#bird owner life

[herosplatling-replica]

fun fact: birds cannot eat lactose. this does not dissuade them from trying to beg for your ice cream, however

[greencheekconure27]

Grabbed and wrapped like a kebab for his crimes (bullying his budgie neighbours and being a bitey bastard):

(he's actually enjoying it a lot it seems and made no attempt to escape 😂.Ah well.whatever calms him down and keeps him from being a brat)

[thegreatyin]

parrot owners fascinate me bc all of the online discussions they have are seemingly just lighthearted goofy pet sharing like cat or dog people except the minute someone brings up the prospect of getting a parrot of their own every single parrot owner is like "no. don't do it. this is equivalent to having a child or getting married in terms of significant life decisions. this will literally haunt your bloodline forever. you will never be living in a clean house ever again." fascinating to me

[fountainpenguin]

Oh gosh, "The Private and Intimate Life of the House" (also Great Comet) would make such a good Dale & Dev animatic... 😬

- "Yes, father; yes, father." - "And I have no friends, no, never go anywhere! Never invited..." - "I can hurt you... but I never, ever, ever, ever, would... No, Father- I love you, father!" - "And my fate slips past; is this all I'll make of my life? Will I never be happy?" - "Oh, that offends you, does it??" - "It's my money and I'll throw it where I want to! Not at you!" - Can't find glasses -> Panic and screaming - "And I dare to judge him... I disgust myself."

Hazel showing up for "A New Dev-elopment": I know they'll like me! Everyone has always liked me :)

Dale: I'm about to end this girl's whole career.

[wander-wren]

sad that people are talking about “alternatives to NaNo” (as in alternative challenges, not alternative websites/trackers/etc) when like…why?

if you are personally uncomfortable with taking part in NaNoWriMo, as in, the 50k words in a month challenge, that is FINE and very understandable. to each their own. but personally i don’t see why we (writers, as a broad community) should let NaNo the Company steal an entire challenge. it’s so bleak to me. maybe because i never spent much time on the site after my first year, pretty much just sporadically using the tracker or looking something up in the forums, but NaNo to me was never the company or the website or any of that. it was about my work and my friends and the dopamine rush of doing something kind of insane every year.

i refuse to let NaNoWriMo Dot Org being a shitty, shitty organization take that away from me. i am not going to be pushed into abandoning something that legitimately changed my life, maybe even saved it, just because some corporate entity decided to lay claim to it and run it into the ground. NaNo is mine. it’s ours. that monstrosity of a company does not get to take it to its grave

[kai-atlantis]

So...

Apparently I have a fucking bird now

[carpet-snark]

here is one of the many reasons i've been absent recently

everyone say hello to Melody she's my friend now

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

Anyway rewatching the angels of death anime and I just noticed both of Danny's eyes dilate even though he has one glass eye

[cosmicdenro]

hayyy i need to draw cooperright kisses again .. the guys gotta kiss. they gotta show the rare pda at work. they gotta make the other think about it for the rest of the day.

[iinaminottennight]

beginning to understand what iketani meant with working on your own car makes you fonder of it bc i just replaced my brake discs and brake pads all on my own and the sense of pride and love for my car is unlike anything ive ever felt man

[greencheekconure27]

When I buy Izzie an expensive new toy with the expectation it will last him a few months or even years: completely and utterly destroyed after 3 days (not the intended use)

When I string a bunch of toilet paper rolls together SPECIFICALLY so he could destroy those and move on in a day or two: perfectly undamaged and spotless after a week.He's literally cuddling with it. New best friend.I'm not allowed to touch.

[tiktokparrot]

How to Change an African Grey’s One-Person Bond | Build Trust with Your Parrot

Is your African Grey parrot too attached to one person? Learn how to foster a broader bond and create a more balanced relationship with your feathered friend.

[alwida10]

10) children who are afraid of dogs will freeze in fear or preventively attack. If I once more have to hear „MY dog is great with children, he/she doesn’t bite!“ followed by a „holy shit, that’s the first time that happened!!“ I’ll go feral. Well, actually it led to me countering every „my dog is nice!“ with a „well I am not. Leash him or bear the consequences.“

Everyone else talked about outdoor cats, it's time for me to talk about offleash dogs

[classicintp]

Goddammit I miss that cat.

[somelazyassartist]

There's few feelings better in this world than playing outside in the rain and and then coming in to immediately wrap yourself up in a pre-heated blanket <3 maybe I will make myself some tea too and maybe take a warm bath with one of my homemade bath bombs I've been having a lot of fun learning how to make bc honestly it feels like the perfect day to use them <3

[lockea]

I've been seeing a lot of Discourse around outdoor cats that talks past one of the biggest problems addressing community cats/outdoor working cats so I thought I'd chime in with my two cents.

Many arguments I see just... don't think about the cats at all? Or don't consider the logistics of actually addressing the feral cat problem in a humane way. It's always about how outdoor cats shouldn't be outdoors, which is neither realistic nor helpful.

I used to volunteer at an municipal animal shelter in the USA that had a TNR program (Trap, Neuter, Return) and also adopted out community cats to local farms and businesses. Here's my side of the story.

"Your cat doesn't need to be outside" -- Yes, correct. Your domesticated (non-feral) house cat does not need to go outside at all. They can have a fully actualized life safely indoors. When I see this argument, proponents of indoor only cats are correct in most or all their arguments regarding this.

"Outdoor cats are the largest invasive species in the world, and decimate bird populations." -- This is also correct, and part of the reason why you can help by bringing your house cat indoors. Cats are the largest invasive species. Spay and Neuter your cats, bring them inside, and socialize them so they don't become feral.

"TNR doesn't work." -- False. Whether we like it or not, feral cats exist. We have two methods by which we can address the feral cat population -- decimating them (humanely euthanizing the whole colony) or TNR. For a long time, euthanasia was the preferred way to address the feral cat problem. Afterall, if the cats aren't there, doesn't that save the local wildlife population?

Except that we found, studying these colonies, that when a colony is wiped out, the cats of another colony will spread into their territory and continue to have kittens and the population of feral cats is neither controlled nor diminished.

Hence, TNR. What we found performing TNR on cat colonies was that this controlled the population of the colonies, allowing them to stay in their territory, which kept other colonies from spreading (especially colonies we hadn't performed TNR on yet). We at the shelter felt this was the most humane way to control the feral cat population and safely deflate their existence without dealing with the population blooms that euthanasia caused.

"What about kittens?" -- Kittens from these colonies were brought into the shelter, socialized, and fostered out until they could be adopted. Some of these semi-feral kittens needed special homes to be adopted into, but this was the best quality of life for these cats.

"What about cats that get missed during TNR?" -- We would return to the colony several times over a period of several years to perform TNR on the same colony. We mark cats that have been neutered by clipping their ear (this is done humanely, but is the most reliable way to tell if a cat has been neutered so the poor thing doesn't have to have surgery 3-4 times in their life). Also, during the TNR process the cats would be vaccinated to ensure disease did not spread from the colony (i.e. rabies). Still, even getting 60% of the colony TNR'd would dramatically reduce the number of kittens being added to the colony each year. This controlled the population by allowing the territory to naturally deflate in size over time, buying us time to address the larger feral cat problem.

"What if the colony was in an unsafe location?" -- There were two ways we addressed unsafe colony locations -- remember, we know that when the colony is removed, a new colony will move into its place, so we tried not to move the colony unless we really felt the cats or the public was unsafe -- one was to move the whole colony to a new location. Preferably someplace like a warehouse where we have an agreement with the owners of the warehouse. Some of the cats were even relocated to shelter grounds as our community cats. If the colony was small enough we would bring them into our Feral Cats room and adopt them out as community cats.

"What is a community cat?" -- The way the program worked, was that anyone who needed a working cat could apply to the program. These were often rural farmers or businesses with warehouses that needed rodent protection. We trained the farmers and businesses on how to acclimatize the cats to their new home, and as part of the agreement, they had to care for the cats (veterinary care, vaccinations, food and water). This gave businesses and farms an alternative to expensive and environmentally unfriendly rodent control, and also gave these feral cats good places to live out their natural lives.

"Can't you just adopt out feral cats?" -- No. Cats that have not been socialized around humans as kittens, or who have several generations of feral cat in them could not interact with humans in a way that did not cause them undue stress. This was not a humane way to handle feral cats. However, when a cat was brought into the feral cat room, they would be monitored for up to a week. If the cat displayed signs of being semi-social or fully social (hanging out outside of their den, allowing staff to pet them, showing interest in staff in the room), then we would either move the cat into the adoption room or place them in foster to be socialized before adoption. Feral cats who displayed signs of being able to live full and healthy lives with human companions were NOT adopted out as community cats. We also observed this behavior during TNRs and would do the same for those cats too.

"But aren't cats bad hunters?" -- Compared to other species, cats are not the most effective form of rodent control. This is true. However, you have to understand that feral cats exist. There is no "undo" button we can push to stop them from existing. We have to deal with the problem we have right now, which is to safely and humanely decrease the number of feral cats in our communities. And yes, we do that by using cats as rodent control in the community.

"What can I do?" -- Stop saying community cats shouldn't exist. That's not helpful and doesn't solve the problem we have. Bring your cat indoors. Spay and neuter your cats. Adopt from shelters. Volunteer with a TNR team. Support TNR efforts in your community. Recognize that those of us actively dealing with the community/feral problem are trying to do what is in the best interest of our communities and the animals we love. We aren't sitting over here saying these cats should exist -- a feral cat will not have the same quality of life as one that is indoors with a family -- but we have to address the problem in practical terms. We don't have the moral high ground to just do nothing while pontificating solutions that have no basis in actuality.

And yes, it's okay to celebrate community cats. If your local farm has a couple of working cats, that means that farm is helping participate in the safe deflation of the feral cat population. Don't shame a farm or business for using community cats. We're all doing the best we can to solve the problem that we have.