Happy Owloween!

It’s the 31st of Owltober and we’ve saved one of the best for last: A Ruru Owl looking especially bedraggled after a bath (for a skin condition). Having spent a few hours under the blow dryer, the before and after pics are night and day…

A Ruru Owl is thoroughly bedraggled, wrapped in a blue towel after a bath. His cat-like eyes are fixed on the camera, wide and yellow. Feathers around the chest are matted and parted to expose skin that looks like, well... uncooked chicken breast. Green plastic boxes appear on a concrete slab behind.

Original post – 31 Mar 2021
by Wildbase Recovery
located in Palmerston North
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A full body shot of the wet owl, sans towel. His Sid Vicious plumage is blackened by the wetness, and some barbs are stuck to the the feather shafts, creating gaps in the wings that look like see-through ribs. The photo really is something: imagine a yellow-eyed Koosh ball on a swivel, sticking out from a tarred turkey carcass. A truly bizarre and sorry-looking creature, but if it's any assurance the owl is fine. His legs are bowed with tan-feathered toes splayed out below. He stands upon a white net inside a green plastic box, with wooden perches around the edge.
Another angle of this Cronenbergian horror with Disney eyes. The owl's leg stance is sturdier, and if you ignore the whole looking-like-a-drowned-abomination thing, he's far more photogenic and you know what? Kinda badass. Like a character-select screen in an RPG. What's interesting is we don't often see the shape of an owl's neck, because the head feathers typically merge into the shoulder like a lumpy snowman. But here, with all the feathers matted and shrink-wrapped to the owl's bone structure, he appears almost humanoid.

Original text:

Wet Wednesday all round for us in Palmerston North!!🤣

This morepork is with us for rehabilitation but we found it had scurfy/flaky skin. A sticky tape sample revealed a lot of cocci (bacteria), so today this ruru had a bubble bath (which he was NOT pleased about😅). We washed him with Chlorhexidine to deal to the bacteria, then rinsed clean. This is a similar technique we use for oiled birds and have the set up to do it.

After a few hours under the blow dryers he is looking spiffy and ready to try out his clean feathers and skin back in our rehab aviaries at Wildbase Recovery with the hopes of releasing soon🤞

Link to donate to Wildbase Recovery for those willing and able.

xo owlsintowels

💛🦉

SpeciesCommon NameMore info
Ninox novaeseelandiaeMoreporkWiki link


P.S. We have a calendar for the 31 days of Owltober!

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