Quote Originally Posted by Ross View Post
I fed a large mixture of cottontail, pheasant, duck, pigeon, jack, squirrel, day old chicks and rarely quail last season to my second year female gos. I guess after years of flying I have a good idea of relative richness of food, cottontail is very light, duck very rich etc., and feed accordingly. Usually I am pretty close to the wt. I expect. I don't have to worry much about aggression as my bird is parent reared, but I still tend to err to the high side and fly her fat more often than having her sharp. I like the idea of a varied diet, and I don't like the idea of buying food and letting carcasses go to waste. I do some shotgun hunting in addition to falconry and also use those carcasses for hawk food [I always shoot non toxic shot]. The vast majority of what my hawks eat comes from the wild.
Also, I think it would be nice to fly the same time every day,but the reality of my work schedule and variable weather conditions I often switch things up to be able to fly. Some days first thing in the morning, some days lunch hour and sometimes late afternoon. I adjust feeding accordingly, or sometimes adjust my flying schedule to what I fed. Like, if I reward a hard flight/ difficult quarry with a big crop I may wait 36 hours to fly. If weather is terrible late in the day, I may feed just a bit and fly in the morning etc. The 22 hr. schedule thing I think works best for people who need lots of regime in their lives. I like falconry being a less regimented part of my life.