Feeding porcupine

[janus]

Hi all,

Gotta ask everyone this question: Does anyone have any experience with or know someone who feeds their birds porcupine?

OBVIOUSLY you need to skin it extremely well first and make sure there are no hairs or quills whatsoever but other than the quills and the chance of the animal tasting like tannin and/or has been feeding on coniferous trees, I don't really see a problem with it. Out in my neck of the woods porkies are open season and they're so common I can just pluck them straight out of the fields and are an easier target than squirrels or groundhogs. Any thoughts?

[jfneumann57]

IMHO I see no reason to feed it to your bird for a number of reasons.
1. Raptors should be fed whole prey as often as possible.(given you have to skin it to feed it that would defeat this purpose.
2. Not having eaten porcupone I'll referense the tannin statement you made. If your feeding it as tidbits or just to crop up on iof it tastes bad it will actually fight whatever training purpose it's being used as by giving the bird a nagative association.
3. If the animal still resembles after you skin it and you feed it and the bird likes it you are actually encouraging it to hunt them which I would try to avoid at all costs.
that's just my 2 cents.

[rt]

I wouldnt mind having one as a pet my friend has a african crested and it is the nicest thing it will follow you around everywhere.

[jake34705]

rt said:

I wouldnt mind having one as a pet my friend has a african crested and it is the nicest thing it will follow you around everywhere.

i guess theres no picking it up or snuggling going there? lolol

[Wolf]

I say..

I would enjoy watching you skin it. Please use a video camera.

If your bird thinks its tasty.. another food source.

[whytepizza]

I've actually got an interesting one for that. My grandfather had a porcupine in his lawn which he shot (he lives int he boonies). He gave the carcass to me for my red tail boa. I was at a loss of what to do so i took it (by the feet on stomach skin) and let it soak in water for about 10 hours. The bad part is you don't want the skin to start to decay (i was thinking salt water but it wouldn't be too good for the snake). I used the same idea when you want to defeather a chicken for a meal without ripping them out.
After i soaked it it's skin was bloated from all the water. Let it dry a little bit but it's quails will be a little softer. The reason for this is the animal's quails are actually a bunch of tiny hairs hardened. when they are born they are very soft and then their quills start to harden until they reach adulthood. Soaking will help the reduction of points. Use leather gloves (similar to a falconer glove or use a steel glove used to prepare food). try and pull out as many hairs out as you can pulling towards the tail to avoid getting poked. i admit, i got poked a few times. This will loosen them all up. flip it over and it's belly should have fairly soft hair. Field dress it just like you would a deer. Cut its legs, neck and down the middle. While it's still a little wet it should make it easy to skin, but the skin will be a little brittle from the soaking. I cut off the head and feet. If you're really talented take a look online for an american indian website to show how to preserve quails (they use then in head dressings for pow wow's) I'm not that talented.
Anyway, now you have all the muscle and organs left. That's all i wanted to give a boa (they need alot of protien which i know the skin didn't have enough of)
And that's that. Time consuming, yes, painful, hell yes, but fun.
Worth keeping the skin to give to your grandparents and surprise them too.
Now, keep in mind what jfneumann57 said too. You don't want to train it to attack porcupines. Their quills will actually shoot at an animal or person if it feels threatened. Part of the reason you may have to many around is that they don't have many natural predators. the only real predator i can think of is a bear, they can take alot of abuse with little or no affect upon its health. Just be careful if you feed it. The native americans used to feed it to their animals in pieces and use their organs for many things, but rarely ever food.
Hope it helps!

[danant75]

When it comes to defending itself, the porcupine is in a league of its own. The porcupine is covered with 15 to 30 thousand specially adapted needlelike hairs called quills. When in danger, the quills rise to the occasion, just as a cat's hair stands on end, resulting in an almost impenetrable shield of pins. A common myth about the porcupine, is that it has the ability to shoot their quills. In reality, the quills are controlled by muscles and are released instantly when they come into contact with another object. www.nps.gov/archive/wica/Porcupine.htm

While they can't shoot their quills, they can use them in a hurry! I've messed around with many of them, they usually turn around and when you get close they slap their tail at you with an incredible amount of speed and power. BAM!!!! now your beating club has quills all over it!!! They do make some WILD noises too! I've had some that when they were threatened they made a whistling/squeaky/squeally noise that sounded like spaceship, or laser noises. (not that I've ever heard a real live spaceship!)

[njsc]

this might not be the right place for this question but i'll ask it anyway. should there be any kind of meat that you should never feed your bird. is there any that are deadly? i'm very new to this but i am thinking like don't feed your dogs chocolate. i just don't know if there is something to completely stay away from.

[Master Yarak]

Because I am feeling benevolent I wont tell you to read through the other threads. Don't feed pigeon or dove. Mammals are great, their are few cross species diseases.
That means mammals to birds is OK. Birds to birds may carry some risk.
Yarak

[njsc]

right i have read that doves and pigeons carry the diseases but i was just curious if there was anything else thanks for the help. but at the same time it's more about quality than quantity