Owl Pellet Dissection
Here we explain how to easily carry out an owl pellet dissection and how to clean your boney finds! Before you carry out an owl pellet dissection, though, its important to have some background knowledge of what an owl pellet actually is. No, its not poop!
What is an owl pellet?
An Owl Pellet is the indigestible parts of it meal that owls regurgitate after eating. Each pellet can contain fur, bones, teeth, claws, and seeds.
Why do owls make pellets?
A barn owl (which is the owl where we get our pellets from) swallows it’s prey whole. It enters the stomach where the digestive enzymes start to digest it, especially the soft parts. The food then goes into the muscular gizzard area of the stomach, and here the food is gently squeezed, sending the parts it can digest into the digestive system where the nutrients are absorbed into the blood, and the parts it can’t digest, like fur and bones, get compacted down and are then regurgitated after a few hours. This is the pellet we dissect!
Dissecting owl pellets
The pellets we buy in for our workshops are sterilised by heat treating to kill any bacteria, and come wrapped in foil. This makes them safe for you to handle. You can now buy these pellets from us in kits which contain our unique ID chart, dissecting tools and a little pot to store your boney finds!
HOW TO DISSECT AN OWL PELLET
BUY THE OWL PELLET DISSECTING KIT HERE
You can purchase owl pellet kits from us by clicking here and dissect out the bones using the forceps in the kit. We also supply cocktail sticks which are useful to push debris out of crevices and sockets in the bones. Carefully remove the fur, and then gently rinse the bones in water to remove any last bits of dirt.
Lay the bones out carefully and use the ID chart (that comes in the kit) to help work out wheat the little bones are. Bear in mind that the bones you have found may be from one animal, so the jaw bones may have been attached from the skull in your pellet!
How to clean the owl pellet bones
Once you have dissected your pellet, and identified the bones, you can clean them to make them white and keep them. Some people make jewellery with them, or pop them in tiny glass bottles, or embed them in resin to create decorative items. To make the bones white, you will need 3% hydrogen peroxide from the pharmacy. Dilute the required amount of hydrogen peroxide with 2 thirds water (thereby making a 1% solution of hydrogen peroxide) and add it to a glass jar, pop the bones in, and you’ll see bubble start to form pretty quickly.
Bones in a weak hydrogen peroxide solution.
Bubbles appear once in the cleaning solution – this is normal.
Let this sit for a day and you should have clean bones in 24 hours. When clean, rinse them in water, and put them somewhere safe to dry.
After 24 hours, rinse the bones off in water, then place them onto a paper towel to dry
Now your bones are clean and preserved. Store them in a box, pot or box.
BUY THE OWL PELLET DISSECTING KIT HERE
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Want free science activities?
Head on over to our blog to find out other cool science experiments such as Bath Bombs and Slime and the Magic Milk Experiment
If you have any queries, please call/text Ruth on 07847006048 or contact us here.
Happy science-ing
Ruth
Chief Scientist