Get Your Kids Closer to Nature Through Owl Pellet Dissection Kits

We currently live in a world where screens have taken over. Television, tablets, smartphones, laptops—all these devices have gotten in the way of our children being able to fully engage with the environment and appreciate the world around them. There’s a solution for that, though. Kids have natural curiosity; there is a drive to learn more if we present the opportunities to do so. Want to know a new, fun, and scientific way to get kids more eager to learn? Using an owl pellet kit will surely thrill and engage them!

 

Pellet is a family owned business that has been providing owl pellet dissection kits for more than 25 years! They have facilitated learning and engaged students in examining the outside world for decades now, and know what it takes to get your child charged up about nature.

 

There are a variety of products that will help your child engage with the scientific method and be more open to exploring the outside world. A great product to use is an identification kit. There are four identification kits to choose from, and your child will be able to learn about classifying objects, identifying seeds, leaves, and twigs, making predictions and hypotheses, and so much more! Identification kits allow your child to become the lead researcher, opening their world up to so much more.

 

Is your child a bit more interested in uncovering and observing? Pellet dissection kits provide a chance for them to be an investigator, tackling the life and digestion of owls. Our kits provide tools to break down the pellets and take notes on what they examine—bones, berries, fur, and so much more. Using an owl pellet dissection kit is like being an archaeologist of the natural world; your child will be able to draw conclusions about an owl’s diet patterns and the anatomical makeup of the creatures they’ve consumed.

 

Is your child more interested in anatomy? We also offer a variety of skeletons for their examination—from lizards to snakes, to turtles, to rats! Our skeletons allow them to learn about the different parts that construct a body, and they may even be able to compare some of the bones to the bones we have as humans! All of our bones are real, so we can assure you that you’re getting the complete picture.

 

Ready to get your child charged up about the outside world? Toss those screens to the side and order the best scientific experience for your child at Pellet.

 

 

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What’s Inside Owl Pellets?

Owls are the predators of the sky. These nocturnal birds of prey take off in the night for their hunts, usually to capture insects, other birds, small mammals, and sometimes fish. What’s interesting about owls is that you can see what types of prey they’ve hunted by looking through their pellets. Although it seems weird to rummage through something an owl has regurgitated, their pellets have many scientific benefits that people use to track their behavior and eating habits. So what’s inside owl pellets?

To answer this question, we first have to discover what owl pellets are. Owls, like most birds, are unable to chew their food. Although their sharp beaks can devour their prey, this often time leaves large pieces of prey in their stomach, including parts that aren’t digestible. This includes teeth, fur, bones, and claws. Because these parts are not digestible, but also aren’t safe to pass, the owl’s evolutionary body is able to create a pellet through their gizzard. The owl’s gizzard tightly compacts these not-so-safe pieces into a soft, moist pellet that is then regurgitated.

So now that we’ve learned what pellets are, let’s ask the question again—what exactly is in an owl’s pellet? Well, whatever pieces of the prey that the owl can’t digest, and is too dangerous (sharp or painful) to pass, gets processed into the pellet. Again, this includes teeth, fur, bones, claws, skulls, and feathers. Because these pieces are found inside the pellets, it is often easy to identify the prey that the owl consumed earlier. If feathers are seen, scientists can draw the conclusion that the owl preyed on another bird. Scientists can also differentiate different mammals consumed by looking at the skulls and the size of bones.

No two pellets are the same. The shape and texture of the pellet often vary, especially among the hundreds of species of owls. Owl pellets can sometimes be larger, smaller, tightly compacted, or loose and crumbly. It all varies by the owl and what the owl consumed.

Want to practice being a scientist and looking through your own owl pellets? www.pellet.com has been providing owl pellets for scientific and recreational purposes for more than 25 years. When you order pellets from then, you can specify what type of pellet and prey you are looking for. If you randomize your order, you can try and guess what the owl consumed! Happy researching!

The Hunting Habits of an Owl

Typically we think of birds as the type to survive on seeds and other vegetation. While that is true for many birds but not owls. Owls are carnivorous and hunt their prey which includes small rodents like mice, hares, and rats. There are also species of owls that also hunt fish.

Owls hunting habits are based on their environment. Which means that their prey will vary based on the region as will their hunting methods. But even so, there are some characteristics that are shared among the species. It is their unique make-up that allows an owl to be a fierce hunter.

How Owls Hunt

Flying

The majority of owls have the ability to fly silently which gives them a distinct advantage over their prey. Their silent flight can be attributed to their feathers. Owls have larger feathers in comparison to most birds. Coupled with the serrated edges at the end of their wings, owls flapping is reduced and nearly noiseless. Prey are unaware that they are being hunted until the owl has them in their grasp.

Sight

Owls are nocturnal creatures and do most of their hunting at night. They are one of the few nocturnal birds that rely on their vision to hunt. One characteristic of an owl is their large and their size is the reason why they can see their prey in the dark. Owls eyes are tube shaped because they are a large eye in a small skull. It does not allow them to move their eyes but they can swivel their heads and pinpoint prey from a large distance.

Hearing

When they cannot see their prey, owls rely on their hearing. The placement of their ears tends to be asymmetrical which allows them to pinpoint their prey just through their hearing. An owl will turn their head until the sound reaches both ears at the same time.

Talons and Beak

While their vision and sight are important in tracking the prey, it is the strength of their talons and beak that allows them to capture their prey. Depending on the size of the owl and the size of their prey, an owl’s talons possess an impressive amount of strength. The sharpness of their claws and beak allow an owl to grasp and kill their prey with ease.

Owl Pellets

Learning about owls is nothing short of astonishing. Continue to learn with owl pellets that give insight to an owl’s hunting habits. For more information about owl pellets, visit pellets.com

5 Interesting Facts about Owls

Unraveling the Mysteries behind the Owl

Owls are majestic creatures that have an air of mystery about them. Many cultures see them as omens of both good and misfortune. A lot of it comes from the lack of knowledge about the birds. Here are some facts that will dispel their enigmatic qualities but leave you impressed all the same.

5 Impressive Facts About Owls

1. Owls Can Turn Their Heads (Almost) All the Way Around

Many believe that owls can turn their heads all the way around. They very nearly can. Their necks have the ability to turn 135 degrees in either direction. Scientist attributes this to bone adaptation which allows owls to turn their head without cutting off blood flow to their brains.

2. Owls are Far-Sighted

The shape of an owl’s eyes is not spherical. Instead, they are shaped like tubes which go back into their heads.  This means their eyesight is fixed and is far-sighted meaning they can see prey far away but everything up close is blurry. The shape of their eyes also makes it easier for them to see in the dark as well since there is little light gathering.

3. Their Hearing is Nothing Short of Amazing

To help with their sight is the super-sonic hearing owls possess. Owls are able to hear prey that is hidden beneath dirt, leaves, and brush. Some owls will even have a few sets of ears along different heights of their heads. This enables owls to detect their prey exactly where they are at.

4. They Act as Pest Control

Since owls eat a lot of rodents, many farmers are now installing nesting boxes on their property. The average barn owl will eat over 3000 rodents in a four-month span along with 50 pounds of gopher in a year.

5. Owls Eat Their Prey Whole

Generally, owls will eat their prey whole after killing it. Owls do not possess teeth so they cannot chew their food. Their digestive tract is able to process their prey and compact what could not be digested into a pellet.

Owl Pellets

At Pellet.com, we provide those pellets for study so that more mysteries of the owl can be unlocked. From the pellet, we can discover the diet of certain owls or animals that are in the area.

For more information about our pellets, please visit our site.

 

 

Make Science Engaging for Young Students

Students and Science

One hurdle many teachers face is keeping their students interested in science. Some young learners flock to the subject while others hold a great indifference for it.

Trying new ways to keep students engaged in the subject is your best bet to turn their indifference into a lifelong love. Engagement also ensures that your student’s grades will improve because they are actually paying attention and motivated. The key is picking the right activities to draw your student’s attention.

How to Engage Students in Science

Before you introduce a new activity, you have to understand which ones will work and which ones will simply bore your students.

Worksheets are not an engaging activity. Yes, it will keep them busy but it will not keep their interest. Nor will having them read aloud from the text and answering summary questions out-loud. Think of activities that will garner the results you want from the worksheet but that are hands-on.

Students learn best when they are able to engage with the subject physically or are able to problem solve. Here are a couple of examples.

Biology is one subject that students struggle with but it is a necessary to learn. Simply reading about the inner workings of any organism can be confusing. That is why dissection is a very popular activity in the science community. Once students have learned the fundamentals, they are allowed to see it up-close through dissection. There are various ways to explore the inner workings of an organism, such as through the dissection of an animal or its pellet.

Owls have a fascinating way in which they consume their prey. They swallow it whole and once it is digested, they expel a pellet that holds the bones of their prey. By opening up the pellet, your students can learn about the owls digestion as well as the type of animals they prey upon. It is the kind of hands-on activity that your students will love.

Purchase Owl Pellets for the Classroom

At Pellet.com we provide classrooms with owl pellets. It is a great activity that can keep students engaged in science and spark a life-long passion for the subject. For more information about our pellets, please look at our site or contact us via our online form.

Welcome to Pellet’s Blog Page

 

Who is Pellet.com?

On behalf of all of us at Genesis Inc, we would like to welcome you to our blog page for pellet.com. We will be utilizing this page to keep your informed about the happenings with our company as well as provide useful information concerning owls and owl pellets.

For now, we would like to take the opportunity to let you know more about our company and our pellets.

Over the past 25 years, we have been a provider of Owl Pellet Dissection Kits. We are a family owned business located in Washington State. Our pellets have been used all over North America for classroom exploration. Our pellets are a fantastic way for students to interact with science.

Why Study Owl Pellets?

Studying of owl pellets is an important part of science. Many birds cannot chew their food, owls included. The only choice is to swallow their food whole. Through owl pellets, we discovered that they do not have a crop like other birds, but a baglike organ used to store their food once it has been swallowed to be digested later. Once in the gizzard, the tissue of the prey is dissolved for nutrients and what we are left with is bone. The gizzard compacts all of this material in a tight pellet.

Other than how their digestive tract works, we also learn about the type of prey consumed by the owls. Which means we also learn about the type of prey that is available to the bird in a particular region. Since owls vary in size, you can see how the size of their prey will vary as well.

The pellets themselves will vary depending on the species of owl that produced them. Pellets range from furry and tightly compacted into an oval to loosely compacted and irregularly shaped. Depending on the pellet’s moisture, you can spot a fresh pellet to one that has been expelled long ago. If a pellet is moist, that indicates that it was freshly expelled. The longer is has been sitting out, the dryer it has become.

Order Owl Pellets for Your Classroom Today

There is so much to learn about these majestic animals. Watch your students become instantly engrossed in science by allowing them to work hands-on with this project. Order your owl pellets with us today.

Keep checking back with our page to learn more.