I know im not who you asked, but heres what i do. I feed frozen food2-3 days in a row then give a freshly killed whole carcass of something. I usually trap squirrels and shoot rabbits and small birds. I use vitahawk.
That would work well and I will probably change some things around during moulting time as for my past birds I just gave them frozen quail. I've thought about stuff breaking down in the freezer from science and bio classes just never hard enough to consider it. This year I shouldn't have to worry for an eyas gos as I tend to give the eyases much more fresh killed stuff than frozen.
melissa
My soul is sick of chicken soup, it wants some chocolate!
what do you think about dried rat/meat? my mom is a postal service worker... on day on her route she spotted a sharp-shinned hawk not doing very well, she got a box, put it in (it was raining also) and rushed it to a raptor hospital. We ended up with the hawk for a few days or so, and i remember the vet gave my mom a bag of what looked like jerky, but it was like rat or venison... its hard to describe, it wasn't exactly dry still moist and pliable but not fresh, and it was specifically for raptors. what do you guys think?
I honestly have no clue what your mother fed the SS. I doubt it was venison, it may have been rat but that is unlikely.
I feed my bird pigeon, duck, chicken, quail, rabbit [cotton tail and jacks], and some sparrows. No jerky like stuff, just meat straight from the freezer, thawed and fed. That or fresh off a kill ;D
And from a quality place. I've heard horror stories from falconers who fed their birds rats and lost them to some disease or another rats carry. Stay away from wild rats maybe?
I feel that if you're going to incorporate rats into scheduled diet... for your bird. You should spend the money and go with a reputable company like RodentPro, and a few others I can't bring to mind.
You know they are healthy and had a good diet. You know they were raised in hygenic conditions. You know they were dispatched in a humane manner.
Post by Stormscall on Feb 14, 2006 19:20:50 GMT -5
Just a quick note, you can buy whole frozen mice and rats from some pet stores. I have fed my Kestrel this season mainly on mice from Petco. Pet stores are a little more expensive than mail order, but the convenience is worth it for me. I think I pay about $1.30 a piece for the full grown adult mice.
the modern apprentice suggests ducks, rabbits, DoC, beef heart... I think the best thing would be a variety and to remove the intestines out of wild things, never know what they've been eating
I have heard of feeding cow hart to a RT but what about cow liver. Each year we get half a cow from a farmer. If we want it he will give us the liver, toung, and Heart.
You use use Beef Heart to lower there weight. Now im not saying you cant feed beef to a hawk period but its not a good idea to feed anything other then whats natural to them. If you feed too much beef... you can kill your hawk.
Here'a great way to figure out what to be able to feed your hawk.
I have always liked that rule Wolf. "Never feed your bird anything it couldn't kill"
I know beef heart is well thought of and easy to get, but are we in this sport because it is easy? Taken to an extreme, I suppose a big hen red tail could kill a small to medium 'possum, but I wouldn't feed the greasy buggers to a bird I cared about.
I used beef heart in the initial training of my bird. I washed it all out though so it didn't have much nutrional value and just kept the birds digestive system working. Did wonders. He never gained much weight and got food when he would come. I didn't use it very much after we got past the training at all though
In all the books i've been currently reading it says to feed a variety... Day old Chicks (or Cockerels), quail, rats, mice, sometimes squirels (because its tough, and builds muscle in the raptors neck), hare, rabbit (worse than hare though), game birds (in small amounts), and they say beef shin is better than beef heart. and to feed liver to a sick bird, because its soft and pliable, and very rich.... But the main thing is, is that if you feel its nutritional value isn't so good, to add some roughage or vitamins (I think it was in Lee William harris' book that says "if you feed a raptor beef, you might want to through a rat head into it for nutritional value and roughage").
And just a side note.... STAY AWAY FROM PETCO... ANY place is better than that. They didn't pay attention to their stock (and they also didn't mark them with experation dates), and two of my animals got food poisoning from old food that was left on the shelves too long, and ultimately killed them. All the petco's here are dirty and the people don't seem to care... dunno about your petco... but the petco here sucked so much people stopped shopping there and they went out of business