult your intelligence, but I will try and break this down). This means it will very rapidly become dependant on you for food and will not gain any natural instincts for hunting or survival. This can happen in a very short space of time.
Isolation would be the best thing here with out any human intervention as a non-fear for humans could pose a great problem in rehabilitation.
If you can give me more information I will try to assist you further.
Many thanks, Mike Gibb |
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From: Cathy South Africa |
Hi there Let me state firstly, that I am a serious animal lover and owls are one of my all-time favourite birds. However, we have a 'problem' owl. We humans have encroached on their territory and thus the problem. Our suburb borders on the open country side as well and so I think he ventures into 'our' area out of habit as it probably used to be his area. He is a large owl, perhaps 1½ to 2 feet tall. The problem is that several cats have gone missing in our area and people are blaming this owl and threatening to shoot it! I, myself, have cats (although none have gone missing) as well as free roaming pet rabbits which I lock up in their hutches at night because of this owl. Hopefully, he doesn't decide to hunt during the day! My question: what can be used to deter this owl from coming into our area? Is there a sound that would scare him away? Will he hunt in brightly lit areas (i.e. keep outdoor spot-lights on)? One stupid person even threatened to put out a poisoned rat. It was pointed out to this bright spark that owls hunt moving prey and that he was putting more cats in danger in the process. I am so worried that this beautiful bird is going to come to some harm (boys brag about shooting at it with pellet guns and catties). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Is it possible to capture and relocate a bird like this? Yours sincerely Cathy |
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for your email. Its very doubtful that your owl in question would take a cat. Have you seen it and if so is there any chance of getting a photo so I could identify it. There is not much you can do about idiots trying to kill it. It is lack of knowledge that drives people to drastic measures. Maybe if you could get me the name of a local newspaper I could write to them in the hope that they might publish an article. Can you give me an exact location of were you live that I might research the owls in you area? Please keep in touch. Mike Gibb |
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From: Sue France |
We have just recently moved
to the SW of France near Bergerac and are having a problem with a 'Little
Owl' so far it has fallen down our chimeny 5 time and flown around the house
a few. Obviously this cannot be good for the owl but also it is very messy
for us as it is a working fire in the winter. We cannot put a grid onto
the chimeny as it is three storeys high followed by a high chimney. Could
you possibly give me some advice on how we may stop this and why the owl
is doing this. We have nicked named him Errol from Harry Potter |
Hi Sue, Can you send me a couple of pictures of your chimney? The only other thing I can think of without seeing the chimney is capping your chimney. It is a small cover, which allows ventilation without anything getting in. I can only imagine that 'Errol' is hunting bats, starlings or insects and loosing his footing. Hope this helps. Many thanks, Mike |
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Claire Lynn
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Hi Mike, There is just a little question I want to ask you do you know were the snakes heart is. Claire lynn Thanks. |
Hi Claire, A third of the way down its body. Mike |
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Erin Breen St.John The Baptist P.S. Armagh
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Hi Mike, I just wanted to ask you a question,can a royal python shoot venom. |
Hi Erin, No a Royal Python is a constrictor, which means it squeezes its prey, suffocating them. Mike |
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Madeline Chapel Hill, NC - USA age 9. |
How much does it cost to adopt an owl? Maddy, |
Hi Maddy,
It costs £25.00 to sponsor an owl with us. Mike |
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Angie Peat Henley-on-Klip South Africa
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Please help, we've landed with a baby owl, the mother was killed. What would be the best feed and times to feed this owl so that it can survive. |
Option 1. If it can feed itself, set food down in front of it and leave it alone, not minced but diced as suggested. Come back later to see if it has eaten. If yes. Make a box and attach it to a tree near your house and take out food to it once in the morning and once at night just as it is starting to get dark. They are solitary creatures and mostly not nocturnal but crepuscular, meaning dusk and dawn. Avoid the temptation of human contact, just walk out put food down then walk away, DON’T FEED BY HAND. Let it eat itself. The box should be around 2ft square I will attach a very rough diagram. If you continue to feed by hand and play with it in the house it will imprint and will never be returnable to the wild. A good temporary source of food would be day old cockerels from a hatchery, they should give them to you free as they are of no use. Better would be dead mice and small rats from a pet suppliers, you would usually get them frozen, thaw them over night and feed. Hope this helps. Mike
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Angie Peat Henley-on-Klip South Africa |
Thought I'd let you know
how it went with owly. We put it in a box built to your specs and fed it
twice a day, but had to hand feed ad it didn't take any food itself. I woke
up this morning with the birds make more of a noise than they normally do,
it's a cacophony at dawn, to find another owl with owl. Maybe a parent,
I don't know, but it went off into the dawn with wobbly wings with the other
owl. they were nesting at the bottom of my garden, near the river so I take
it it's a parent.
Thanks for your help, and hopefully we're an owl richer. It was really in good health and horns were starting to appear on it's head. We couldn't identify it properly, but it may have been a giant eagle owl. I didn't get a good look at the other owl, except that it was much lighter in colour and big. Once again thanks we couldn't have done it without your help. |
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| name: Bianca Espinos
address: ocean Adventure, Subic Bay, Philippines postcode: 2222
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How long do grass owls live? | Hi Bianca, Are you the sea lion trainer at Subic Bay? Nice to here from you. To answer your question, I would need a little more information to go on as there are 6 species of grass owl and many sub-species. Try this link and let me know how you get on. http://www.owlpages.com/species/tyto/longimembris/Default.htm Many thanks, |
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Sarah Higgins |
I live in Naivasha in Kenya, East Africa and have, over the past four years rather inadvertently started a little owl sanctuary for injured and orphaned owls. Our local Vet is aware that I am good with, and prepared to put in the time with, injured wild animals and birds and so sends her patients to me to look after and release when mended, or continue to look after if they are in any way disabled. As you have more knowledge than I on the subject of owls I wonder if you could advise me on what I really need as we have no such expertise in this country to my knowledge.
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Hi Sarah, Just email your questions and we will do our best to help you. Sarah has been in constant contact with World of Owls and we are working q well together!
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