One day, I was wandering down the Marquette segment of the Ice Age Trail with my good friend Nicci, discussing homeschooling activities for my kids. Nicci is always a wonderful person to brainstorm with, as no idea is too crazy or dismissed without thorough discussion. She mentioned that the McKenzie Center hosts an Owl Pellet Day where kids dissect and draw pictures of their findings.
In that moment, I knew this had to be a class as soon as possible! The kids would LOVE it, and it offered another opportunity to talk openly about poop. Since there were no events on the calendar, I decided to order our kit from Amazon instead.
Get a pellet here with my affiliate link! 🦉
What is an owl pellet?
An owl pellet is a mass of undigested parts of the bird's food that it cannot digest. The contents vary based on diet but may include insect exoskeletons, plant matter, teeth, bones, fur, feathers, bills, and claws. While an owl pellet resembles dry feces, it is not poop!
After a long and invigorating hike, I returned home with a sense of excitement and inspiration. The experience had sparked a creative idea within me, prompting me to swiftly jot down "Owl Pellet Day" on my 2024 ideas page. Eager to share my newfound activity, I immediately sent links to my mother, who happened to be in the midst of searching for Christmas gift ideas. But my son would not get the pellet.
A few weeks later, Christmas came and to my son Watson's surprise, Mrs. Owl, his favorite stuffed animal also had a gift under the tree.
His eyes lit up with joy when Grandma said, "Look, this gift is for Miss Owl!"
Owl Pellet Day is Here!
While the boys started dissecting the pellet, I searched for information about owls online and shared the answers with the children. What were our inquiries? Let's explore the three primary questions we had.
How many times do owls produce pellets in a week?
Owls commonly make two pellets a day, or 14 per week.
What are some things that owls like to eat?
An owl pellet will give you a lot of information about where the owl might live and what it likes to eat. Owls eat scorpions, small rodents, snakes, frogs, squirrels, lizards, and fish.
How are owl pellets mass-produced for these dissecting kits?
Are there owl pellet farms out there? How does one get enough pellets to start a business with it? The whole concept kind of intrigues me. We never did get an answer to this one. That's the thing about science or anything in life; sometimes you have to further hunt for the answers.
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