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hi im new to the forum having kept and still keeping and hand rearing a variety of aviary birds , i have made friends with a local owl keeper and have done a couple of experiance days i am now in the process of looking for a baby barn owl not to far from home in sussex but no rush as i want to gain as much info as i can first so any help will be appreciated pam.b

Hi Pam,
Welcome to the Owl Forum,
Its great that you are eager to learn before getting your baby barn owl, whilst new to owl keeping myself, I will help or point you in the right direction where possible, though there are far more experienced owlies on here on occasions

Atb, Mark

thanks for that did you hand rear your bird or get a parent reared

I got a hand reared Indian Eagle Owl, a hand reared barn owl before that.
Parent reared owls have their place, but not as a tame owl. If you want a chance of bringing on your owl to fly to you and be part of the family, you need to get your owl at no later than 14 days old, unless you know that it is being hand reared, sooner if you are of adequate knowledge to bring the owl on. See the new topic of hand reared owls hand-reared-owls-t79.html

My 4 week old owl is now bomb proof, being subject to the missus, kids, dogs, hoover etc,

Atb, Mark

thats great and confirms what i thought would like to take an owl as young as poss would be gratefull if you know of any breeders in south of england
pam b

Ok, will do. Can I just say that the barn owl is one of the worst owls to start with.

The reason being, or the main reasons are, they are easy to kill with weight management, getting it slightly wrong on a small owl such as the barn owl puts it in danger.

But also the barn owls are shy owls, not sociable at all. Having been around many more than just mine lately, they all hide up given half a chance, appearing only at dusk, prefering to sleep all day, yes, even tame ones ( No doubt someone here will try to prove me wrong, but this is based on my own observations of several different barn owls belonging to several different people ).

Compairing my two owls, ( and indeed all of the owls I encounter ) the Indian Eagle Owl and the European Eagle Owl, the dark breasted barn owl etc are all more sociable, are awake in the day time, seek human company and like to play more.

Atb, Mark