A thread for the pets - The Bear and Badger

g.man

HawBawJaws wrote:

He/she was one of the easiest ones to work with. There was olive, a hybrid macaw that had been captive bred in a Swedish zoo, so technically a buffwing (cross between a buffons and a greenwing macaw) absolutely beautiful and scary intelligent, could do every trick. Also hyper aggressive towards all the other birds, with the exception of rolf, a big greenwing. (she had also been trained by a left handed trainer, so if you tried to pick her up from the right, she'd take your fingers off. She also escaped her cage one night, went along the row of cages, then attacked a wee patagonian conure called Sonia that had stuck her head through the bars. We found her in the morning with most of her beak missing, thankfully the vet was able to superglue it back on. Honestly.) So, we had to keep rolf between olive and the others, long as olive had a direct line of sight to him, she was cool. Rolf had depression, he plucked his feathers. He had pair bonded with a sweet wee blue and gold macaw called minnie. So as long as he was next to her, he was cool. Then there was scruffy, another blue and gold, he was our talking bird in the show, and a mischievous wee bugger. He fancied minnie, so as long as he was on the other side of her, he was happy, minnie wasn't fussed by him, she was happy as long as she was next to rolf. Finally there was Claude, another wee blue and gold, with a squinty lower mandible on his beak. He painted, among other things. We reckon he fancied scruffy, so we'd sit him the other side, he was happy. I think scruff just wanted to be friends with him though! And that was just the macaws. Had 2 African greys, 2 patagonian conures, 2 quaker parakeets (the only parrot that actually builds a nest, rather than using an existing hollow of some sort), 2 rainbow lorikeets, and finally my favourite - bindi, a beautiful wee citron crested cockatoo. She was an absolute pet, would sit on my shoulder all day long, preening my sideburns. Used to wander round the zoo with her in between shows, she'd wave at folk and say hello. Fun times.

That's fascinating stuff.

Tempy

If twitter has taught me anything it’s that birds are pretty clever or at least really good at seeming clever. Japanese and Korean folk love them.

davyK

Birds are among my favourite things. They are mini dinosaurs. They can fly. What's not to like?

Daughter#2 got me a coffee table book about owls for Father's Day.

HawBawJaws

Tempy wrote:

If twitter has taught me anything it’s that birds are pretty clever or at least really good at seeming clever. Japanese and Korean folk love them.

Well, the macaws are bloody smart, roughly the same as a human toddler. The African greys are clever as well, but their talent is more mimicry than performing tricks. Same with mynah birds, had one of them for a while as well. Bloody thing learned to copy the kettle, and when I say copy, it was exactly like it. I'd wake up in the caravan hearing the kettle click off at 6 in the morning and freak the fuck out till I remembered I had a crazy talking raven in a cage.

Brooks

Very much into all this bird content. You've done it again forum.

davyK

A parrot is literally for life. Live as long we do I believe?

HawBawJaws

I'll lift the veil on a popular trick, the 'counting' trick.

There's variations on this (it's done with sea lions, but them blowing bubbles underwater for a number that the audience counts), but ours involved rolf, and a wee machine that had a lever on one end and a bell on the other. Pull the lever, the bell rings. We'd ask the audience to pick a number between 1 and 5, we'd make a big show of telling rolf the number, he'd then ring the bell that many times. Then we'd mix it up, pick another number, but this time, rolf will add it to 5, then ring out the answer. Never failed to amaze.

Here's how it worked.

Out of sight of the audience, under the counter but visible to rolf, was my closed fist. Inside my fist there were peanuts, which is how we rewarded the birds for doing tricks. Rolf was basically trained to pull that lever until I opened my hand and he saw the peanuts. So, not 'counting', just pulling the lever until I told him to stop.

If you ever go to Blair Drummond safari Park and watch the sea lion show, similar trick - sealion sits on stage next to the trainer, audience pick numbers, sea lion sticks it's face in the water and blows bubbles while the audience count the number. The secret is the sea lion stands with one of its flippers on the trainers foot, the command to stop is the trainer lifting their foot ever so slightly.

afgavinstan

This is like when this guy was on the telly

HawBawJaws

davyK wrote:

A parrot is literally for life. Live as long we do I believe?

Depends on the species. In the wild the bigger macaws etc will reach 30 odd, due to disease, predation, habitat destruction etc. But in captivity they'll easily see 70 or 80, it's common that they get left to family members in wills. The vast majority of my birds were rescues - people inherited them and didn't want them, or simply couldn't handle the noise or destruction. Folk see a parrot show and decide to get one, thinking its a pretty ornament that'll occasionally say 'who's a pretty boy' then soon realise the parrot will destroy their furniture and eardrums.

davyK

High maintenance too I shouldn't wonder. At least in terms of attention and stimulation.

HawBawJaws

Very. But that was always my counter argument to the 'zoos are bad!!'. All my birds were on specialised diets, they were weighed twice a day, always being interacted with and stimulated, got to socialise with other birds etc, they had a great life.

Don't get me wrong, rolf probably just wanted to nest with minnie, but other than that they couldn't ask for more.

Some zoos are bad, and calderpark zoo wasn't a shining example by any stretch of the imagination (inbred lions, reindeers dying from asthma because some thought they were the same as any other horsey type animal and fed them hay), but technically I didn't work for the zoo. I worked for parrot and seal productions, the zoo paid them to supply animals and trainers. Company did a lot of film work as well, trained most of the animals for 10 Dalmatians.

davyK

There's plenty of instances of people wanting to nest with someone.

nick_md

I'd be open to payment in Dalmatians but I'd want more 10 I reckon.

HawBawJaws

Haha, good spot. 101!! And 102 Dalmatians now I think of it. We were training a goose in Glasgow that the gaffer had earmarked for it, think it died though.

nick_md

cockbeard

Tempy wrote:

If twitter has taught me anything it’s that birds are pretty clever or at least really good at seeming clever. Japanese and Korean folk love them.

Birds are pretty switched on little buggers. Crows creating and using tools to feed, communicating with each other, I'd stick them up there with dolphins and octopuses, way above dogs and pigs

davyK

Crows eat lambs' eyes though which makes them cunts.

HawBawJaws

cockbeard wrote:

Tempy wrote:

If twitter has taught me anything it’s that birds are pretty clever or at least really good at seeming clever. Japanese and Korean folk love them.

Birds are pretty switched on little buggers. Crows creating and using tools to feed, communicating with each other, I'd stick them up there with dolphins and octopuses, way above dogs and pigs

Crows are crazy smart. But on tool using, I'll never forget one day I was watching olive meticulously chew a branch down to a specific size, spent ages on it, then used it to scratch her arse. That's probably exactly how tool making evolved in primates.

cockbeard

hahaha, fair point, I'll put them on the cunt list with Icelanders and Mongolians

cockbeard

That's one of the reasons I'd rank them so high. It's one thing to use a tool, it's another to manufacture a tool, that a complete extra level of abstraction and forethought

davyK

especially when you have an itchy arse.

cockbeard

hahaha

HawBawJaws

cockbeard wrote:

That's one of the reasons I'd rank them so high. It's one thing to use a tool, it's another to manufacture a tool, that a complete extra level of abstraction and forethought

There was a great BBC Attenborough series a few years ago, did a bit about this gang of monkeys that had a massive flat stone in their territory. They'd place hard nuts on it, then use another stone to crack them open. Specific to this family of monkeys, and the signs of use on the flat stone suggested they'd been using it for generations. Remember seeing a young un trying to learn by copying an adult, picked the wrong stone and fucked it up, but afterwards, I swear it put its chin in one hand and drummed it's fingers on the rock, as if it was figuring it out.

HawBawJaws

Because I mentioned her so much, this is a buffwing macaw (with a blue and gold on the right)

Hybrid macaws only occur in captivity. In the wild they stick exclusively to their own breed, even though they an mate without any complications.

Also just remembered, the only other bird that Olive didn't actively try and kill was another hybrid we got towards the end of my time at the zoo, Jill. She was a harlequin macaw, cross between a greenwing and a blue and gold (what rolf and Minnie's offspring would have been). She was the flying bird, she hadn't been clipped. But the second olive saw her, she went daft, started mothering her, regurgitating food as if she was her chick. Jill was a daft big fluffy baby when we got her, but I think olive taught her to be a nippy wee bitch.

FranticPea

Because we had our last cats for about 15 years and so they became less active, I'd forgotten just how crazy young cats are. Lying in bed and all I can hear is Cooper tearing about the house like an absolute lunatic.

It's ace

Time_on_my_hands

Great stories about birds, there. We've been slowly attracting more into the front garden and it's paid off with the sight of young bluetits and sparrows flitting about.

Trouble is, the car-proud neighbours (who had the tree in the stret cut back to avoid blossom and leaves falling on their cars) keep dropping passive-aggressive comments re birds crapping.

Time_on_my_hands

We lost one of our cats. I think. He suddenly went very strange 2 weeks ago and would only come into the house late at night. We thought someone else was feeding him, so we delivered a load of leaflets asking neighbours not to.
Then he spent a day literally stuck under the bed but otherwise seemed healthy.
Then he suddenly left and for a couple of nights we heard him meowing in other gardens. Saw him on top of a fence but he wouldn't come to us. Haven't seen him since.

His brother is ill with a tumor at the moment that cannot be removed, so perhaps cats can get distressed if another cat in the house is seriously ill.

Now wondering if by Christmas we'll have no pets for the first time in over 11 years

Moot_Geeza

Sounds rough, hopefully he pulls through/shakes it off and turns up again shortly.

davyK

Time_on_my_hands wrote:

Great stories about birds, there. We've been slowly attracting more into the front garden and it's paid off with the sight of young bluetits and sparrows flitting about. Trouble is, the car-proud neighbours (who had the tree in the stret cut back to avoid blossom and leaves falling on their cars) keep dropping passive-aggressive comments re birds crapping.

eff them.

Love seeing birds in our back garden. There's a pair of magpies who spoil the party a bit since they are very territorial.

nick_md

I've enjoyed seeing the wildlife in my garden during lockdown, I have:

A fox who sleeps on the roof of my shed in the early morning, then disappears for the day, then comes back in the early evening for another nap.

Two magpies who pop along once a day or so to drink water from my gutter.

A cat who likes to sit on my shed roof when the fox isn't there.

Ninja squirrel who eats some sort of blooms from the bushes.

Couple of pigeons who eat the same.

Also get a few random encounters like fat ginger cat who sat on the steps, and a snail who spent two weeks in the same spot on my window, so long I thought it'd chosen that spot to die, but then it rained heavy and he moved off.

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