# Owls as pets
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/owls-as-pets/841781
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 15, 2019, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/owls-as-pets/841781 "2019-10-15T11:25:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/owls-as-pets/841781/21 "2019-10-16T16:50:51Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> What word would you use? Work animal? Tool?
Birds of prey, they are used for hunting other small animals.
---
### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2019, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/owls-as-pets/841781/22 "2019-10-16T16:55:47Z")
I had a filthy owl in my garage recently. He threw up half digested rodent guts on the roof of my BMW. They DID NOT clean up easily.
_Bad Pet!_
---
### Author:  [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2019, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/owls-as-pets/841781/23 "2019-10-17T04:14:30Z")
> [@araminty](#):
>
> I used to work in zoo education, and cared for and handled a non-releasable great horned owl. You couldn’t pay me to keep one in my house. They’re just not good pets.
I worked at a zoo, also for a while. My favorite part was the educational display, where I handled the small owls and hawks. Raptors are fascinating!
But they are not pets. They are not domesticated, even if certain individuals are hand reared and accustomed to riding one’s hand.
I didn’t work with the Great Horned Owls but I was attacked once by one while I was cleaning her enclosure. I’d been raking and I straightened up to stretch my back a moment. I found the owl staring at me. I looked back because we were right next to each other. Suddenly she launched herself at my head. I threw up my arm to ward her off and she put her claws through my triceps.
It wasn’t a huge deal but I went to the doctor because I fed those birds and knew what she had on her claws. He cleaned it up and gave me a tetanus shot. The nurse wrote on the door in big letters OWL BITE and everyone who passed my room stopped and commented on it. Then when I left, I initially forgot my glasses there. When I went back in to get them, the doctor was in the reception room regaling all his co-workers about the girl who got bit by an owl. I just laughed and said, not for the first time, that it wasn’t a bite. I didn’t tell them about the emu and the duck.
OMG - I just realized that the owl was probably coming for my glasses. I wonder if she saw her reflection in them. She didn’t have a history of attacking … I can’t remember now if I was actually wearing my glasses while cleaning her cage. I didn’t always. But it’s the closest thing I can think of to an explanation. It was such a strange episode.
Anyway, OP, if you love owls, you should respect them and let them keep to themselves, so that they don’t become habituated to humans. See about nature walks or zoo programs if you want to encounter them in person. But don’t take them out of their environment.
---
### Author:  [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2019, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/owls-as-pets/841781/24 "2019-10-17T04:17:08Z")
The owls are not what they seem.
---
### Author:  [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2019, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/owls-as-pets/841781/25 "2019-10-17T08:51:32Z")
> [@Xema](#):
>
> Owls are occasionally (well, rarely) used in falconry, so you could legally possess one - your state rules permitting - if you first obtained a falconry license. But note that falconers do not consider - or treat - their animals as pets.
>
> Being generally nocturnal animals that hunt by sound rather than sight, they would probably be challenging to work with, and very different from hawks and falcons.
In the UK, a fair number of falconry outfits feature the Barn Owl _Tyto alba_ (found throughout most of the world – the American sub-species very similar to our European one) – I’ve seen Barn Owls being flown, in a good few falconry displays in this country. The species is crepuscular in its habits – active dawn and dusk, more than in the dark of night – so makes more sense for use falconry-wise, than do most owls. Plus, the Barn Owl is very well-loved in Britain – its plumage is pale overall, making it look appealingly ghost-like in flight: having one in a falconry “do”, is a good draw for spectators. And the species seems to have – as owls go – a placid temperament: is quite easy to work with.
---
### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2019, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/owls-as-pets/841781/26 "2019-10-17T12:06:48Z")
> [@Rough\_Draft](#):
>
> Trying to turn wild animals into pets is just a bad idea in general.
No! I won’t accept another person pointing out the flaws in my plan to turn my house into an otter-cheetah-owl-octopus sanctuary.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/owls-as-pets/841781.md?page=1)