Barn Owl Chick regurgitating a pellet.
Owls usually swallow their prey whole and their food passes into their gizzard. The gizzard is an organ that uses digestive fluid and bits of sand and gravel to grind and dissolve digestible material. Soft tissue, such as muscle, fat, and internal organs are easily processed, but the digestive acids of owls are too weak to dissolve tougher material, such as bones, fur, feathers, teeth, and claws. The gizzard compacts these leftovers into a tight pellet that the owl regurgitates.