Title: Owl Treats
Author: BertaS
Date: 9/29/18
Pairing: None
Rating: G – All Audiences
Word Count: 370 +-
Warnings: None
Summary: Harry explains what owls eat.
A/N: Okay, this keeps slapping me in the face while I am reading all the otherwise wonderful HP fics available to us and the authors have Hedwig eating things that are not good for birds of prey. I do not own any of the characters, books, movies or anything else you may recognize.
Owls Treats
"Hedgwig, don't you dare." Harry said firmly.
The owl looked at him then to the plate of bacon her talon was poised over before looking back. She clicked her beak and made a soft barking sound.
"You know what will happen if you do. Come on Hedgwig, leave it."
Hedgwig seemed to sigh as she stepped away from the crispy treat and climbed up her human's arm to perch on his shoulder.
"Harry, that's mean. Why can't she have some bacon?" Hermione asked looking as shocked as the others at the Gryffindor table that noticed the exchange. She was concerned that Harry would try to restrict the owl's food.
"Hermione," Harry said slowly, "can you tell me what owls eat? In the wild I mean?"
The girl blinked and shrugged a bit but answered, "Small mammals mostly. I believe it depends on the species. Why?"
"Correct. Have you ever seen, or heard of, an owl killing a pig?" When the girl blinked again and shook her head Harry continued, "Hedwig is a snowy owl." He reached up to caress Hedwig's breast. "Wild Snowies eat lemmings. Lots of them, like 3 to 5 a day. As well as other rodents and the occasional hare, small bird or fish. In captivity, although Hedgwig is not really, they would eat mostly small rodents such as mice, rats, hamsters and guinea pigs. And Hedgwig does hunt these type animals as well as rabbits and other small game she actually seems to quite like pheasant. As a treat at the table she could have raw lean meat, like chicken or possibly lamb, but wild game would be better, cut up into one-inch cubes." He took a deep breath. "Cooked, processed, highly seasoned and fatty foods are a no-no. and don't even get me started on those idiots that feed their owls bread."
Everyone was surprised when a small bowl with a dozen pieces of cubed raw meat appeared on the table right in front of Harry. He called out "Thank You." Before happily feeding Hedwig her treat.
From that day forward, no matter where Harry sat at in the great hall, there would always be a bowl of meaty treats for any owl that visited him, and others soon started asking for these treats for their own owls. And the days of flatulent intestinally distressed owls became a thing of the past.
The End
A/N: I just had to get this out. While I occasionally find the 'bacon fiend Hedwig' trope amusing it is a fact that such treats would make an owl, or any other bird of prey, sick. And the bread thing is just crazy. Owls are carnivores. The only grains, nuts, berries, etc. they would consume would be what is in the stomach of their prey.