Owls are wild creatures and keeping one in a typical home setting is nearly impossible, not to mention not the most fair to the owls themselves. They do not put up with cuddling and frequent contact with humans because it is entirely against their evolved nature.
Their razor-sharp talons are designed for piercing and cutting, not perching on your shoulder. They can cause injury to people or other pets. Evolution has designed this bird to hunt and kill small prey, not entertain human owners in a home environment.
There are at least six unavoidable reasons why an owl is a very poor choice for a pet.
Watch Now: Do Owls Make Good Pets?
- 01 of 06
Owls Are Carnivores
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If you keep an owl, you’ll feed it fresh meat daily. Owls are strictly meat eaters, and feeding an animal raw meat is not pleasant. Although most wild carnivores kept in captivity are fed stored frozen meats that are thawed out, doing this every day and dealing with the blood and leftovers is not for the faint of heart.
Owls don't eat hamburgers or steak—owls eat only whole animals, such as rodents, that must be purchased from commercial sources. Not many people really enjoy storing rats and guinea pigs next to the family's frozen foods in the freezer.
Plus, owls are notoriously messy eaters. Their eating process is to tear prey to shreds in order to eat small bites, and this mess must be cleaned up after each feeding.
Owls hunt small rodents in the wild using their hearing and sight. Many owls have ear holes spaces at different heights on their heads, allowing the brain to create a three-dimensional audio map of their surroundings. An owl in a domestic environment will simulate that hunting instinct and eat violently, even in your home.
The instinct to sink sharp talons into any source of food—including a human hand-delivering the meal—makes an owl dangerous to anyone who is not experienced in owl caretaking.
02 of 06Owls Need Space
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Owls need a lot of space. A parrot cage in the corner of the living room is not sufficient. A substantial aviary setting is necessary and needs to be made of sturdy wire to keep the owl contained. If you manage to slightly tame an owl and let it fly around your house—your furniture doesn't stand a chance.
Owls need to bathe regularly due to dust and dirt that accumulate on their feathers. This instinct offers the bird an advantage as a hunter since soiled wings cause feathers to whistle while the bird is in flight, betraying the owl's presence to prey animals.
When kept in captivity, owls need a large bath pan that is cleaned and refilled regularly.
Ideally, owls kept in domestic settings should be kept in outdoor aviaries. However, keeping a pet bird largely defeats the purpose (unless you're rehabilitating a wild owl) since it is hard to bond with it.
Despite this, owls become habituated to human presence and will become stressed if they are ignored. When you do interact with your owl, though, it will be mostly for the chores of feeding it or cleaning up after it. This is no warm and fuzzy pet, but one that demands a lot without offering much in return.
03 of 06Owls Require a Permit
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Owls are a wild species that require training and a license to keep in captivity. Even licensing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) does not allow you to turn an owl into a domestic pet—only to serve as a rehab specialist. According to regulations, once an owl is healthy and fit, it must be released back into the wild.
An owl with a permanent disability is not a suitable "pet," either. If an owl has an injury that prevents its release, you must also have an education permit, which is going to keep you extremely busy.
An educational permit compels you to do educational programs for the public—a certain number each year. The education requirements vary from state to state, but you must meet these minimum requirements in order to maintain the permit. Finally, there are only a limited number of injuries that allow a raptor to qualify as an educational bird.
In other words, the licensing and educational permit restrictions are very strict, making it very difficult to legally keep a raptor in a home environment. A "pet" owl is usually one being kept illegally.
Except in special circumstances, keeping wild owls is against the law in the US, but this is not the case in other nations. In the UK, for example, keeping wild owls is allowed. However, the Harry Potter-inspired upsurge in owl ownership was quickly followed by birds being given up. Families were simply not up to the demands of keeping an owl in captivity.
04 of 06Owls Are Nocturnal
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Owls are nocturnal, which means they are active and hunt during the darkness of night. Unlike other birds, owls make their noise at night, especially during mating season.
Domestic parrots, while they can be very noisy at certain times of day, tend to be silent in the dark hours of the night and thus do not disturb neighbors or household members. Owls socialize and mate noisily and are instinctively the noisiest at night.
A great horned owl in an outdoor aviary that hoots all night, every night, through the entire month of October will not make you popular with your neighbors.
Continue to 5 of 6 below05 of 06Owls Need Constant Care
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All pets demand attention from their owners, but it's not too hard to find a boarding facility or pet sitter when you need to travel or want to vacation without your pet.
An owl is not a pet that lends itself to just any pet-sitter. It's not easy to find a caretaker willing to thaw out frozen rodents, feed them to a lethal owl, and then clean up the bloody mess.
Keeping an owl will greatly curtail your travel options. If you insist on owning one, be ready to stay at home.
06 of 06Owls Are Messy
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Owls poop, and they poop a lot. They poop everywhere. Unlike parrots, who are primarily vegetable eaters, owl poop contains the waste of digested meat, which increases the odor. They also regurgitate pellets containing the undigested bits of bones and feathers of the animal carcasses they have just eaten.
All birds are messy creatures, but owls are among the messiest. Keeping an owl means frequently cleaning up excrement, regurgitated pellets, feathers, and all the other detritus left on the floor of your huge aviary.
Any number of experts confirm that an owl is not a species well suited as a pet. When asked about an owl's suitability as a pet, raptor handler Tamara Barker-Hanley replied: "Owls make lousy pets because they are wild animals. They are a federally protected species under the migratory bird act, and they will inflict major injury if not handled correctly."
Steve Malowski, Team Leader for the bird department at the Cincinnati Zoo, notes that private persons are unlikely to qualify for permits to keep an owl. "I would leave it to the experts and ignore all the cutesy videos of owls supposedly as pets. Europe and elsewhere may be different but USFWS (United States Fish and Wildlife Service) is very strict."
And finally, a few words from Joe Krathwohl, "The Bird Man of Las Vegas:"
Owls have never been, nor ever will be, considered pets except in the most disrespectful of captors. Lately, we see all sorts of demeaning videos on the Internet of people from around the world who have found a way to obtain owls and then treat them as if they are toys. There is nothing less cute than seeing an owl suffering from learned helplessness at the hands of a person who demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of behavioral science and lacks respect for the natural behaviors of owls.
Owls are fascinating raptors that deserve your admiration and interest. But if you like owls, it is best to sponsor one by making a cash donation at a rehab center near you. You can visit and see "your" bird when it’s convenient and leave the care and the feeding to the experts who know what they are doing.