miso and minecraft

When people say "dont pet a pet bird on its back!" They usually assume they are talking to someone about psittacines or they have heard that been said so often they assume it applies to every bird regardless of how closely related the species are. Parrots and other popular exotic pet birds (since unfortunately parrots are the most common house pet bird, one of my goals is to help change that with my blog) are tamed wild animals that havent lived with and been raised systematically by humans for 8,000-10,000 years like chickens have. When you pet a parrot on its back you can trigger intense hormonal behavior and stress especially since most parrots are territorial and monogamous animals that have only one partner, sometimes for life. A parrot seeing the person they perceive as their mate touching other people or birds can really upset them and lead to unwanted aggressive behavior and plucking. For parrots touching on the back, wings and chest is usually mating behavior while platonic flockmates will usually only preen each others heads. So when you pet a parrot on its back your giving them like a lot of mixed signals and its kind of rude as well. By touching them especially a hen your saying "Its mating time! time to lay eggs and protect our nest from threats!" which can lead to broodiness (which can leads to body condition loss) or chronic egg laying where the hen, since the normal behaviors she should be doing with a mate dont happen, starts constantly laying eggs. She will usually lay more then a typical clutch for her species which is very detrimental to her health. There is also some other issues with exotic parrot breeding that encourages this but ill get into it another time. These are the reasons you should not pet a parrot like a dog or cat. Now chickens, they have a lot of reasons for why petting them doesn't really cause any issues. The only issue I can really think of is our hand oils can make their feathers a bit greasy if you pet them a lot but this can be fixed with a bath.

Firstly, we have had them domesticated for at least 8,000 years. They are very well adapted to human care and touch, way back in time if there were birds who got sick or aggressive due to handling they were likely just straight up eaten. Our ancestors likely favored brave, confident, comfortable birds since chickens were originally religious idols and the birds who initiated first contact likely already had those traits. Secondly, chickens have completely different social structures then most psittacines from what i have read. A chicken may rub up against a flockmate while foraging, they preen any debris they see on their friends regardless of placement, when they sun bathe they sprawl out and even lean against each other and cuddle in the sunshine. Chickens take dust bathes with their flockmates where lots of rubbing and sprawling can happen while they writhe in the dirt. Chickens also are very social and competitive nesters, hens like to use nesting spaces that have already been deemed safe by other hens and they are not afraid to cram into a small area together. Chickens naturally have a lot of physicality in their social structures which can easily translate to their humans as well. My chickens want to lay eggs on my bed because I have proven its a good cozy nest, my birds want to be petted because I'm their flockmate and it feels nice. A lot of chickens have also been raised by humans closely since chickhood so the touching of the back is likely similar to their mother settling over them, they associate it with warmth and comfort. Thirdly, chickens are not monogamous and have a harem type of situation going on. Usually with chicken breeding groups you have one dominant male and his harem of females. On the outskirts of the flock are the subordinate males usually under a year old or older birds that aren't as spry anymore. While the dominant rooster tries to keep a tight ship about breeding rights the hens will mate with whoever they please when they are out of eyesight. So really this means chickens don't get jealous and aggressive over people in the way a single bonded parrot can because its not really built into their social structure like that. Not saying they cant get jealous over other things! Lastly, about petting chickens on the back specifically when they squat. Its a bit awkward but are you performing a mating behavior towards your bird? Yes, but is it harmful? No it isn't. Unlike with parrots you're not going to trigger chronic egg laying or unwanted behaviors from the chicken by doing it, in fact one could argue that it kind of helps with bonding because it means your hens see you as a good rooster or that your the boss. Of course this makes some people uncomfortable but to me I just see it as another social behavior for the chickens, its not like chicken owners are getting gratification from it besides thinking the rousing is funny. Someone might pearl clutch about it but its harmless to the hen and the person, she just shakes her feathers and struts off. Again to reiterate, you aren't going to trigger reproductive issues by petting your hen also because we have bred them to produce eggs year round, she is going to lay eggs regardless if you pet her or not! Here is one of my favorite videos of me petting Beeper. She sinks to the ground in coziness while she get petted while sunbathing. Beeper actually doesn't lay eggs at all anymore despite not being super old and I pet her every single day.

project hail mary is a movie about circles.

Ishizuchi Salamander (Hynobius hirosei), family Hynobiidae, found in steep, high elevation streams on Shikoku Island, Japan

some more PHM book scenes :] I'm so so incredibly fond of the interactions and characterizations in the novel [i feel like a broken record] and am slowly re-reading it again-- slowly bc I stop to redraw these as I get through it again.

This sick bleach shirt I made. Something to showcase my undying love for prehistoric cave art.