Do Owls Poop? If yes, then what does owl poop look like?

There is endless mystery about owls. The question that comes into many minds is: Do owls poop? Other birds of prey, like eagles, hawks, etc., take in the prey by tearing it apart with their sharp beaks. But owls are different because they tear large prey into pieces and swallow whole, smaller, fragmented prey.

However, owls keep hard and large objects like hunting bones, teeth, etc. in their stomachs, which cannot be passed out through the anus. Besides, they are often seen to expel hard objects like feces through their mouths, so many people think that the question is: Do owls poop at all?

Do owls poop and pee?

Yes, owls poop and pee to get rid of their bodies of toxins. Owls have an organ called the cloaca like other birds to store feces, urine, and urates. There are different parts of the cloaca through which owls defecate and urinate at a certain frequency.

The function of the cloaca is vital in extracting unnecessary harmful waste from the owl’s digestive system and kidneys. But owls or other birds cannot poop or pee separately like humans.

Through the cloaca located on their body, poop and pee are combined and excreted. What we call the owl’s anus is the vent, which is the outermost part of the cloaca.

Do owls poop through their mouth?

Owls do not poop with their mouths. Since they are carnivores and swallow their food, their food contains many hard objects such as animal bones, teeth, fur, beaks, etc., which cannot be expelled through their anus. They give out all these solids through their mouths.

This is why many people think they poop through their mouths, but this is not true. Owls poop through their anus like other birds.

Unnecessary parts of the digested animal meat without solid material like bones, teeth, hairs, beaks, etc. are passed out through the owl’s anus. Owl poop is a thick liquid with a white and yellow color.

Does owl poop stink?

Yes, owl poop doesn’t have a powerful odor, but it can have an odor. But it is not easily understood. As they eat meat,  poop from any bird of prey has a higher odor than poop from other birds that eat other grains and small insects.

However, if you see an owl near you and it smells rotten, it means that the owl has hunted and is wearing leftovers that are rotting and giving off a foul smell.

Owls also expel feathers, fur, bones, and other indigestible material through their mouths, which are often odorous. By examining that part, it is easy to tell which animal the owl has hunted and eaten.

Do owls eat their poop?

Owls do not eat their poop, nor do they eat the poop of other animals. Being the birds of prey, they hunt their prey and feed on it.  

They have been seen to snatch prey from their species when necessary, but owls were not seen eating any dead animals.

We have seen many birds of prey in our neighborhood that tear apart their prey, which is why they are often seen tearing up dead animals. But owls have a completely different diet; they swallow their prey.

When owls catch large prey, they try to cut the large prey into pieces and swallow the pieces, much like the birds of prey, peacocks.

Do owls poop white?  

Owls do not have a separate bladder; an organ called the cloaca stores and regulates feces and pee together when their digestive system is complete and is then expelled through the anus in the form of feces.

Uric acid, produced by the liver, is what causes the light-yellow color of urine in mammals. Since no birds, including owls, have bladders, the uric acid produced by their liver is mixed with feces and excreted through the anus.

And because of this uric acid, owl poop is white or light yellow. However, depending on their prey, the color of their droppings changes more or less.

Do owls poop out bones?

By the unusual digestive system that owls have, the undigested parts of the prey, like bones, feathers, fur, teeth, etc., are compressed into a cavity in the stomach.

This usually happens about a few hours after the owl eats. These indigestible solids are called owl pellets, which are a pouch in the owl’s stomach to hold aggregates.

When this pouch is full, owls expel it through their mouths. That is, owls never excrete hard materials like bones, feathers, fur, teeth, etc. through their anus; they use their mouths to excrete all these undigested materials, which are better known as owl pellets.

Is owl poop dangerous?

The poop of any animal is harmful to humans, as animal poop contains several species of harmful bacteria and parasites that are harmful to humans.

Owl poop is filled with harmful bacteria like Salmonella, Campylobacter, etc., and harmful parasites like Coccidia, Toxoplasma gondii, etc., which can cause various ailments in the human body such as diarrhea, vomiting, fever, abdominal pain, weight loss, dehydration, etc.

In many cases, these harmful bacteria and parasites can cause human death. So it’s good for humans to stay away from all animal poop, including owls.

If the owl poop sticks to any part of the body by chance, it should be washed with a disinfectant soap, or liquid.

What does owl poop look like?

Owl poop is usually white and yellow due to the presence of uric acid in it. What we mean by owl poop is not owl poop; it is owl pellets.

Owls compactly store the hard material, such as feathers, fur, bones, and teeth, of the prey they eat in a pouch in their abdomen and later expel these pellets through their mouths.  

These pellets are usually black or deep brown, and the pellets are oval. If you look closely at these pellets, you can see hard stuff like bird feathers, animal hair, bones, and teeth, which are the undigested remains of the food they hunted.

Owl poop vs Pellet

One of the distinguishing characteristics of owls is its pellets which we almost mistake for owl poop. Below we have mentioned the difference between owl pellets and owl poop.

Owl Poop	Owl Pellet
Post-digestive waste produced by owls including owl feces and urine is owl poop.	Owl pellets are formed by the indigestible parts of prey that owls swallow, such as bones, fur, feathers, and teeth.
Poop is formed after the pellets are separated from the owl’s food and digested.	These pellets are made several hours after the owl eats its prey.
The poop is white and light yellow due to the presence of uric acid.	Poop is white and light yellow due to the presence of uric acid.
It is difficult to tell which animal the owl has eaten by looking at owl poop.	Pellets contain animal bones, fur, feathers, etc., so it is easy to identify which animal the owl has eaten.
Poop is usually a thick liquid mixed with feces and urine.	The pellet color is usually black or grey.
Owl droppings are more odorous than their pellets	Pellets are less odorous than poop.
Pellets are hard and very oval.	Pellets are stored in the part of the owl’s body called gizzard.

How Often Do Owls Poop?

How often an owl poop depends on the owl’s species and how much food it has eaten. Larger owls typically poop more than smaller owls. Because they eat more prey.

When the metabolism of owls is complete, their waste is deposited in a part called the cloaca. When this cloaca is filled with feces and urine, it comes out of the owl’s body in the form of white or yellow poop.

Being nocturnal birds, owls catch prey at night and poop at night, so one can’t commonly see them pooping. However, they poop 2 to 3 times a day. While most birds sometimes defecate in flight, owls usually defecate before flying.

How Often Do Owls Spit Up Pellets?

Owls spit up pellets one to two times almost every day. It depends on the time when the owl has eaten because the food eaten by the owl is processed in the stomach and its indigestible hard teeth, bones, feathers, hairs, etc. are accumulated in the abdominal gizzard in the stomach and after some time they expel the black- or brown-colored pellets through their mouth. 

After the pellets are ejected, the owls hunt again. Owls like to roost after hunting in a particular spot, so look for multiple pellets in one spot.

What are Owl Pellets Composed of?

Owl Pellets are Composed of the hard body parts of the animals that owls prey on, the owls take pellets that the owls cannot digest and store in a part of their stomach called the gizzard, which they then expel through their mouths.

These pellets contain solid material like fur, teeth, bones, feathers, nails, and skulls of different animals like birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, etc.

But in normal conditions, you will not see all these elements when looking at owl pellets. To understand the ingredients in the owl’s pellets, you need to leave the pellets in the open environment for several days or break the owl pellets with something like a tree branch.

How Do Owls Digest Food?

Owls do not have teeth and so when they swallow their prey, it is digested in the stomach rather than in the salivary glands in the mouth as in humans.

The owl’s stomach has two chambers, The first chamber is called the proventriculus, where enzymes are secreted to break down food. The second chamber is called the gizzard, where food mixes with digestive juices to absorb nutrients from the food.

Proteins, amino acids, fats, and various minerals as nutrients are absorbed and run to different parts of the body through the blood. Undigested material is stored in a pouch in the gizzard and later expelled by the owls in the form of pellets.

And the rest of the food, after digestion, is finally deposited in the cloaca and subsequently excreted from the owl’s body in the form of poop.

What are Owl Pellets Used For?

Owl poop and pellets naturally harbor some bacteria and fungi and are used by some insect species, such as dung beetles, to lay their eggs.

Owl Pellets as an important element are used in scientific research work because by the bones, fur, feathers, skulls, and teeth of different animals found in the pellets, it is easy to identify which animals are hunted by which species of owls living in that area.

Besides, the skeletons found in Owl Pellets are used for illustration of the anatomy of various small animals for those research studies. As owls swallow their prey, the animal’s skeletal bones in their pellets are often intact.

FAQs

Q. Do great horned owls’ poop?

Ans: All other species of owls, including the great horned, poop.

Q. Do owl’s pellets are poop?

Ans: Owl pellets are aggregates of solid material such as bones, hairs, feathers, teeth, etc. from their prey that they expel from their mouths, which are completely separate from their poop.

Q. Why don’t owls poop?

Ans: Yes, owls poop, and expel hard objects such as bones, feathers, fur, etc. through their mouths called “owl pellets”.

Q. Does owl poop smell?

Ans: Owl poop is white or light yellow with a slight odor. However, the smell of poop is not easily detectable.

Q. Do owls poop or regurgitate?

Ans: Owls both poop and regurgitate.

Conclusion

Since owls excrete pellets, many people ask, Do Owls Poop? However, I have explained all the answers to all the questions related to owl poop in this article for your understanding.  

Hopefully, you have enjoyed this post and got all the answers related to owl poop. If you want to put any other questions related to Owl Poop, you can send them to my command box, and I will try to give answers to your questions in my next post or this post.

However, people’s desire to know about this mysterious bird is ever-increasing. You can go through my other posts to get more information about owls.