Learn English with English, baby!

Join for FREE!

Social_nav_masthead_logged_in

Member Photos

Dorothee

Dorothee
Germany

To post a comment, please login >

| 11:16 AM May 26 2017

Dorothee

Germany

“Tierschutz Euskirchen” says that: This week in Zweibrücken in Rhineland Palatinate (Germany)the police confiscated two big parrots from a pet-owner who wanted something fancy as a pet and didn’t realize until it was too late that caring for two exotic animals was just too much for him. He couldn’t treat them species-appropriate as they required just too much.
The animal-sheelter these two were brought to announced they would make sure that from now on these two birds would receive responsible and experienced owners only.

| 08:40 AM Feb 04 2017

Dorothee

Germany

This month’s sample of the monthly magazine “GEO” also was about a man from Cannes (France) who got famous by teaching his male pet macaw – like these two – to do skiing on ski gear he made himself as he wanted to keep his pet physically and mentally active. He says that the learning progress his pet parrot made could be compared to the one of a pre-school child learning to use ski gear. When confronted with the question whether or not he was worried that the bird someday could take off during its outdoor-training, he denied this. He says that he trusts his bird and thinks that no well-trained an well-treated parrot would simply fly off. Besides he says that as these parrots can live up to fifty years, he imagines it must be cruel for the bird to have its wings clipped for half a century. For him there are better methods to keep a bird from for example flying against windows or obstacles other than that – like having them fly in an aviary only or in a room where there are no things that could injure a bird or like covering windows and things like showcases with curtains.

| 12:08 AM Feb 01 2016

Dorothee

Germany

The latest episode of the German informative TV-show “TopZehn” was about ten “immortal” beings. The naked mole is native to the two least developed countries Somalia and Ethiopia and to the East of Kenya. They are known to live up to 32 years which is almost five as much as other average rodents. They are immune to cancer, can easily survive a drought and unlike most other non-marine animals can even hold their breath for a very long time if there isn’t enough O2 in the air. Scientists hope that by examining this animal’s resistance against cancer, they will find a way to fight this lethal disease more effectively.
Turtles have lungs instead of gills and yet they spend a long period of time underwater. They can lower their heart rate and thus save a lot of oxygen underwater. Scientists examine this phenomenon as they think this will be the key to finding a way to avoid heart problems.
“Immortal jellyfish” are a specimen of jellyfish that are native to the Caribbean Sea – hence why I post this here – and they have the magnificent ability to grow back to the state of a newborn jellyfish whenever they reach their final state. Of course this is also the reason why scientists show so much interest in this creature. They think that by examining this “immortal” jellyfish they can find a way to increase the human lifespan.

| 02:25 PM Oct 07 2015

Dorothee

Germany

Speaking of parrots: The “Kölle Zoo” in Stuttgart is a pet shop that is well known for its animal-friendly policy. For example they give away for free many fliers about how to take care of this or that animal. Recently they criticized the fact that many parrot-owners – that is to say if they get their pet a companion at all – just buy two random animals of the same species and then hope they’ll just get along instead of watching them first how they interact in their common cage in the pet-shop. Also if one parrot dies and the other is left alone, they simply go to the closest store to get their pet any random parrot to replace his or her former companion. In one of their leaflets “Kölle Zoo” compares this to forced marriage. A lot of fighting, loud noise, a messed up cage and even injured birds are to be expected. If you want a couple like this to have chicks, you can even expect one of the parents to neglect its offspring. Thus “Kölle Zoo” now offers the possibility of bringing along your parrot to decide which of the parrots from this shop it wants you to buy. They simply take out one of their parrots and then lock it into a cage with your parrot. If they start fighting, the parrot is removed from this cage and another one is put in. They go on until they find “the right one” or until you tried out all of their birdies.
Another thing “Kölle Zoo” criticizes in their leaflet is that some people just have the wrong idea of owning a pet-parrot. They buy one, thinking that an animal as smart as a parrot will understand immediately that its new owner is not up to something bad. and a few days after buying it, the bird will already know first tricks. Fact is that unlike you want to frighten or disturb the animal, you should give it at least a couple of days before you can even start to hand-feed him or her. If they feel threatened, they will bite and the bite of most parrots can cause serious injuries to a human being. By the way this strong bite is also the reason why you shouldn’t let them anywhere near something plastic as they could bite small peaces off, swallow them and then die of soffocation or poisoning.
Most parrots show abnormal behavior if you don’t challenge them enough – for example by giving them not enough toys in their cage or by depriving them of your attention -, if you clip their wings, even if you just put them into a round cage, if you put a mirror into their cage, if the cage contains sandpaper, if the cage’s bars are white or synthetic or contain zinc and of course they also show abnormal – including self-harming – behavior if you keep them solitarily.
Some parrots may tend to get overweight easily, so you may want to be careful with the amount of food you give them per day.
Some vegan people may have a problem with the fact that from time to time a parrot requires a fresh egg and if you are lazy you may find it unnerving that most birds get their water bow and food bowl dirty every day although parrots require a daily fresh bowl of water and a food bowl that is cleaned every day. Another reason why parrots don’t make good pets for lazy people is that due to hygienic reasons their cage should be cleaned once a week – unlike you are at great risk of getting health issues – and some parrots even need their beak and claws cut every once in a while by their owner.
Many people think that if a parrot feels ill, it will immediately show symptoms, but alas symptoms that are visible to a human being don’t come until very late. If you have very small children, they may find it disturbing that from one day to the other their seemingly healthy family-pet turns out to be gravely ill.

| 05:10 AM Apr 30 2011

Dorothee

Germany

Yes, they are called scarlet macaws and they live in rainforests only.
I chose this picture, because it’s so cute and funny how they sit together and seem to observe the very same thing.

Member Photos

Learn English and Meet Friends with Ebaby! member photos. Sharing your photos is a great way to practice English.

View all member photos >