Elaine's Gang!

Hi, here's a few pickies of my pets:
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Casper

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Phezzy

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Oscar

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Bo

Sorry, no pickies of the stick-insects lol!

Hope you like my fluffy and feathered friends.
ATB
Elaine

O wow some lovely pets .. there Elaine .x

Thanks Lou,
You'd never believe both dogs are rescues. Casper's 9yrs old. We got him when he was just 13 months.

Oscar's only 3. We got him at just 8 months old - A puppy-farmed pup, he'd had a hard early life, but I'm happy to say he's the happiest (bounciest) lil' dog in the world now.

We bought the owls as owlettes. Phezzy is 18 months old and Bo isn't a year old until this summer.

Elaine

oh my, oscar is gorgeous! looks like a shih tzu/lhasa cross breed...? i have two shih tzus, molly and harry puppy (13weeks) xxx

Awww, they are all gorgeous Elaine, very jealous of Phezzy, I love Barn owls xx

i'm placing my bets on a shih tzu or lhasa/westie or scottie cross xxx

Lol!

That's an awful pickie of Oscar with an awful haircut! In fairness, I have to clip him with scissors because he's completely terrorfied of clippers (has scars from a botched clipping he had as a baby before we adopted him) and will wet himself if he even hears our normal hair clippers...

He's full Lhasa - and can look the part - when he's not playing footy in the mud!

Lol
Elaine

Oops sorry Elaine I thought you said he was a cross further up the page... he looks lovely, very handsome xx

Lovely photos and gorgeous pets - you wil make a friend for life with Sheila as she absolutely loves owls xx

wow some stunning pets hun x

Phezzy & Bo are absolutely gorgeous....I am sooooo envious!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the photie of Casper! He looks like a proper good dog and not all brushed and fancied up as most Samoyeds are. He's lovely.

Twitterwooo to Phezzy and Bo.

xoxox

dovaston wrote:

Phezzy & Bo are absolutely gorgeous....I am sooooo envious!!!!!!!!!!!

If you ask nicely I bet Elaine will have more photos to help you with your love of owls x

awww gorgeous pets. look forward to lots more pics x

What gorgeous pets you have. You're right, a hoggie would love lovely alongside them lol x

Hi Everyone - and thanks for your kind comments.

I'm glad you like my mob. They're all pampered like nothing on earth! Casper is a lovely lad. His coat needs 10 minutes a day minimum plus an hours deep grooming on Friday after which he really does look like a show dog. He loves his little buddy Oscar who hates anything that looks like a brush lol. However, he's a happy, hairy hound who enjoys life to the full - bounding around and getting all windswept! Oscar never looks tidy - even after a bath'n'brush-up - Oscar's made scuffy an essential way of life!

The owls are easy - no grooming as such. They have to be weighed regularly as their willingness to fly is purely based on their need to feed. They each have their own aviary, which we service daily - just as you would any caged animal.

Here's a couple of pickies of them as owlettes:

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Bo at just over 4 weeks old. Sporting his new anklets!

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Phezzy at 5 weeks old. Still a total baby.

Beautiful Elaine ..x

Aaaaaah I'm in love with Phezzy!

xoxox

awww owlettes...i like that word...but i instantly thought ov an ommelette...

I've gone all gooey.....

I have to ask as I am a nosey devil, how come you had owls as pets? I only ask as I am intrigued and would love to know more about them and I know Sheila would.

The only time I have had a close encounter was when the Owl Lady came into Nick's school and also meeting them some when we went to the Lakes.

How often do you fly them - didn't realise they had a willingness to fly based on their weight .

Think you will have to have an owl blog xx

I find it really interesting too Elaine. Does the willingness to fly mean if they were overfed, then they would never really be bothered to fly? Which then I would suppose would lead to an unhappy fat lazy owl?

xoxox

Awww, they are gorgeous owls, I would love to know more too, very interesting xx

I want Owls!!! They can live in my bathroom as nowhere else to put them lol. Such beautiful creatures. Intrigues to find out more about them!

Can we have owl avatars tomorrow pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Nellie, Melody and everyone,

First, I've always been keen on raptors, but there was always a reason why I couldn't persue the interest until a few years ago.

Both my boys are autistic. The younger used to attend school part time and was being home educated (by me and my hubby) for the rest. This enabled us as parents to explore topics no normal school enviroment would touch. He shared my interest in birds-of-prey and expressed a desire to learn about them - with a view to owning a harris hawk. For over 2 years we read lots of books, joined forums and eventually did a hands-on course with hawks, falcons and owls...

After assessing what would be best for us as a family, we opted for owls - 'cos most people like owls! We bought Phezzy as a mature chick (5wks old) in the summer 2010. He's what's known as a social imprint. I'm sure most of you know about imprinting - when a newborn animal bonds to whoever provides it's first care... In the case of birds-of-prey a fully imprinted bird bonds to humans - and thinks of itself as part-human. Whilst this makes the bird easier to handle/train, the price is that it never recognises itself as a bird - will not breed - and will frequently scream blue murder if left without human company! As a social imprint, Phezzy spent his first 2 weeks with his mum'n'dad, then spent 2 weeks being hand-reared before returning to his parents prior to being sold... This gives the best of both worlds - a nicely balanced bird who knows he's an owl (recognises his own kind - and can breed) whilst being more relaxed with humans.

Phezzy is a lovely owl - very easy to handle in all respects. This is maintained by regular (daily) handling or 'manning' as it's called. We check feet and claws, look for any feather damage and assuming all's well, let them have a few flights from one of us to the other in the garden (cos the weather's too bad to go out to fields/parks with them.

We bought Bo last year. We got him at just 10 days old - a fluffy (if carnivorous) furby lol! So despite being twice the size and weight of Phezzy, he's not even a year old yet!

I know I've wittled on a bit - sorry - hope your not too bored! With regard to flying. Birds of prey are only semi-tame. Hence the falconer (collective term for anyone who keeps any species of Birds of Prey) has to adapt their natural behaviour. Most preditors hunt out of necessity - when they're hungry. So with captive birds we weigh them before flying them. We keep a diary of their weights (along with notes on what the bird's been fed on, the weather and their overall condition) and from that information we know what is the optimum weight for good, responsive (recall to glove) flights. This is called flight weight. When they're not being worked/flown (such as when in moult) their weight is allowed to be a bit higher (though not so high that the perishers can't fly lol! ) This is known as fat weight (well durr...!)

Hope this is useful. I was thinking the other day that much of the care and maintainence of hedge-hogs is not unlike the care of my various other pets. They need monitoring like my owls, fed like my ferrets (a big tick in my hubby's book) and fussed like the lot - only in a nice warm place - another megga tick for hedgehogs!

As for writing a blog - I doubt it would prove very interesting - even if I did work out how to set one up!

Anyway, congatulations on getting through all this - the end is nigh!
ATB
Elaine

PS: Owls are nothing like those in Harry Potter. The need special travel boxes - not the parrot-type prisons featured in the films (check 'em out closely - many scenes have animatronic owls in the cages. Their poop stinks to high heaven and they're basically incontinent - so they don't make very good house pets. Then there's the shreeking...But that's another story!