#Animal advice

[teaboot]

Serious Question

My brother's cat (14 years old- the cat, not him) is not eating and we don't know why.

He said they went to the vet, and the vet recommended senior cat food, but she won't eat more than a few bites.

Wet food and dry food are both being refused, and while she IS interested in his dog's wet food, stealing the dog food is also making her throw up.

She's still snuggly and purrs when pet- still makes biscuits and drools when you rub her chin, runs from the dog and growls when he gets silly- but she's become frighteningly thin.

Does anyone with senior cat experience have any ideas for helping her gain weight?

She used to be an absolute brick of a cat- just a solid unit, caught pests like nobody's business- so it's really hard to see her this tiny

Any advice at all is appreciated. Thanks

[artemisblackwing]

How to Get a Bird Back When it Flies Away

(This applies to corvids, parrots, and some other birds.)

I have heard people say that if your bird flies away you'll never get it back, but if you know what to do parrots and corvids are some of the easiest birds to get back.

Here are a few ideas about what to do:

Watch direction of flight so even if it flies out of sight, you know what direction to start looking in. Depending on the type of bird and how frightened it is, the bird may fly miles before landing.

If a bird is frightened, it is likely to fly in a fairly straight line away from whatever upset it.

DO NOT LEAVE YOUR BIRD even if you have waited for hours below it and it hasn't flown down to you. If night falls, and you are unable to stay with the bird, make absolutely sure you are back before dawn when the bird will wake up. The bird is very likely to fly somewhere new at dawn, or start looking for you. I can't stress this enough: you need almost unreasonable amounts of patience. It may take your bird many hours (perhaps even days) to fly down to you, but don't lose hope. (If you don't know for sure where the bird is, make sure you start looking for it again at dawn.)

Have someone else go get treats to lure the bird down, or its cage if that is available. (If the bird likes its cage, that can act as a lure.)

Things you can do to prepare for this ahead of time:

Teach your bird to come to its name.

Teach it to fly down to you. ("Stepping up" and flying upwards to you are not equivalent to flying down. Flying down takes different skills.)

Record its calls, so you can replay them for it when it flies off. If you can't see the bird or the bird can't see you, you can replay the recordings to help call it to you.

If your bird has unclipped wings, but never flies because its wings were clipped so young that it doesn't know how, either keep its wings clipped or teach it to fly. Otherwise it may spontaneously fly off your shoulder when its outside and not know how to fly back to you.

[terrifictoonman]

BIRD PPL // S.O.S.

I was house sitting for my parents when my younger brother pointed out that one of their cars had a birds nest on it.

So, for like the next three days, we're just bird watching, and she never left the nest, at least while we were watching. She even sat through a slightly heavy thunderstorm.

Fast forward to about an hour ago, I have to move the car to get to their SUV. I do, and the bird flies off. I made sure to be extra careful so as not to disturb the nest. I go to check on the nest, and I find these...

I felt bad, but I figured once I left, she'd just take her seat back.

It's been an hour and she hasn't come back as far as I know.

Maybe I'm overreacting or just made two orphans, I don't know. Any advice would be appreciated.

[the-animal-kingdom]

The average humidity to keep a leopard gecko healthy is between 30% and 40%.

[teamkrissy]

So I'm in a really sticky situation with this cat. In November, I noticed a cat meowing at all my neighbors windows. The next week, she was on my doorstep when I came home from work and I let her in, thinking she was someone's lost pet. I filed missing pet reports with the local shelters, I made posts on local lost pet Facebook communities, my spouse downloaded neighborhood apps and posted about her there, I called around to local vets, I made flyers. I was sure that someone would contact me and ask for their cat back. 2 weeks went by and we started to consider the possibility that no one would claim her and we had a new cat. Then our neighbor noticed her sitting in our window and knocked on our door. She didn't have any questions and didn't want to answer ours, just said that the cat belonged to her son (around 10 years old.) We were relieved, our older cat wasn't a fan of this interloper, we wouldn't have to worry about getting a second autofeeder or figure out how to coordinate vet appointments for 2 cats. Another week went by and my neighbor's tree fell through our backyard, knocking out power for us and our neighbors on the other side. This meant I finally got to talk to the cat owners and clear the air so they knew we were looking for them and not just stealing their pet. She hadn't even thought of looking for the cat, just figured it would find it's way home from wherever it went. Then a week and a half ago, I heard a cat meowing at our window again. It was raining water and chunks of ice and no one was home next door. So I let her in and dried her off because she was soaked. She hasn't gone back to the neighbor's since. It's below freezing where I live now. I bought an outdoor shelter for cats, it's a small elevated structure with a flap style door big enough for 2 cats to lay down in. I stuck it in our back yard for the cat to shelter in next time it rains or just whenever she is cold. The problem is that I think because we have taken care of her more at this point than our neighbors have, the cat thinks that this is her home and doesn't even try to go to the neighbors house. We still let her in sometimes, but throw her out every time we hear the neighbor's car, hoping that she will run to them and they will finally let her in. We can't really keep her here, because at least at one point, they wanted her enough to ask for her back and they can see our house through our windows (we have house plants, we don't close the curtains on that side of the house.) So what do I do? The winter is about to get much worse. The neighbors don't seem to notice her absence, but if they see her in our window, they'll probably ask for her back again just so they can throw her outside again. She isn't much of a street cat, she's young and small and just sits between our houses when she's outside. They don't seem to feed her. I just.... I don't know what to do. Someone please halp

[explodingcosplay]

I need some advice on getting a couple of cats to get along, please.

One's almost four years old and the other is almost two. They seem to hate each other.

The younger one seems to be the main starter of their fights (although elder seems to start a couple too). Elder has a safe room but Younger keeps trying to enter it. When he does it causes stress on Elder. She also seems to be afraid to leave this room.

The thing is, it's an un clean room and I'm not allowed to clean it (it's not my room and while not directly told I can't clean it I have been told "I'd rather you not). Elder stays in it almost all the time. And she doesn't seem to be doing good mentally.

If it's just Elder she's a sweet cat. She usually won't be a lap girl but she'll lay next to you and purr. She loves watching videos and listening to podcasts and things like that.

If it's just Younger he's a butthead but a sweet but head. He'll lay down with you and get jealous if you don't give him all your attention.

We have a total of eight cats and they both get along with the others pretty much fine. Younger some times wants to play with our eldest cat (nineteen) while he just wants to sleep. So it's not that neither of them just doesn't get along with other cats.

We adopted Younger a couple months ago along with his brother. They're a bonded pair and their previous parents are having to try to get rid of their animals for reasons that aren't mine to tell. I don't want to have to give Younger and his brother back, since I don't know what'll happen to them. But Elder doesn't deserve this.

I want her to be able to walk around her own home without being afraid of Younger.

I have tried calming collars. Younger likes to strip his off and Elder seemed to have a reaction to it and her breathing got weird.

I have cat nip but I'm not sure how well that'll help them get along.

[crowleys-dark-sunglasses]

I found a bird outside who was too young to fly and I couldn't find the nest orits mom so I brought it inside and now idk what to do I've never done this before it's 10 pm so nowhere is open for me to call but I got it some warm bedding and some worms but if literally anyone has any advice please lmk cause I will genuinely break down if this baby bird dies

[damian-lil-babybat]

They're judging their sibling's life decisions, and they are not impressed.

(And to think Jason and Dami have pit-madness in their system)

[ningadudexx]

I love these ominous snake people

[gringadano]

Relax and stay chill

[the-animal-kingdom]

A piece of random advice: if you ever come face to face with a cheetah where you are worried about being attacked, avoid eye contact, stay calm, do NOT turn your back and do not run away.

If possible, back away slowly but if unable then you have a couple of options, you can sit and wait for someone to help you or (in case of an attack) make yourself look bigger, stand your ground, make a lot of noise and make intentional arm movements towards the cat to frighten it.

[novlr]

A quick guide to animal symbolism:

Animals have a long history of symbolism that varies between cultures and customs. As literary tropes develop, some animal symbolism has become universally recognised in the western literary canon. Here are some examples you can use in your writing to give subtext, develop motifs, or promote your thematic content.

🐥 Birds: freedom, hope, escape 🦁 Lions: strength, courage, royalty 🐶 Dogs: loyalty, devotion, protection 🐱 Cats: independence, stealth, mystery 🐺 Wolves: intelligence, nature, wildness 🦊 Foxes: cleverness, cunning, deception 🐍 Snakes: temptation, evil, deceit 🦋 Butterflies: transformation, change, new beginnings 🦉 Owls: wisdom, knowledge, mystery 🦅 Eagles: strength, freedom, nobility ◾ Ravens: death, mystery, the unknown 🕊️ Doves: peace, love, purity 🐻 Bears: resurrection, strength, power, new life 🤘 Bulls: virility, sovereignty, wealth

[scribz-ag24]

thank @cozybells for motivating me to prioritize my darkrai-related doodles. they all have a very normal relationship with each other and are being very mature about it.

(the dusknoir-darkrai similarities are definitely not influenced by se0, where dusknoir gets a lot of his knowledge from darkrai)

[good-advice-ganondorf]

[vero-niche]

can i just say how much i adore how Nao-chan's gender is treated so casually in skip to loafer

like, as a white cis woman who is also quite tall and havent read the manga i didnt even realize she was trans until this scene in ep2:

and i didnt even have the time to get nervous how they would handle this as they already moved on, ignoring the comments (just like queer people learn to do so) except for Mitsumi's comforting touch (implying she also heard the comments):

and there were no sad words or anything about this either, it was just handled so.... normally. which should not be something worth highlighting, but, well, you know. also on that note, special shoutout to P.A. Works for casting a woman as her voice actor as well.

she's shown being the supportive and lively aunt and like seconds later in this scene she's back to being her usual self again:

in conclusion

[markscherz]

You are everything I aspire to be

If parenting has taught me anything, it is the importance of getting down on your hands and knees and teaching not just facts, but love and enthusiasm for the natural world.

This is my son Q and me. I have dozens of photos like this by now, even though he is just two years old.

Every chance I get, I will kneel down with him and show him the little creatures all around us. Especially when they are frogs. He loves frogs for some reason. No idea why.

It is important that we all see this together. It is beautiful. It is magnificent. We are here. It is improbable to the highest degree. It is fleeting, but it is everything we get. And we can get so, so much of it. If we just get our faces into it and really absorb it.

So that's what l'm trying to do here, I guess. Get all of you to join me in the reeds. And I am so happy to have so many of you along for the journey.