Question on trapping food WA

[whitefish]

What are the regs for trapping rats, mice, sparrows, starlings, etc, etc for food for a raptor in WA? All I can find is trapping season date for game, but I would hardly consider these "game". What else could I trap without a licence? PS All of this would be done on my property.

Thanks
Tyler

[forestfalcon]

House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) and European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) aren't a protected species, so you can trap them and use them for food...you just can't sell them (from what I'm aware of.)

I would be VERY careful trapping random rodents and feeding them, just because you don't know if any of your neighbors are using any rodenticides, which if your bird eats a rodent that has ingested any rodenticide, it could be potentially fatal.

Hope this helps.

[whitefish]

if i kept the rodent alive for several days, would that be good enough insurance that it is not harmful? How far would I need to live from neighbors to be safe?

If a sparrow/starling is thrown into a bag, then a freezer, how long can I keep them frozen?

[forestfalcon]

This is a quote from wikipedia:
"Rodents are difficult to kill with poisons because their feeding habits reflect their place as scavengers. They will eat a small bit of something and wait, and if they don't get sick, they continue. An effective rodenticide must be tasteless and odorless in lethal concentrations, and have a delayed effect."

I don't mind if one of my birds catches a mouse out in the middle of nowhere, since it's unlikely that any poison was used on them, but near any kind of urban areas, the risk is pretty great. I would just be very careful. I'm not really sure how far they would travel away.

[whitefish]

thanks... I guess I'll stick to sparrows and starlings. Thanks anyway! How long will they keep frozen?

[chrismt89]

they keep frozen as long as you keep the in the freezer just remember that if you freeze any animal it looses vitamins the longer its frozen. we dont keep frozen animals for more than 6 months at the rehab facility i work at. If you keep the birds frozen for longer you could always use a vitamin suplament if you wanted or just dont kill so many at once so they are fresh

[Bridget]

My question is somewhat related to the freezer topic:

I have a few bags of phesant breasts(with feathered wings in tact) and some duck meat that I've kept frozen in air-tight bags for several months. By the fall it will be well over a year old. Would this meat still be okay to feed a bird, specifically a new PRT ? Seeing I must trap one since I lost my second >.<

Also, I do have vitamin supplements I can add to the phesant if the nutrients are lost-I just dont want to Harm the hawk by feeding it this food.

FG