#also i finally figured out how to get “cool” ratings on my sutures

[dravidious]

So far, Under the Knife 2 feels like a massive improvement over UtK1, mainly by how good it feels to chase high ranks. Not only does it make it easy to jump right back into the level you just finished to get a better score, it also tells you what special bonuses are in each level instead of it just being a seemingly-random mystery score (it only tells you when you actually get them, but still better that UtK1).

But also, I was getting such high ranks so easily that I decided to go back to UtK1 to see if it was harder or if I just got more skilled, and it turns out that UtK1's rank thresholds are just kind of awful. The reason I was getting C-ranks on everything is because there's a pretty small gap between C-rank and S-rank. Missing just one special bonus can turn an S-rank run into a C-rank, so you'll pretty much always get a C-rank unless you're really good.

UtK2 is far more reasonable with handing out B- and A-ranks, so rather than C-rank meaning "you did less than excellent" it means "you did bad". So when I'm going through the game getting As and Bs, and then on one level I get a C? I'm so much more motivated to say "screw that" and try again.

[lifeonashelf]

...INTERLUDE...

Come to Vegas! We can make out, gamble, and forget all our troubles.

This is quite possibly the greatest text message I have ever received. Four days later, I hit the road.

I have never driven to Las Vegas by myself. Once I complete the journey I can’t fathom why this is, because despite the extended sprawl of nothing between us, Vegas isn’t nearly as far away as I picture it in my mind. I arrive in 3 hours and 17 minutes (which, oddly, is the exact figure Google Maps gave me when I checked the route before leaving my apartment—this is even more astonishing when you factor in that Google not only calculated my precise rate of speed for the entire trek, but evidently also predicted that I would be pulling off the road for seven minutes to have a cigarette at a rest stop just outside Baker). On the way, I listen to two volumes of a 10-disc playlist I made a few months earlier. When I burn mix CDs for myself, they are ridiculously schizophrenic—crossing the state line, I hear Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, my favorite track by the death metal band Gorefest, and then “Cool For The Summer” by Demi Lovato in immediate succession, and I sing every word to each of them. Needless to say, it is an awesome drive.

Everything proceeds smoothly when I arrive. The Gold Coast has my lodgings ready for me two hours prior to the posted check-in time and they are able to accommodate my request for a smoking flat. I take my bag up to the 9th floor, set up my laptop at the table by the window, and then smoke a cigarette in my room just because I fucking can. I purposefully skipped dinner the night before so my stomach would be prepared to maximize the possibilities offered by the hotel’s Ports O’ Call Buffet. I tear that shit up, then head to the lounge to play a bit of video poker and get a cup of coffee—the machines at the bartop are not kind to me; that cup of coffee ends up costing me sixty dollars. Such is Vegas.

The day is uneventful, by Las Vegas standards. I drink more coffee, I gamble some more and win back my sixty bucks, I write a bit, I watch some basketball. But I am really just killing time. Because the passing hours are merely a preamble; the woman who sent me the text message which acted as the siren song for this trip is in the same town as me, and come “around 7ish” we will be in the same building.

She’s here on business. ___ is a reality television producer, and has been dispatched to Sin City to film the upcoming season of the show Hell’s Kitchen. I have not seen her in over two years, even though she only lives 30 miles from my apartment in real life and driving to Nevada is in fact way more effort than I would normally have to exert to visit her. But our real lives are rarely able to intersect. Besides, I love Las Vegas. And there’s something undeniably enchanting about the prospect of walking beside a beautiful girl amidst a panorama of brilliant dramatic neon and exotic stereoscopic night-sounds. Being in Vegas is like being in a movie, and the character you get to play has way more fun than you do when you’re not on-screen. Compared to my daily existence, and the daily existence of anyone who does not live here, the milieu of Vegas feels like an ethereal dream. That’s why it’s the perfect place to rendezvous with ___; being around her is so intoxicating that it feels much the same.

Our history spans nearly two decades. It is as complicated and messy and wonderful as any history I have ever shared with anyone. I cannot possibly recount all of it here, though I will tell you some. I lost a girlfriend when ___ and I became close because that girlfriend clearly identified that we were mutually attracted to each other. I would have never cheated, but my relationship imploded because I aggressively refuted her well-founded apprehensions and pretended like she was acting crazy for even insinuating I was drawn this person who I would 17 years later drive 230 miles to visit at the whim of a late night text. As a result I broke the heart of an incredible woman who deserved far better, and she broke mine by dumping me. Twenty-four hours subsequent, I was on a park bench making out with a girl who I swore up and down was merely a platonic acquaintance, and I was officially a liar.

I was 23 years old. I was also far more charming and attractive than I am now, and in the mindset to actively explore the positive corollaries which arose from that confluence. I spent a few years kissing a lot of girls because I was single and I was in my early twenties and it’s a good idea to kiss as many girls as you can when you’re single and in your early twenties because you won’t get to kiss too many more after that. Despite the sagacity I demonstrated by accurately predicting this, I was an unadulterated fucking idiot when it came to ___. I am horrified by my conduct throughout everything that ensued between us, and I will forever be haunted by the what-ifs brought about by the consequent brazen stupidity I exhibited.

From the moment we began groping each other at Cahuilla Park in Claremont, ___ became sort of a surrogate for the girlfriend I had sacrificed, a proxy upon whom I could bestow both the passion that had been extinguished and the anguish that had been stoked after the break-up. ___ did not kill my relationship, I killed it by being a callous asshole. But I think subconsciously I blamed her anyway (for having the audacity to enter my life and be the extraordinary girl she is, I suppose); that was far easier than owning up to the fact that I had acted like an irredeemable piece of shit toward the girl she supplanted. My pride and my heart were wounded and I couldn’t take it out on the person whose inescapable-in-hindsight decision had caused those injuries since she was no longer taking my calls. So I took it out on her replacement instead. And over the course of the several tumultuous months that followed, I proceeded to meticulously break the heart of another incredible woman who deserved far better.

I have never handled anyone as poorly as I handled ___. She was a dazzling and unequivocal gem, yet I treated her like she meant nothing to me at all. The mere thought of her being with anyone else drove me mad, yet instead of telling her this I told her time and time again that she could never have me all to herself and continued dating other people to underscore my assertion. More than once, I brought her to tears by stating in no uncertain terms that I never wanted to see her again, only to call her the very next night and ask her to come over as if that conversation never happened. I wasn’t simply emotionally abusive to ___, I was utterly fiendish to her. For every year of my life leading up to that one and every year since, I have been proud to conduct myself as a true gentleman, so I will never understand how I was even capable of hurting anyone as persistently and comprehensively as I hurt her. Rest assured, I didn’t understand it at the time, either. Nor did I understand why no matter how awful I was to her, she still saw the best in me and held out hope that I would come to my senses and acknowledge the singularly special thing that was standing right in front of me.

Unfortunately, I realized far too late that the reason ___ did so was because she was deeply in love with me. And I also realized far too late that I was deeply in love with her.

By then I had done about as much damage to her psyche as one person could do to another. Though she wouldn’t know it, my comeuppance was delivered by the next woman I entered into a failed relationship with, who put me through a lot of the same things I put ___ through and came up with several novel doozies of her own for good measure. ___ and I remained in sporadic telephone contact, though we rarely saw each other in person. Bizarrely, this had the upshot of emphasizing the indissoluble strength of our bond, since none of the interactions we had were stilted by our silence and distance—every time we came together, I felt as close to her as ever and she clearly felt the same.

Over the years, we’ve had numerous conversations about what happened between us. I wish to keep those private, but the essence of what has been expressed is that despite everything she considers me one of the people closest to her in the world. She also told me that “Perfect” by The Smashing Pumpkins is her song to me; I listen to it often, even though those beautiful and devastating lyrics always bring tears to my eyes.

Of course, along the way I finally did what she desperately wished I would have done 17 years ago. I came to my senses and acknowledged the singularly special thing that was once standing right in front of me. I made overtures to that effect on a couple of occasions when we once again found ourselves simultaneously single, but they were way overdue. She said she did still love me and always would, but the wall I forced her to build to shield herself from me had grown too tall and sturdy to tear down. A tacit understanding developed between us: we would be friends for the rest of our lives, but I had confused and harmed her enough for one lifetime and she was not willing to give me any chance to add to that abominable legacy. It’s a verdict I had no choice but to accept because it was a much better one than I deserved; she would have been undeniably justified in never wanting to speak to me again.

I know ___ has never wholly resolved the chaos of emotions I stirred within her, neither the amorous nor the angry. Some cuts are too deep to be sutured, and those tend to leave scars. Truthfully, I think she despises me as much as she adores me; she just adores me too much to let the other side win out most of the time. But this paradox is entirely fitting because our entire relationship is a paradox, a saga of two satellites which have shared each other’s orbit since they were launched and create a blinding explosion when they collide. Last night, she kissed me in the lobby of the Golden Nugget casino and we melted into each other just like we did that first time in Cahuilla Park, seventeen years erased by the touching of lips. When we came up for air, she wrapped her arms around me and buried her face against my chest and said, “god, I hate you,” with so much love in her voice that it made my stomach swim. It was the perfect thing for her to say in that moment, both because it is absolutely true and because it is the absolute opposite of the truth.

We had a delightful night on Fremont Street, both of us properly investigating that very cool region of the city for the first time. We had some drinks and we listened to some music and we played some poker and we held hands as we walked the promenade. For a few hours, we got to be the couple both of us wanted to be at one time or another, just never at the same time; we even fought like a couple for part of that span, since the resentment and pain she’s had to bury deep within herself to continue accepting me into her life despite my previous sins still gets triggered from time to time when we speak of the past. Regardless, I wouldn’t have changed a second of it. The night was absolutely magical, because ___ is absolutely magical.

But the spell of Las Vegas gets broken once you realize that nothing there is real. There’s an axiom people use to justify all manner of debauchery they engage in while visiting Sin City: “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”  Tonight ___ is out with a large group of people who esteem her, and I am alone in a smoky room sitting at my laptop, which is a lot closer to what our individual non-Las Vegas lives look like. This artificial vacation existence in which we were united as one happened in Vegas and will stay in Vegas, because it has to. Because, truthfully, the life she built for herself without me is much richer than the life I built for myself without her. Tomorrow morning I will get in my truck and exit this city of lights to travel back across a stretch of barren desert the length of two mix-CDs, and after I arrive home I will spend the next interminable number of days and nights sitting at my laptop in a room that is less smoky than this one but no less lonely. Meanwhile, tomorrow morning ___ will continue to work her fascinating job and then she will leave the country on some adventure, and no matter where she is and what she’s doing, she will be surrounded by people whose company is far more gratifying to her than mine ever could be.  

The hours we spent holding hands on Fremont Street were unreal. But they were also so real that I am still reeling from the aftershock of our latest satellite collision. Our relationship, both the real and the unreal, befits that manner of contradiction. I don’t think ___ and I are still in love with each other, but I do still love her in a way that I have never loved anyone else. I have committed unconditionally to other women in her absence and redistributed the connection we share into a more manageable framework, but whenever there is no one in my life I can’t help but recognize that there very well could be if I hadn’t once been a soulless beast to someone who was merely pleading for me to appreciate them the way they sincerely deserved to be appreciated. ___ is without a doubt one of the most phenomenal and inside-out beautiful human beings I have ever known and I cannot conceive of my life without her in it, yet I still to this day find it difficult to face her. Every moment I spend with ___ feels like a gift, but those moments also sting in equal measure, because she is a walking reminder of me at my absolute worst.

I don’t think she has ever truly forgiven me. I’m not sure she really ever could, or should. Nothing I do today can undo what I did yesterday. I know that no matter how exhilarating it feels to look into her gorgeous and soulful eyes after we kiss in a glittering alternate universe, there are times when she looks at me and only sees a man who likely hurt her worse than anyone else she has ever known. I know there is a part of her that will always love me, but I also know there’s a part of her that wishes she had never even met me.

While I can only suppose what the world might look like if I had treasured her instead of trashing her all those years ago, I am positive that it would look far better and brighter than it does now. I’m aware that even if I had done the right things then, it’s improbable we would still be together today. Very few relationships go that distance, and despite our exceptional chemistry, ___ and I are not effortlessly compatible. I wouldn’t change a single thing about her, but there are unchangeable things about me I know she could not abide and no one should have to. She detests smoking; I enjoy smoking more than I enjoy most other things. She dreams of spending her days traveling and exploring; I dream of sitting in my easy chair and watching blu-rays.

She thinks I was worth falling in love with; I think strongly otherwise.

I don’t specifically wish ___ and I were together now. Yet therein lies another paradox. Because I got a little glimpse of what that might look like last night on Fremont Street, and it looked amazing. But that wasn’t real, that was Las Vegas; what happens there stays there. It was a magnificent movie, but that’s not what our actual lives look like. We could make out, we could gamble, but we could never forget all our troubles—no matter how much she loved me then and loves me now, I will always be one of hers.

So maybe what I do wish is that I could really be the person she was holding hands with in that unreal fantasy, the person who kissed her with abandon in the lobby of the Golden Nugget, the person she gazed at with unbridled tenderness during that joyful interlude when both of us were able to shelve our past and exist solely and safely in our present. The person she hoped I would become before I shattered her hopes by becoming a monster. Regrettably, untethered from our mutual orbit, I grew to be someone else entirely, someone with numerous regrets he can never completely atone for, someone she will always measure with a watchful and skeptical eye to protect herself. Someone who can never be anyone else except who he is. And that person simply would not be capable of making ___ as happy as she deserves to be, because he already had his chance to do that and made her miserable instead.

Besides, he can barely make himself happy most of the time.

 ###

 The trip home is an inexorably depressing conclusion to every great vacation—you’re doing the exact same thing you did when you set off, except there isn’t anything to look forward to when you arrive. Fittingly, an unseasonable rain is coming down when I hit the 15 Freeway. The water-dappled windshield and the desolate unfolding highway ahead evoke another cinematic scene, perhaps a montage in which the central character takes a long drive to think heavy thoughts. At the risk of becoming a cliché, that is exactly what I do.

My mix-CDs play on, the music blurring past with the miles. I hear “Wonderwall” and I hear “Stairway to Heaven”, which are two songs that everyone should listen to extremely loudly on the open road at least once in their life. Seaweed… Tiamat… Purity Ring… My Chemical Romance… P!nk… The Dillinger Escape Plan... Fleetwood Mac… Each one of them imparts a decisively fantastic tune, but this time I’m not singing along. I am instead blinking away tears as it dawns on me exactly how much I am leaving behind in Las Vegas. Not the money I lost at the video poker machines, but the luminous girl I wagered at the age of 23 when I made a much more foolish gamble than I could have ever imagined and ended up losing the most precious thing I never had. The fortune that I lose over and over again every time ___ and I part from each other and return to the real world.

I discover that her hold on me, this cosmic magnetism we share, has not diminished with time. And I discover that the axiom is not absolute—not everything that happens in Vegas stays there; some things follow you all the way home.

That night on Fremont Street, she told me that she will never be completely over me. At least that makes us even in one respect.  

Though the imprint I left on her heart was shaped like a bruise, there will always be a piece of mine that is the precise shape and size of ___. That piece belongs to her, and though it is a woeful consolation prize, it is the only one I will ever have the opportunity to give her.

But it does come with a vow: forever and always, whenever and wherever we meet, in Las Vegas and in real life, I promise we’ll be perfect.

 May 9, 2019        

[windycityparrot]

Why Are We Talking About Treating Bird Bite Wounds?

Were not going to start with bird bites because we'll be talking about several first-aid challenges you may face having a bird or two in your home for several decades. Everyone likes to think of themselves as being prepared for disaster and certainly life’s cuts and scrapes.   I’ve personally sutured a dog in a garage (after 5 minutes of training by my vet :-) I’ve yanked shards of glass out of more than one dogs paw and got them bandaged over the years.   Sutures are easy to come by if your vet is a fellow musher but for the most part many dog, and I presume cat medical emergencies, can be treated with a human first aid kit. Removing a little fur on a dog while rapidly getting a wound bandaged, is something a dog will get over pretty quickly. Mammals are very different than birds. If your bird suffers a broken wing watch this video to learn the figure of eight wrap for supporting the wing until you can get to professional help.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1asSfcxQsgM In home treatment of other avian orthopedic injuries like broken legs, which are considered , typically not life-threatening, start by stabilizing the patient.   You can use a coffee stir stick or even a feather quill from the bird to be used as a split held down by masking tape, non adhesive first-aid tape or even a small cable tie.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smTk_qVgVhs   The purpose of splinting is to stabilize the leg until they are able to be x-rayed by a veterinarian. Remember once a birds leg is immobilized, it cannot close its foot around a perch so the bird is going to be less stable. Intentionally repetitious -> A bird's reduced stability adds to a bird's level of stress.  It's best to move everything into a hospital cage so that it does not gain height which will prevent possible falls and further injuries.

Once again nag-nag-nag this is not the time to be freaking your bird out with a towel that you need to restrain it with.   Restraining towels can be a birds friend, watch this video from Lafeber vet on how to make it happen.   https://youtu.be/fF8-dW42ipM   I keep talking about how birds are three-dimensional pets having the ability to fly.   That's one big difference between our birds and your neighbors cats and dogs.   It has to do with the different integumentary (I just like saying that word) system Start Wikipedia The integumentary system comprises the skin and its appendages acting to protect the body from various kinds of damage, such as loss of water or abrasion from outside. The integumentary system includes hair, scales, feathers, hooves, and nails. End Wikipedia   Feathers provide flight as well as insulating a birds body.   Fur is only used by mammals for insulation.   A mammals body is much different than a birds body in terms of the distribution of fat as mother nature calculated the amount of fat to enable bird flight.   Dogs cool themselves using their tongues to exchange heat via panting although they do have tiny sweat glands on their paw pads.   Birds have no sweat glands. Heat loss is through the respiratory system and exposed skin.   Mammals incubate offspring internally.   Birds on the other hand have to incubate eggs outside of their body which requires more heat.   If your veterinarian sees blood he or she is going to want to determine if the blood is coming from outside or inside the body.     Birds themselves can make small injuries more severe.   Think about a bird whose leg band got caught in an unexpected piece of toy hardware and fractured its leg.   If stuck for a long period, stress becomes a much larger enemy than the injury itself.   Many captive bird keepers are insistent that clipping a birds wings will keep it from flying into a wall.   "Trimming my birds toenails will make things not as scratchy on me".   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9pHFBzVPm0   The problem is that birds use their wings not only for flight but for balance.   Some bird cage perches don't have a lot of texture.   Put the two together and you have a bird that can easily slip off a perch in the middle of the night.   Cockatiels are prone to night frights. Bird's can break wings flapping uncontrollably while falling to the bottom of the cage after slipping off a perch. When birds do not feel stable in their home environment because are not able to perch easily, the stress of instability can trigger negative behavioral problems.   Let's add that to the flighted/wing clip "discussion".   Editor's note: I would normally say "argument" (instead of discussion) but my blood pressure is high these day so I'm trying to be a kinder and gentler person.   You’d never think that selling bird toys could be so stressful.   Restraint of psittacines (parrots) involves immobilization of the head.   I quote from a VETERINARIAN “generally with a thumb on one side of the mandible and the index or middle finger on the other”.   I mention this only because of some comments I received on YouTube by genius bird keepers, while illustrating proper bird restraint.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DIw_quRXoU&lc=UghRD440q6ydaHgCoAEC   "I wish I could put my thumb and forefinger around his neck."   "what a dickhead..Ida let the bird fly away"   avistraint/toweling More reasons birds are different than mammals. For the most part birds are smaller than mammals so they use more energy - you know that flight thing.   Birds do have a slightly higher metabolism than mammals but there's not a big difference.   There is a difference in body temperatures between birds and mammals.   Birds have thinner skin than mammals. A bird's skin much more delicate and nowhere near as elastic as a mammal's skin.   A bird's skin is firmly stretched over bones especially in the wing and feet area.   Feathered follicles are contained within the bird's skin itself and lots of smooth muscles which control feather position - a mesmerizing phenomenon in and of itself   Regardless of room temperature it's never warm enough for a sick bird.   By raising the temperature close to the bird's internal temperature their body can push more energy onto healing and less on trying to keep itself at a normal body temperature.   It's best to provide a heat source on one side of the bird cage.   Assuming your bird is ambulatory, your bird can decide its own ambient temperature comfort level by moving closer or away from the heat source.   If you see your bird holding her wings away from her body and possibly panting she or he is too warm.   If your bird appears to be fluffing up his or her feathers and "huddling" your bird is too cold. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAvk94XttyA We find polar bears in the Arctic, lions and tigers and Africa, foxes and brown bears in North America. They manage to stay warm with their fur and a layer of fat.   My Point is birds, because they can maintain a high body temperature that's constant they are able to be indigenous in many habitats be they polar, temperate or tropical.   Bird's pay dearly for heat production by energy intake so they are able to balance what they put out while having the ability to get rid of excess heat when they need to.   In other words if a bird is an area with falling temperatures, they will increase their own rate of metabolism to keep their internal temperature from going down.   As mentioned earlier, a few weeks ago we revisited our ultimate bird first aid kit. We certainly are not advocating that you go to this extreme but we wanted to point out many of the possible injuries that one needs to be prepared for over the decades that you may have a bird in your home. The single biggest cause of bird death is malnutrition we know that. But physical injuries are more common than you may think. Editor's note: at the bottom of this post you'll find some helpful links we advocate that you bookmark should emergencies arise. Make sure you also have contact information for after-hours veterinary care. You can get a recommendation for where to go from your own veterinarian.   After spending several hours with my ouija board I came up with the predictability of a number of maladies a bird may encounter in its lifetime Animal bites Beak injuries Bee stings Bleeding Bleeding from nares (nose) Breathing problems Broken blood feathers Burns Concussion Egg binding Eye injuries Falling into oil Foreign object eaten Foreign object inhaled Fractures Frostbite Joint swelling Lead and zinc poisoning Overheating Regurgitation Seizures Shock Tissue protruding from vent Trapped on adhesive   Now you know  why we built  the Ultimate Bird First Aid Kit Finally bird bite wounds. Bite wounds can come from predators and also from prey species. Predatory species can be found in many homes, we are talking about ferrets, dogs and cats. What prey species could possibly bite a pet bird? Rats and mice for one and even other birds in the household. Editor's note: We have hundreds if not thousands of feral monk parakeets aka Quaker parrots in the chicago area. Chicago is home to many peregrine falcons who enjoy the height of buildings throughout the city. So why don't the peregrine falcons hang out around 57th st where the Museum of Science and Industry is as well as all the quaker parrots? You would think that south side area by lake Michigan was the equivalent of Whole Foods for the city's falcons. Birds are smart. Smarter than we will ever give them credit for but in this case the peregrine's tend to lay off the quakers because they know that a parrot can break their leg with their beak if not killed immediately. That's reverse engineering bird bites - for protection.   I keep talking about how birds are three-dimensional pets having the ability to fly.   That's one big difference between our birds and your neighbors cats and dogs   Speaking of interrogatory systems   Feathers provide flight as well as insulating a birds body.   Fur is only used by mammals for inflation.   A mammals body is much different than a birds body in terms of the distribution of fat as mother nature calculated to enable bird flight   Dogs cool using their tongues to exchange sheet via panting although they do have tiny sweat glands on their paw pads.   Birds have no sweat glands. Heat loss is through the respiratory system and exposed skin.   Mammals incubate offsprings internally.   Birds on the other hand have to incubate eggs outside of their body which requires more heat     If your veterinarian sees blood he or she is going to want to determine if the blood is coming from outside or inside the body.   Birds themselves can make small injuries more severe.   Think about a bird whose legband got caught in an un-inspected piece of toy hardware and fractured its leg.   shelf video   If stuck for a long period stress becomes a much larger enemy than the injury itself.   Many captive bird keepers are insistent that "clipping my birds wings will keep it from flying into a wall".   Trimming my birds toenails will make things not as scratchy on me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POkLueHfTgY   The problem is that birds use their wings not only for flight but for balance.   Some birdcage perches don't have a lot of adhesion.   Put the two together and you have a bird they can easily slip off a perch in the middle of the night.   In spite of anecdotal information clipping a birds wings will not reduce bad hormonal behavior.   It's like getting a haircut.   Your bird will behave no differently with shorter wings than you behave differently with shorter hair.   When birds do not feel stable in their home environment because are not able to perch easily, the stress of instability can trigger negative behavioral problems.   Editor's note: I would normally say argument but my blood pressure is high these day so I'm trying to be a kinder and gentler person.   You’d never think that selling bird toys could be stressful here’s some other reasons bird’s are different than mammals Birds have thinner skin than mammals. Bird's skin is much more delicate and nowhere near as elastic.   A bird skin is firmly stretched over bones especially in the wings and feet area.   Feathered follicles are contained with in the skin itself and lots of smooth muscles which control feather position - a mesmerizing phenomenon in and of itself   Because for the most part birds are smaller than mammals they use more energy - you know that flight thing.   They do have a slightly higher metabolism than mammals but there's not a big difference.   There is a difference in body temperatures   Restraint of psittacines involves immobilization of the head,   And i quote from a VETERINARIAN “generally with a thumb on one side of the mandible and the index or middle finger on the other”.   I mention this only because of some comments I received on you to while it illustrating proper bird restraint techniques     "I wish i could put my thumb and forefinger around his neck." "what a dickhead..Ida let the bird fly away"   avistraint/toweling There is a difference in body temperatures   Birds have thinner skin than mammals. Is much more delicate in nowhere near as elastic.   A bird skin is firmly stretched over bones especially in the wings and feet area.   Feathered follicles are contained with in the skin itself in lots of smooth muscles which control feather position - a mesmerizing phenomenon in and of itself   Regardless of room temperature it's not warm enough or sick bird.   By raising the temperature close to the bird their body can push more energy on healing and less on trying to keep itself at a normal body temperature   It's best to provide a heat source on one side of the cage assuming your bird is ambulatory so that your bird can decide its own ambient temperature comfort level.   If you see your bird holding her wings away from her body and possibly panting she or hee too warm.   If your bird appears to be fluffing up his or her feathers and "huddling" your bird is too cold   We find polar bears in the Arctic, lions and tigers and Africa, foxes and brown bears in North America.   Point is birds because they can maintain a high body temperature that's constant they are able to be indigenous in many habitats be they polar temperate or tropical.   They pay dearly for this he production by energy intake so they are able to balance what they put out while having the ability to get rid of excess heat when they need to.   The other side of the coin is when it becomes too high for birds they need to lose heat like we do when we sweat.   Because birds don't have any sweat glands they have to get rid of it by rapid breathing or panting if you will.   While most of his fantasize about warm weather while experiencing these never ending North American cold temperatures let's think about what to do should your bird become overheated.   Not that there's ever been a power outage anywhere or history of the United States but it is possible to come home to a dehydrated bird because you've been gone for the day and the air conditioner crapped out. What do you do? Your choice of emergency liquids are Sugar water Non carbonated lemonade Milk and egg yolk Pedialyte (used for pediatric hydration). You may even have to stroke your birds throat to help him or her swallow.   Depending upon the size of the bird you may need from 6 to 7 drops for birds like canaries to 10 or 15 drops and up to 5 teaspoons for large parrots Helpful links for avian first aid  Poisons and Parrots Saving the life of a pigeon or dove - vital basic steps Animal Poison Control Avian CPR Zootonic diseases - Can my bird make me sick Here's a more in depth description of Avian Orthopedic injuries from Margaret A. Wissman, D.V.M., D.A.B.V.P. Read the full article