Owls are beautiful creatures who physically appear very sleek, neat and tidy so the assumption that owls are one of the cleaner birds is often made but is this true?
Are owls clean?
The answer is unfortunately not really. In fact, owls are known for being very messy and this article will consider why this is.
First of all lets combine all the reasons why owls are known as the messiest avian:
- Dirty eating habits
- Pooping A LOT
- Meat based diet
So basically the whole feeding and digestion process of an owl is messy business!
Dirty Eating Habits
Owls are known to rip apart their food, which is often a carnivorous meal full of blood and guts to consume it easier. This means their surrounding area becomes a build up of mess and therefore any owl kept in an enclosure as a pet will need lots of cleaning. An owl owner will spend much of their time cleaning up after their owls meals.
Also lets talk about regurgitated pellets. Part of the cleaning process of an owls enclosure will include cleaning up the pellets which are made up of the indigestible parts of the owls meal, this usually includes animal bones and fur that owls cannot keep in their body. Although it is important to know that these pellets do not in fact have an odour. These pellets are actually also extremely interesting for bird lovers who want to know exactly what a birds diet has been like by the contents of their previous meals. These pellets can be pulled apart to reveal exactly what the owl has had to eat in the last day.
Pooping A LOT!
So yes, its not all glamour over here on owl chatter, far from it in fact but the truth has to be said that these beautiful, majestic, awe-inspiring creatures poop, and they poop a lot. In fact they are notorious for it and what makes this even worse is the fact that they eat a meat based diet which = foul odour. We will dive more into the owls diet in the next section but basically these bathroom habits mean that an owls cage can be a smelly place to be, so once again, better get ready for a lot of cleaning if you decide to own an owl as a pet!
Meat-Based Diet
So, unlike other birds, whose diet consists of vegetables and are primarily herbivore, our owls are not part of this club as they are avid carnivores. Owls diets consist of insects, rodents, spiders, and other small animals. Therefore, it’s pretty obvious that their diet will equal waste of digested meat and I’m sure many of us have witnessed the smell of meat gone bad / meat left out of a fridge for long periods.
So after pointing out how messy our owls are, I feel its only fair to give them some props for their grooming, because although this doesn’t solve their messy enclosures, owls are great at removing dust, dirt and parasites from their feathers by using their talons like combs and restoring their feathers to perfect condition. They have a gland known as the uropygial gland which is located at the base of their tail and this produces an oily liquid which the owl will transfer across their feathers with their beak to protect their feathers and keep them clean.
While we are discussing bids and their hygiene habits, I would love to take the time to educate people on our good friends the vulture. Our poor vultures get a bad rap in the media and television/movies, often portrayed as the creepy villain but this should not be the case as they are in fact role models of good hygiene and angels in disguise! In fact, vultures do much more for hygiene than owls do and they’re one of the fussiest birds when it comes to staying clean and I’m passionate to spread the word on these fabulous creatures (Falcon blog pending…!). Since vultures eat meat, unlike the large feathers covering the owl, vultures have bald necks which helps keep them clean and tidy when dining. Also, it might sound gross but if a vulture stands on a rotten carcass they know to urinate on their legs to kill bacteria and disease to stay happy and healthy! Vultures also do wonders at keeping the world clean by eating up carcass meat often only leaving bones behind. Also vultures stomach acid is so corrosive, they can safely digest Botulinum Toxin, hog cholera, anthrax bacteria and much more which can be extremely harmful to other animals – Amazing really!
But back to the point, owls are messy creatures and therefore keeping an owl as a pet isn’t recommended as they need high levels of care (please see my previous article here) and ensuring their enclosure is clean will be extremely timely but extremely important for the health and happiness of the owl.