# How Much Weight Can An Owl Carry?



## Mel (Jun 26, 2008)

My dad's cat disappeared.  And she was never one to get far from the house.  She'd stay on the patio, or venture out a little into the yard.  Well, she's gone.  Dad is convinced an owl carried her off...

The only thing is...she weighed 18-20 pounds!  FAT Kitty.

I think she wandered off to die, or got too far out of the yard into the woods and something chased her off.  I just don't see the laws of physics allowing a large bird to carry off a 20 pound cat.


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## westcobbdog (Jun 26, 2008)

we have a lot of coyotes around here, that would be my guess. My daughter drove up on a big coyote sitting in Midway Rd., it was very brazen and wouldn't move until she slowed down.  Has your Dad seen an owl around his yard?


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## Randy (Jun 26, 2008)

You'll probably never know.  Cats are strange animals.  They do tend to go off and die when it's their time.  Coyotes also love them.  I doubt an owl got it though.


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## jettman96 (Jun 26, 2008)

I saw a show last night where a snake ate a cat just about that size.  It was a python down in Florida.

I didn't realize how bad they are getting down there.


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## Mel (Jun 26, 2008)

westcobbdog said:


> we have a lot of coyotes around here, that would be my guess. My daughter drove up on a big coyote sitting in Midway Rd., it was very brazen and wouldn't move until she slowed down.  Has your Dad seen an owl around his yard?


Wow, that's not far from us.  We're on Due West Rd.

The reason he thinks it was an owl is because he's walked the property and can't find any fur or remains anywhere. 

And yes, we have seen a big owl.  It got in the chicken pen one day and got after the chickens, but couldn't get back out.  We've also got a local hawk, but he thinks the hawk is too small.  That owl was huuuuuge.


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## 4570 (Jun 26, 2008)

i had a hawk get one of my begale pups 2 weeks ago.


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## grim (Jun 26, 2008)

Would that be a european or an african owl?


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## gadeerwoman (Jun 26, 2008)

Some owls can carry a lot of weight considering they can have a 4' wing span. Forget the hawk..no way a hawk can carry off a cat of that size. Most likely it was not either bird that is responsible for the disappearance of kitty. It could have been chased off the property by a dog or just took it into it's head to wander off. I'd ask around the neighborhood good. If it was an old cat, it could have indeed wandered off to die.


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## hevishot (Jun 26, 2008)

If anything got it, most likely would be a coyote...


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## Jake Allen (Jun 26, 2008)

grim said:


> Would that be a european or an african owl?



Non migratory.

Sounds like a coyote to me. Or maybe the cat will just show back up.
I have a pair of very large Barred Owls that stay regularly
behind the chicken pen. They have tried, but cannot handle a 5 pound hen. (I have seen this one try, but give up).


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## Minner (Jun 26, 2008)

I doubt very seriously that it was an owl. It either wandered off to die (which they usually will when they know it's their time) or got eaten by a coyote. 

Coyotes love house cats. A friend of mine was going hunting early one morning and saw a coyote standing next to the road and right beside a house with a cat in it's mouth.


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## robertyb (Jun 26, 2008)

How long has the cat been gone? I had one that started wandering off when she was 10 or so years old. She would be gone anywhere from a day to two weeks or so and then just show back up.


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## SouthernAngler (Jun 26, 2008)

Hawks can and will....a buddy of mine has goats and he had one of his newborn "kids" get hauled off by a redtail hawk...


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## SouthernAngler (Jun 26, 2008)

Jake Allen said:


> Non migratory.
> 
> Sounds like a coyote to me. Or maybe the cat will just show back up.
> I have a pair of very large Barred Owls that stay regularly
> behind the chicken pen. They have tried, but cannot handle a 5 pound hen. (I have seen this one try, but give up).


 

a little , but that pic is toooo cool.  Kinda sureal and a little creepy


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## ClydeWigg3 (Jun 26, 2008)

Dang, I thought this was going to be one of those questions like "How many licks does it take to get to the center of the Tootsie Roll Pop?" with the owl licking it three times then biting into the sucker.

I've always been around cats, and I don't think their anymore likely to wonder off to die than a dog.  I'm talking about a house cat, if yours is a barn cat it might be different.  Coyotes are all over, in every city in the Southeast.  You'll find them right down town sometimes.  They're not too shy about viewing the big city lights.  Sorry to say, but I think yours may have been a victim of a coyote.  Being overweight it would have been hard for her to climb a tree for safety.


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## LOVEMYLABXS (Jun 26, 2008)

Mel my guess would be a yote had one in the yard a while back that just sat and watched my cat that was on the porch but my 222 changed his mind about that. I did have this little guy in the yard and he got this quail but couldn't carry it that's how I got these close ups cause he wasn't givin up dinner took him about 3 days to eat it.


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## Mistrfish (Jun 26, 2008)

LOVEMYLABXS said:


> Mel my guess would be a yote had one in the yard a while back that just sat and watched my cat that was on the porch but my 222 changed his mind about that. I did have this little guy in the yard and he got this quail but couldn't carry it that's how I got these close ups cause he wasn't givin up dinner took him about 3 days to eat it.



That looks like one of them spotted owls that the tree huggers were yelling about a few years ago?


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## Dutch (Jun 26, 2008)

grim said:


> Would that be a european or an african owl?




What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen owl? 





Great movie...First thing that popped into my mind when I read the title as well.


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## LOVEMYLABXS (Jun 26, 2008)

Mistrfish said:


> That looks like one of them spotted owls that the tree huggers were yelling about a few years ago?



 He's called a Northern Pygmy Owl and is only about 4" tall.


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## Sutallee (Jun 26, 2008)

There was a post about falconry on the forum a few months ago, and the falconer said that a hawk could lift about half his own weight.  I would think that would be true for most raptors.  I doubt that an owl could lift a grown cat in the 8 to 12 pound range.  I think that Kitty likely met up with a dog or a coyote.


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## dixie (Jun 26, 2008)

Mel said:


> Wow, that's not far from us.  We're on Due West Rd.
> 
> The reason he thinks it was an owl is because he's walked the property and can't find any fur or remains anywhere.
> 
> And yes, we have seen a big owl.  It got in the chicken pen one day and got after the chickens, but couldn't get back out.  We've also got a local hawk, but he thinks the hawk is too small.  That owl was huuuuuge.



I doubt it was a owl, sounds like yotes to me, I've watched a HUGE hawk struggle and fail to get airborne just a average size squirrel before


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## grim (Jun 26, 2008)

Dutch said:


> What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen owl?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



A king must know these things.....


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## Heathen (Jun 26, 2008)

I watched a hawk this week with a rabbit he tried as well, but couldn't get it more than a foot or so before he dropped it. He did feed on it for two days before I discarded the rest.


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## curtis lowe (Jun 26, 2008)

Mel said:


> The reason he thinks it was an owl is because he's walked the property and can't find any fur or remains anywhere.



an owl will catch its prey,gut it and leave its intestines where he caught it.


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