Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Kris5902]

Did you cook the broccoli? Mine rejected leeks today even when I steamed them first.

Mine seem to all dislike onions and garlic, as well as carrots, cooked or raw, unless fully incorporated in something else... like a pot pie or omelette

 

[Ribh]

For as long as I have been having cats.. and always at least three at a time.. males and females together.. I have never noticed any of the behavior you and ribh mention.. all of mine seem equal and love each other dearly.. the only thing I am just noticing recently is the two males.. Bobby and Pippin.. they have always played together nicely.. now since the new female kitten is here they seem to attempt to fight.. circling around each other, ears back.. even though we have an older female.. but I put a stop to it immediately! I don’t know what I’d do if my cats fought...

You haven't lived till you've experience a truly alpha male cat.Neither of my present cats are alphas ~ thank heaven!!!!!! They rarely fight but Kirby isn't allowed on my bed. That is Marlow's territory. He doesn't like sharing me either but he has no choice.

Their carers were wonderful but they had a lot of rescue cats ~ which may or may not have contributed to my boys behavioural issues & they had to compete for resources. I only even notice certain things because I have a lot of friends in cat rescue who talk a lot about animal behaviours so perhaps I've been conditioned to see certain things...?

 

[Kris5902]

You haven't lived till you've experience a truly alpha male cat.

Their carers were wonderful...

I only even notice certain things because I have a lot of friends in cat rescue who talk a lot about animal behaviours so perhaps I've been conditioned to see certain things...?

True! Very true...

I keep reading ‘carers’ as “careers” and picturing them in khaki shorts and wide brimmed hats hunting mice for a living!

We see what we can recognize, clearly you have enough experience to notice the little things most people don’t, and many things that get lumped into the “crazy feline oddities” category by default for most people!

 

[Ribh]

Thanks, Kris. Now to get my chicken observation skills up to par...

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Oh what a cutie!! Looks like my Taz. View attachment 2006003

That is one contented looking cat and happy kids!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Somebody implied I just had a nestbox in my house for effect.
It seems to be working. Here's todays applicants. They all laid an egg.
View attachment 2006236

Do you eat the eggs they lay in the house if no-one is sitting Shad?

 

[Shadrach]

Are they all from the same tribe or from different ones?

They are all members of Tribe 1.

 

[Shadrach]

That is a line. Saves time having to collect them. Just amazing how much they like it.

What gets me is it makes such nonsense of the standard advice that chickens like to make nests in dark secluded boxes, but this advice gets trotted out by just about everyone on the site.
Even without the above demonstration, just the posts on this thread about chickens nesting in strange places should show that the dark box stuff is nonsense.
When you add to this the studies reagarding the hatching of eggs and how daylight is important to the correct developement of an egg, and take into account that feral chickens and the chickens ancestors have made nests on the ground for centuries, how does this box nonsense keep going? Chickens lay eggs in boxes because often it is the only option, not because they like them or they are beneficial to the chicken.

 

[Shadrach]

Do you eat the eggs they lay in the house if no-one is sitting Shad?

Some, someone always ends up sitting though. I can't eat the number of eggs that get laid here even out of peak laying cycle. This year, so far I will have 15 hens. Most lay an egg every other day as a minimum. Say 52 eggs a week. I might eat 5 or 6 a week.

 

[RoyalChick]

You haven't lived till you've experience a truly alpha male cat.Neither of my present cats are alphas ~ thank heaven!!!!!! They rarely fight but Kirby isn't allowed on my bed. That is Marlow's territory. He doesn't like sharing me either but he has no choice.

Their carers were wonderful but they had a lot of rescue cats ~ which may or may not have contributed to my boys behavioural issues & they had to compete for resources. I only even notice certain things because I have a lot of friends in cat rescue who talk a lot about animal behaviours so perhaps I've been conditioned to see certain things...?

Yeah. No real fighting. Just the odd swipe with a paw to keep everyone in their place. It is the alpha female who does most of that (Piewacket) but the runt, also female (Falafel), is beginning to do the same. The two boys are more easy going but like to own space around me.