Eastern Screech Owls

Pudge
 

Story: Pudge was hit by a car in 2001 and the cars driver took her home to care for her. The household did not feed her properly and she spent one year eating a diet consisting of nothing but chicken liver. She was kept in a room with no windows and in the dark. Eventually she quit eating and the finders became worried and turned her over to an Eastern Kentucky rehabilitator who in turn called us. We were quite amazed at her size and upon admission she weighed 262 g which is quite heavy for an EASO.  She also seemed very docile leading us to think she was an imprint. She was also missing an eye, most likely due to her impact with the vehicle. For 14 days she would not eat and when we force fed her she would immediately throw each bite up.  This led us to suspect that she had fatty liver syndrome and we began to treat her for that.  On the 15^th day she actually kept ½ of a mouse down, the following day she ate ½ a mouse on her own. From that point on her recovery was quite fast and she also acquired the attitude of a miniature wildcat—not so docile.  Her weight rose to 262g—very high for a screech owl confirming our belief that she was a female, she is easily twice the size of our 14 year old male Squeaky.  Squeaky has never been intimidated by any other owl but when riding in a crate with Pudge she rules the roost..