#tansyblue

[fruitless-vain]

I used to have the same sort of things go black/everything gets muffled thing on a regular basis, and showers were the wooorst. One time I got halfway out of the shower and fainted on my mum as she walked into the bathroom to check on me. Naked.

Good luck with your uncooperative body. Mine went away by itself as I got older, thank God.

Yikes that doesn’t sound fun, that’s mainly why I really want this sorted out, I stay upstairs and walk right by a very steep staircase regularly so passing out and falling down those is not something I want to happen (or pass out and end up hurting one of the birds).  Things have been getting less frequent so hopefully as someone mentioned it’s just a matter of little residual issues or things settling back in.  I’m glad this issue went away for you!

[askbirdbloggers]

Hey, is there a good Tumblr out there where I can learn about budgie specific care? Their sociability suggest that their care would be a bit different to other parrots. I went through the links but couldn't find anything. (PS some of the links are dead or the blog has changed focus.)

the dead links are probably mine, if the url says ‘thepacificparrotlet’ change that portion to ‘flock-talk’ and they’ll work (I’ll get around to fixing them eventually! thanks for reminding me!)

The following are budgie blogs that take excellent care of their babs (I’m not certain if they all answer care questions but regardless they are good examples! I hope none of them mind me popping their names here, if they do please let me know and I’ll take them off) 

budgiebabies.tumblr.com (budgies)

budgiechops.tumblr.com (budgies)

butternuttle.tumblr.com (parrotlets, cockatiels, budgies)

horatioandalice.tumblr.com (green cheek conures, cockatiels, budgies)

mellow-psittacus.tumblr.com (budgies, zebra finches)

nearfarbudgerigar.tumblr.com (budgies)

peanut-the-cockatiel.tumblr.com (cockatiels, budgies, rice finches)

pepperandpals.tumblr.com (cockatiels, budgies, sun conures [She isn’t taking care questions but still an a+ bird owner!])

Most of the care is the same, the main difference is just that more attention needs to be paid to their social needs, more out of cage time and interacting with people whenever possible!

- Courtney (flock-talk)

[flock-talk]

Who is Roxy? I don't think I've seen her around before. Did you get a new birb friend?

Roxy belongs to other people, not my bab.  She’s always lived here I just don’t let my birds interact with them due to aggression and hormonal problems those birds have (Roxy, Boo, and Gabby). I keep them separated as much as I can to prevent my birds from getting injured or developing other problems so I don’t photograph them much.

[flock-talk]

I was thinking of bathing! I wouldn't want to go in a bowl of something that smelt funny. Dechlorinators for fish tanks are liquids; products like API Tap Water Conditioner remove chlorine of course, but also chloramines and heavy metals.

I really don’t know enough about that product to really say.  Just the fact that it is something that gets added to the water makes me want to say it may not be a good idea, bathing in another fluid could not be the way we perceive it to be, due to their ability to see the UV spectrum things like oils can look vastly different, making something clear look bright yellow for example, so adding something in to the water could end up looking coloured to them, sticking to their feathers and causing them to want to pluck them out.  I also don’t know how this product reacts with the natural oils on their feathers, it may strip the oils causing the birds to become distressed or want to pluck them out. Also when the feathers get coated and the bird preens and ingests it I just don’t know how that may or may not affect them.

I really don’t know how that product functions and really don’t think it’d be worth the risk.  Assuming you’ve got average tap water they’ll very likely be just fine bathing in that, no need to risk it.  Someone else may know a lot more about how these things work who could help you out, coming from my state of ignorance I would say it’s best not to worry about a teeny dose of chlorine rather than using this. As I said, super ignorant on this, haven’t a clue.

[flock-talk]

Can birds sense chlorine in water? I don't know much about birds (following to learn!) so this may be crazy, but I would consider using a dechlorinator sold for fish tanks to make birds happier with water. Apologies if this is mental...

In high concentrations chlorine is quite bad if they breathe in the fumes, bathe, or drink it (i.e a swimming pool).  If you’re referring to dechlorinating their drinking water I suppose it would depend on your location and the concentrations in the water, generally most will use a typical water filter just to remove the chemicals and trace metals that can end up in drinking water, I’ve not heard of many people needing to dechlorinate it though. I don’t know if it’s necessary or if it would hurt at all (assuming the filter isn’t lead, zinc, etc.), I can’t really say.

[struggleagainstreality]

I feel like it's possible to have an honest discussion about abuse framed in "I have seen this advice given and I disagree because x" terms rather than "this group gives this advice that I disagree with and they are terrible people".

Hey, sorry I took so shittily long to respond! Argh, get there in the end. (On a positive note, I have been distracted by starting my new job, and it’s going really well).

I think there’s a lot of demonisation that goes on. Honestly, most people are doing what they think is right, so demonising them as terrible people doesn’t really help anybody.

If you don’t mind me taking this to a much wider scale… There’s a tendency to label entire groups as ‘bad’, and all individuals within them as ‘bad’. This is the downside of labels… One side just recoils at the label of the other, and good luck getting a reasonable discussion going. Even worse is when people are labelled things they don’t self-identify as and don’t fit the definition of, just to dismiss them as terrible people. Seen that one most often with some anti-SJWs labelling anyone who disagrees a SJW.

In all cases, I think honest discussion is the only path to get anywhere.

[struggleagainstreality]

Do people really identify as "sjw" or "anti-sjw"? These are terms which have basically no meaning outside of Tumblr. Fights between internet sub-subcultures are so ridiculous. It's like a slightly more political Harry Styles fans vs Taylor Swift fans

Few people identify as sjw, as “sjw” is a term meant with derision. Many identify as anti-sjw. 

I think originally these were very useful - sjw was a way to quickly label someone as claiming that they were for sj, but not really being. I like the comparison - a social justice activist campaigns for a wheelchair ramp to be added, whereas a social justice warrior campaigns for the stairs to be removed as they might offend those who can’t use stairs.

Anti-sjws were just a reactionary group saying, “wait, hold up. That’s ridiculous. You can’t call someone racist for learning Spanish, and you can’t rape someone without touching them, etc.”. it was just a label to say that you weren’t putting up with the bullshit, and you weren’t going to be swayed by being told what an Oppressor you were for not agreeing with hilarious craziness.

Now though, it’s rapidly moving towards your analogy of Harry Styles fans vs Taylor Swift fans. Anti-sjws are now a big enough group that it’s no longer reactionary - they are able to stand on their own two feet with a bit of might. This means that they are able to make their own claims, and defend them with the same aggression as sjws are. One of these claims includes blocking disagreement by calling anyone and everyone who disagrees a sjw, whether the label is accurate or not.

So you’ve got two echo chambers - sjws and anti-sjws. They sing to their choirs and bark at each other, but neither actually discuss the issues with any meaningful interaction or desire to understand, and neither actually care for the people involved. 

For both groups, ideology > people affected.

tl;dr - when it started out, I wouldn’t have agreed with your Ask. But the current state of affairs, I absolutely agree with how you describe it!

[struggleagainstreality]

I don't mind M/s terminology existing, but I do think that if you're doing flags and pride etc you should make it as inclusive as possible, and saying Dom/sub rather than Master/slave is more inclusive without losing the essence of the thing.

Fair opinion, I have no idea on these. By the way, I like that you said ‘squick’ before. I’ve seen people explaining how that word is useful, but not so much people actually using it.