pet parrot content is getting more popular on platforms like tiktok, and i just want to put it out there that parrots are NOT like dogs or cats. i've already seen more than one video of someone falling in love with a parrot at something like a petsmart (sidebar: like for most animals, please find a responsible, ethical breeder) (this will also hopefully let you know that you are indeed buying a bred parrot and not a wild-caught) and buying one on impulse, and MY GOD does that make me nervous. people who are capable of giving parrots a good life are a vast, VAST minority of people.
my grandfather bred parrots so i grew up with them from a young age, and while i love them and respect them and am glad for the time i got to spend growing up around them, there's a reason *i* do not own a parrot. he always had a clause in the purchase agreement that meant parrots would be surrendered back to him and not abandoned/given to a shelter/rescue, and he had MANY birds given back. many. even with talking it through with people and letting them meet his other birds and experience their volume and how much care they need, there were still people who would buy a parrot and in a few months nearly beg to give it back bc they were in over their heads.
parrots are beautiful, intelligent animals, but they require SO much care and work and socializing. they are flock-based animals, and you will have to be their flock. they will need HOURS of your attention and care every single day. (and i mean HOURS). and if they don't get it, they can and will start engaging in behavior including mutilating themselves and plucking their feathers out. also they are super sensitive to their surroundings. new person in the house they don't like? plucking themselves with stress. too many visitors for their comfort? plucking themselves with stress. you went on a vacation and they aren't dealing with it well? plucking themselves with stress. new puppy in the house? plucking themselves with stress. get a divorce/move houses/new baby in the home? plucking themselves with stress. obviously not every bird will be sensitive to the same degree, but in general, parrots deal with stress/changes in environment WAY worse than other pets.
depending on the breed, you will have a creature with the intelligence of a toddler (some are even as smart as your average 5 year old), and you will be living with this toddler for literal decades. conures live 20-30 years, african grays live 40-60 years, and cockatoos can live 60-80 years. this toddler creature will ALSO have evolved to have a cry that can carry through jungles, and that volume is not gonna decrease bc you live in an apartment and your neighbors aren't gonna want to hear it. you ever heard a sun conure? get within a mile of one and you will.
tl;dr: parrots are beautiful and i love them, but there is no way in hell i would ever own one bc there are SO few people who should.
could you tell us more about the gift? :D
Oh, sure! I can stick some of my Gift drawing backlog in here while I'm at it~
The Gift is an unruly creature whose presence begets chewed wires and headaches wherever it goes. It's spunky and mischievous with a penchant for violence, and it revels in its job: to kill as much rot as it can without getting eaten by it first.
It exists only in an alternate universe where Pebbles is stopped before Moon collapses. Moon is damaged but alive - and after many long talks, Pebbles begrudgingly allows the other iterators to assist him with his rot.
The Gift's campaign uses the points system with an emphasis on rot kills. The gross cyan mixture on its spears is - via interacting with their stomach, in true slugcat fashion - weird altered barf. On contact with targets, "immunospears" explode like a spore puff and damage everything Five Pebbles related within their radius. This means you can kill even Mother Long Legs with good aim and enough food pips. Unfortunately, this does also kill neurons and inspectors, so the Gift has to be a little bit careful on its path of carnage.
Notably, Gift's goal isn't to eradicate the rot, just to help control it. If there's a way to cure the rot, this one silly creature can't do it for a whole superstructure.
It's been specially made (with love and care) by the other iterators so that Pebbles' inspectors don't target it. This is also why Pebbles won't murder it unless it shows direct violence towards him. His local group worked hard on this wretched being and they'll be very upset with him if he kills it. Plus it is actually good at its intended purpose. He just has to count the days until it keels over on its own.
Gift probably has some scavenger in there somewhere too, and maybe a bit of lizard. They're strong, but outside of fighting, I wouldn't say they're the smartest slugcat...
I've also played with the possibility of Arti and Spearmaster existing in this timeline. It ends as well as you'd expect. (I thought it would be funny if you could team up with Spearmaster and piggyback them around as your living spear generator though.)
There's some other stuff to the idea, such as a repeatable campaign where your strength and food requirement goes up every time you replay it, and a random pool of pearls you spawn with addressed to either Moon or Pebbles. I might go ahead and post that old campaign writeup still, so there'll be more in that!
Some of you may have heard about Monarch butterflies being added to the Threatened species list in the US and be planning to immediately rush out in spring and buy all the milkweed you can manage to do your part and help the species.
And that's fantastic!! Starting a pollinator garden and/or encouraging people and businesses around you to do the same is an excellent way to help not just Monarchs but many other threatened and at-risk pollinator species!
However.
Please please PLEASE do not obtain Tropical Milkweed for this purpose!
Tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica)--also commonly known as bloodflower, Mexican butterflyweed, and scarlet milkweed--will likely be the first species of milkweed you find for sale at most nurseries. It'll be fairly cheap, too, and it grows and propagates so easily you'll just want to grab it! But do not do that!
Tropical milkweed can cause a host of issues that can ultimately harm the butterflies you're trying to help, such as--
Harboring a protozoan parasite called OE (which has been linked to lower migration success, reductions in body mass, lifespan, mating success, and flight ability) for long periods of time
Remaining alive for longer periods, encouraging breeding during migration time/overwintering time as well as keeping monarchs in an area until a hard freeze wherein which they die
Actually becoming toxic to monarch caterpillars when exposed to warmer temperatures associated with climate change
However--do not be discouraged!! There are over 100 species of milkweed native to the United States, and plenty of resources on which are native to your state specifically! From there, you can find the nurseries dedicated to selling native milkweeds, or buy/trade for/collect seeds to grow them yourself!!
The world of native milkweeds is vast and enchanting, and I'm sure you'll soon find a favorite species native to your area that suits your growing space! There's tons of amazing options--whether you choose the beautiful pink vanilla-smelling swamp milkweed, the sophisticated redring milkweed, the elusive purple milkweed, the alluring green antelopehorn milkweed, or the charming heartleaf milkweed, or even something I didn't list!
And there's tons of resources and lots of people willing to help you on your native milkweed journey! Like me! Feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any questions!
Just. PLEASE. Leave the tropical milkweed alone. Stay away.
TLDR: Start a pollinator garden to help the monarchs! Just don't plant tropical milkweed. There's hundreds of other milkweeds to grow instead!
cannot even begin to imagine the Blade Runner cyberpunk shit this ladybug i found on my RGB keyboard was going through
I keep talking about how gay I am but I don't have any statistics to back it up, I'm just hoping that if I keep talking about how gay I am eventually something will happen, I've been manifesting falling in love for the past 5 years
THANK YOU BESTIE LOVE YOUU
commission for @visinox!!
thanks for supporting me bestie <3333
See the link above for more details!
Sketch commissions have 10 slots to be filled, flat drawing has 6 and clean shaded has 3 left
some art examples:
I will draw: -Rain World OCS and canon characters -Hollow Knight OCS and canon characters -Undertale/Deltarune OCS and canon characters -mecha (limited complexity) -anthro -humans / humanoid -animals -blood (mild gore) -ship art
I will NOT draw: -extreme gore -NSFW -real people -fetish art -proship art -complex props
even if you can't or don't want to commission me, I'd very much appreciate if you could share this. it would help a ton <3
"the world isn't kind" ok??? Much more importantly are you?????
Can I get a uhhhhh BOOK CLUB (+Razzle)
Dog hollow knight.... no voice to cry.. awroo...
|| Visinox/Vis/Nox || He/Him || 20 || Commissions are closed! || Currently posting Dandy's World
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