h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Overheard during the past week:

'Clancy, no wonder you threw up. You shouldn't have eaten the dog's dental bone!'

'Get out of my petunia pot, caterpillar! Go chomp on something else.'

'Lola! Leave the cat alone!'

'It's okay, birdie. You can come up on the porch...so can you, Chippie the Chipmunk.'

'Don't suck up to me, grey squirrel. I know you're cute, but you trashed the other bird feeder!'

'Hi, Red.'

'Will you guys stop pooping on the bird feeder roof? I have to clean it.'

And the piece de resistance, out in the yard at 10 pm:

'Go away, Bambi's mother!'

Life at the Gheorgheni Wildlife Sanctuary proceeds normally.

It's only weird if they reply

I'll remember that.

...and, of course, "Wabbit wader!".

(Sometimes I wish I had a special punctuation mark for a hard glottal stop, for example, between "Wabbit!" and "Wader!".)

Dental bone

Who is this Clancy person - and what does he usually feed on?

Clancy is an unusually large, placid ginger tomcat. He likes to eat.

But those 'dental bones' are bone-shaped treats designed to remove plaque from the *dog's* teeth. We think it gave Clancy indigestion 'cause he threw up on the rug. My suspicion? The cat didn't exactly chew it...

And there I was thinking the author of 'Patriot Games' had thrown up on your rug.

And that he probably deserved it.

Was that a piece of literary criticism, Icy?

In that case it was accurate and - erm - colourfull. So thanks for that, Icy

And thanks for your explanation also, Dmitri. I was worried there for a while

I'm enjoying the report about the wildlife sanctuary! By the way ... if you want to make sure the birdies get some of the food intended for them ... you can use a dash of hot chilli powder mixed in with the bird food. Birds can't taste the hotness of hot peppers and related hot spicy fruits ... only mammals can!

I did not know that, Willem. Thanks for the hot tip!

it's the same with chilies and chili seeds but take care, if you get "powder" off the seeds on your hands - accidentally rubbing eyes or mouth and it stings like hell

my cockateil loved chilies in her seed stuff

Observation on birds raiding tomatoes, peppers and related crops in the garden, they eat the seeds selectively, except if they're very thirsty.

Remedy for birde raiding fruits and vegetables, if you wrap a tranelucent white plastic bag, a used supermarket shopping bag, for example, around the ripening fruit (entire bunch of tomatoes for example) at the first sign the fruit is ripening, that keeps the birds off.

The birds don't wait for fruit to ripen completely, they go into action at the first sign of color change.

Being sure they have a ready supply of drinking water, bird bath or reasonable facsimile, also helps.




Quotation from Lord Krishna, from the Bhagavad Gita: "The fruit that has been pecked by a bird is the sweetest."

Adding cayenne to feed is also supposed to stimulate laying in chickens--anecdotes vary as to whether the cayenne's for starting up first-time layers or for restarting older layers after molting, or both.

Wow, that's a cool titbit! Wonder how that works?

I'm not sure it actually does Could simply be that the hens are just about to start up when someone tries it, because I've read it can take a couple of weeks, and it works best if you start when the face/wattles/comb are nice and red (they are paler when there is no laying)--which can be a couple of weeks before they start laying

Though, come to think of it (and of course the thought occurred after I hit post...), isn't caps...capsi... the hot stuff in cayenne supposed to be a wormer? I can see how eliminating or reducing a parasite load could lead to sooner laying.

Sounds logical.

And double aha, the 'New Scientist' agrees:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1171-chilli-eating-chickens-repel-bacteria/