Weighing an Owl

What is the best way to weigh an owl? With lots of tasty rat tidbits!

Otto the Great Horned Owl is not picky when it comes to food, but rat is his favorite treat for training. Watch in the video as I place a treat on the scale. Otto dives for it, landing on the scale and earning another reward. He weighs in around 3.5 pounds.

I used the first piece of food as a "lure:" bait to entice Otto to the scale. This may be an effective way to read his weight, but he doesn't really know that I want him to go to the scale specifically. He is just following the food. Once he starts to associate the scale with food, I will stop using the lure. A simple tap on the scale will cue him there where he will get his juicy reward.