Important Discovery

This is Sanders, another ambassador owl, doing her best impression of a solar panel. When relaxed and presented with a sunbeam, burrowing owls will soak up the rays by laying flat and sometimes even spreading the wings to absorb more heat.


Spotting a sunbeam in the corner of our interpretive centre, I decided to find out if George loved sunbeams as much as the next burrowing owl.

After setting George down in the middle of a hearty sunbeam, this is how he immediately reacted.



Let's take a close up.


Oh dear, I disturbed his reverie.



This deserves some video. LOOK AT HIS TINY TAIL!

I think this was an important day for George. Sunbeams are awesome.

Age: 20 days old
Mass: 126 grams

Mr. Squishy

Age: 18 days old
Mass: 117 grams

While George looks like a tennis ball with legs, I assure you that it's mostly feathers. Here, George is alseep, leaning against his plastic case, and you can see that half of him squishes right down.

In front of house guests, no less...

George is pretty sleepy here, napping away.


But, like the rest of us, those naps can get away from us.

Owls have seriously bendy necks - as they should, since they have 14 neck bones compared to our measly 7.

Let's take a page from CuteOverload.com and see an Extreme Close-up of this redonkulousness.

Yes, I think his beak is actually touching the ground.

****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

Peculiar Housemates

Age: 15 days old
Mass: 101 grams

My dog is extremely disapointed that the two new puppies won't play with her. Despite offering her treasured tennis ball to George, she's still waiting for some kind of acknowledgement. Anything. Anything at all....

In the wild, there are many predators that will make a quick lunch of a burrowing owl. Great horned owls, hawks, weasels, skunks, raccoons, house cats, badgers, foxes, and even snakes are some of the animals that burrowing owls have to keep an eye out for.

Growing up with my dog, George is completely fearless. He'll run through her legs and has no problem taking a nap beside my 42 lb dog. I hope this kind of upbringing will be useful because we sometimes take the ambassador owls out to park festivals where people also walk their dogs. The dogs don't usually notice the owls, but Sanders and Trooper can spot a dog from afar and will spook easily.

****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.


.

I didn't like them anyways....

Age: 14 days old
Mass: 94 grams

Actually, they were my favourite slippers, but I guess I'll need new ones next winter.

George is growing quickly and starting to explore his surroundings. On his travels, he found a stray slipper and made it his own.

For the next few days, I left the slipper inside his carrying case and would often find him snuggled against it, sleeping soundly.


****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

One of these....

Age: 13 days old
Mass: 88 grams

... isn't like the other.

When raising young animals, it's important to make sure they get enough mental stimulation. For hamsters, you put a wheel into the cage. For puppies, you give them a ball or chew toy. This dog toy seems a bit big for George, but he did give it a peck to see what it was all about. He didn't seem that impressed and went back to playing with a blade of grass.

George is starting to walk around, but he still tires easily and needs to work on his balance.


****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

Feeling Flighty

Age: 12 days old
Mass: 82 grams

I start every morning weighing each owl. This helps me figure out how much to feed them, which is important because overfeeding an owlet can be very damaging.

This morning, George did not want to stand on the scale and I had to "tub" him. As you can see, that didn't stop him from bouncing around.

I wonder what he'll be like when he figures out how to fly.

****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

Morning Owl

Age: 11 days old
Mass: 73 grams

I can totally relate. I often have the same look on my face before my morning coffee. Seriously, don't bug me.

George's fuzzy white down is starting to be replaced by feathers. Look at his wing, that buffy-coloured patch is a series of feathers that are starting to growing out. In the next few days, George will start to look very different.

****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

No way, uh uh

Realizing his mistake, Shorty quickly hopped off the body fat analyzer.


****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

That Awkward Stage

Age: 10 days old
Mass: 64 grams

Look, we all go through it. It's natural and no big deal.

It's just worse when your parents insist on taking photos to remember it.


****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

With a side of mouse, please.

If I planned on posting this video, I would have put smarter looking books on the shelf.

In the wild, the male does most of the hunting while the female broods the young and does most of the feeding. Once the owlets are a bit bigger, the female will start to hunt close to the nest, mostly picking up insects like grasshoppers.

In unrelated news, George opened his eyes today!!

****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

SBOIC Communications Team

Age: 9 days old
Mass: 57 grams

George still needs help staying warm and I found that sometimes he just likes to lean into my hand. Many baby birds probably sit like this because they huddle with their siblings to share body heat. Me, I've learned to type with one hanfsdd.

****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

Smug Gains

Age: 8 days old
Mass: 48 grams

George looks pretty happy with himself. Since yesterday, he's gained 6 grams. That's like gaining 15% of your body weight overnight. At this age, George will continue to grow like a weed. I feed him 4 - 5 times a day, and he's always peeping for more.

What does George eat? Well, the natural diet of a burrowing owl is mostly rodents and insects, and at this age, the parents are feeding growing owlets a lot of meat to help them grow. I feed George chopped up pieces of mices (it's not as gross as it sounds).

****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

Zzzzz...

Zzzzz...... our first night together was pretty rough. George kept peeping for food and his nest mates, and he would only sleep if he was in my cupped hand, under my blanket. So, I stayed up and watched a movie with George in my warm hands.

At 1 am, I tried to sleep with him cupped in my hand, but could you sleep with an endangered owl the size of a potato chip in your hand? I couldn't.

At 4 am, I finally put him into the incubator and tucked him in for the night.


****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

First Day Out

Age: 7 days old
Mass: 42 grams

June 11th was George's first day out of the nest, in the great big human world. At this age, he can't stay warm without his mother's body heat, or in this case, my body heat. Little George spent most of his first day tucked in a cozy pouch, and kept under my shirt.


****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.

Big Plans

Age: 1 day old
Mass: Unknown

SBOIC introduces our newest ambassador owl, George. Or maybe Georgina! We won't know if the new owl is a male or female until we do a blood test, and the little owlet needs to be bigger before we can take a feather or blood sample.

George is only one day old in this photo, and will remain with his mom (Zeus) and his dad (Gale) for another five days before he becomes Saskatchewan's next star.

****SBOIC is licensed to keep and display all their educational animals. Only qualifed individuals with proper permits are allowed to keep native species. Taking an animal from its wild home is illegal. Keep our animals wild, and leave them in their homes.