date night: owl pellets

I have been meaning to write about this date for a while. A couple weeks ago for date night, Ammon and I dissected owl pellets! Gross, right!? Actually, it was really fun! I got the idea from doing it in my science methods class. (I do a lot of fun things in that class.) At first I thought I was dissecting owl poop. Turns out, owl pellets are actually kind of like hairballs. The owls throw them up and if you dissect them, you'll find all kinds of bones! Owls cannot dissect bones, fur, feathers, or teeth, so those are the things you're going to find inside! It's kind of like a treasure hunt. 

I ordered my owl pellets off of this website. All of the pellets are sterile, so you don't have to worry about picking up any diseases. Another cool thing about this website is that every order comes with a free poster so that you can properly classify all of the various bones. Here are some pictures from our date night:

The owl pellets come wrapped in aluminum foil. They look like baked potatoes. April Fool's Day joke...?

Ammon unwrapping his pellet.

We found a rodent skull!

I couldn't resist. :)

More bones! 

This is all the fur that was left over. 

It was a really fun date night. Ammon is taking anatomy right now so it was entertaining to hear him make connections and use fancy words. I recommend doing this for date night (or any night) if you and your significant other aren't grossed out by this kind of thing. Or if you are a parent, do this with your kids, they'll love it! All you need are a few owl pellets (which you can order online), paper plates, toothpicks, and an adventurous spirit.