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#owlvid-weighs-in
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TONIGHT the random thought my adhd brain is stuck on is…! *spins roulette wheel*
making a tier list for whether or not an animal is a good pet, with the top tier being “these are the common pets for a reason” and the bottom being “you are pablo escobar” and the middle would be like… parrots or something
I feel like I’m not quite knowledgeable enough to make an accurate tier list though
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is-the-owl-video-cute · 6 months
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hey uh. I just saw a tiktok. Are owls eyes tube shaped???? Are they not orbs????
(I could Google this of course but I thought this might be something you either very much enjoy or very much hate about owl anatomy and I want your opinion on it with the answer)
yeah it’s why no matter how annoyed they are by humans they can’t roll their eyes about it.
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Though I would describe the eyes as bell-shaped, not tube-shaped. The “tubes” seen on this skull are just the scleral bones, which are present on most if not all birds and function as a sort of corset to help the eyes maintain shape and structure.
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All birds have bell eyes to an extent, but owls do have longer eyes, in part due to how long their scleral bones are relative to the size of the skull.
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The eyes take up so much of the skull that you can actually see the back of the eye by looking in the owl’s ears (seen in gray above). This is a large portion of why owls don’t like to be petted on the head or face. Aside from their crines (whiskers) having extremely sensitive nerve endings leading to overstimulation, there’s a good chance you’re also poking the bird in the eye in most of these spots. Ouch.
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mx. owl video i need to know do owls have ears and if not can they hear things. i know some of em have the lil spikes on the top of their head that i imagine are ear adjacent but not all of em do. also i hope you have a nice day/night
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Other than having huge eyes and being able to turn their head 270° in any direction, owls are probably best known for their incredible sense of hearing. Owls, much like all other known birds do indeed have ears. They’re just under the feathers.
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This is an owl ear. That gray-blue lump near the front is actually the back of the owl’s eye, but everything else there is just ear.
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Compared to other birds, owls do have rather large ears which are protected by a flap of skin and layers of feathers.
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The “spikes” you refer to on top of some of their heads are just feathers, referred to as feather tufts, horns, or plumicorns (meaning “feather horn”) depending on who you ask.
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This one has had its feathers messed up somehow, same species as previous to show that they really are just feathers.
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Primary function of these tufts of feathers is just to assist in blending in with forest surroundings, a large round owl head stands out less when there’s something to remove that roundness. These feathers are also used in owl body language, particularly when threatening a rival
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Overall, yes, owls can hear. They can hear far better than we can. Better than most canines and felines as well.
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Owls such as this great gray can only find food in the winter by hearing its beating heart or breathing under a foot of snow while the owl perches several yards above.
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The barn owl family has even greater hearing than that, having some of the best auditory skills of any terrestrial animals. Their hearing is so acute that they can hunt in complete darkness, and no, that isn’t something all nocturnal carnivores do. No matter how advanced the eye, if there isn’t even a tiniest hint of light from the moon or stars, an animal can’t see. Nocturnal eyes are large and designed to see by absorbing as much light as possible to see. A completely blind barn owl could still hunt (but would not survive in the wild because it would be unable to avoid crashing into obstacles in flight).
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Their secret? Well, it’s just the same adaptation as what other owls use to hear so well taken to the extreme: the facial disk. A mammal like a fox or bat directs sounds into its ears by having a cone-shaped outer ear that can be maneuvered to capture sound from different angles. Owls make their entire face serve that purpose, collecting sound waves by turning their facial feathers into a satellite dish.
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Barn owls also have a seamless fringe of feathers down the center of their face which other owls tend to lack, this more or less splits sound waves into traveling down one side of the face to one ear or the other side of the face to the other ear. If the sound hits one ear first or more intensely than it hits the other, the owl knows which way to turn its head.
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To add another layer to this, owls have one high ear, and one low ear. The degree of asymmetry varies based on species, the barn owl family has the most pronounced difference in ear placement. Having offset ears allows owls to determine if a sound is coming from above or below.
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When an owl hears a sound hit both ears at the exact same time, it knows it’s directly facing the source, and when that source is a mouse or perhaps a vole, it’s go-time.
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Hey! I see you talking a lot about ethical x legal animals. Can i ask what animals that, although legal, arent ethical to have? I know you cant list all, but if you can, id like to be informed on the more common ones
Either way, ty!
Hard Pass, Morally Reprehensible To Keep As Pets:
owls, other birds of prey
foxes
raccoons
skunks
coyotes
crows, ravens, etc
slow loris
sugar glider
primates
hot snakes
large monitors
crocodilians
parrots
lions, tigers, bears, or any other wild cat or bear really
prairie dogs
Require A Degree Of Expertise And Husbandry That I Don’t Trust Average Pet Owners To Provide:
Budgerigars and cockatiels
hedgehogs
hamsters
chinchillas
large reptiles or fish
most amphibians
small monitor species
emerald tree pythons or green tree boas
salt water fish
hermit crabs
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is-the-owl-video-cute · 7 months
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https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/only-tiktoks/725655276626296832
im interested in what you think of this video/practice. to me, it seems a little lot expensive when a sanctuary can wait for a molt? im wondering if theres another point of view here that im missing
i want you to think about what you just said for a moment.
“It seems … expensive when a sanctuary can wait for a molt”
To imp a bird’s feathers, all you need is some bamboo rods, glue, and old feathers you’ve collected from previous patients that either molted during their stay or didn’t survive. Those feathers are free, so you’re looking at maybe $20-$30 at most in supplies. The procedure takes about 1-2 hours at most of the rehabber knows what they’re doing.
To keep a bird through molt you have to wait as much as a full year depending on when the bird came in, induce a molt by using a UV light to simulate summer light changes, and ensure the bird is completely without stress and given a varied diet because new feathers are delicate when growing in and can be stunted by stress or a repetitive diet. They also need direct sunlight and they have to feel comfortable enough to perch out in it so the feathers can develop correctly.
Which of these seems less expensive? A quick imping? Or having to feed a patient a year’s worth in mice and quail with added supplements and accommodations which require sacrificing a flight cage to this one patient to avoid stressing it by placing others in with it?
And more than that, which is better for the raptor, a wild animal that does NOT want to be seen or deal with humans for too long? If imped, the bird can be released back into its home territory within a few days after assessing the feathers are imped correctly and the bird is not rejecting them. If molted, the bird will have to deal with captivity for a year and then have to fight for a new territory as the previous one will have been taken by then.
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Why aren’t you fond of bird feeders? Genuine question, I want to make sure I am not harming my local wildlife since we’ve had feeders since I was a kid
People just don’t clean them enough or use blends that are either no-grow or native seeds.
They’re huge congregation points for songbirds which spreads things like salmonella and conjunctivitis and mites.
The seeds can grow into invasive plants if allowed to sprout, the bigger issue being the types of seeds that pass through a bird’s digestion still viable.
Hummingbird feeders are a much bigger problem though as the sugar water or store bought nectar aren’t balanced nutrition and can grow infectious mold colonies VERY quickly during the summer, killing the hummers drinking from them. Some ornithologists have noted populations or individual hummers who no longer migrate south because the feeders never come down and they didn’t feel a pressure to migrate.
The best way to feed either bird is to plant native plants. Hummingbirds get a much safer meal from flowers, and it’s much more nutritious too. Native songbirds are already familiar with the seeds and berries foraged from the native plants and they are happy to eat and spread those seeds. It also helps prevent birds from congregating in one place since they have to spread out to different parts of the plants.
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What are your thoughts on keeping non-domesticated animals that are unusual but still widely accepted in the pet trade? I'm specifically curious about stuff like chinchillas, hedgehogs, sugar gliders, and other types of pets which are generally less talked about than the usual hamsters, reptiles, insects, or fish.
Unethical.
Hedgehogs and sugar gliders do notoriously poorly in pet environments, even wildlife centers don’t always give them adequate husbandry since their needs are so specific.
A chinchilla can in theory be kept ethically, most in the pet trade are not. A chinchilla is a very shy crepuscular rodent. They are most active just before sunrise and after sunset which most people find troublesome as they may frequently be active when people are intent on sleeping. Their shyness often leads to neglect or forced interactions which cause learned helplessness, bite incidents, and of course the animal suffering heart failure and dying of stress.
An animal being common in the pet trade does not impact whether it is ethical or even remotely acceptable. Parrots are common in the pet trade, they are in a similar boat as the chinchilla, but most species of parrot lean closer to sugar gliders in terms of being unethical with no chance of being kept ethically. In some countries an owl is seen as a normal pet and you can buy monkeys in some pet stores. None of these are ethical. These are just wild animals we're talking about.
The exotic pet trade also has a history of poaching from the wild. Many wild animals in the pet trade that don’t breed easily in a pet mill environment are just stolen from the wild, or from zoos.
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I mean most of what I hear about re raptor care injuries is literally called being "footed". Do they generally not bite/peck/ beam hook until after they have a grip, like a constrictor using the bite as an anchor for coils?
Depends on the bird. Falcons tend to bite down and then foot you, but most other raptors will try to foot you with both of their talons and give you the evil eye. If you reach your other hand in there, they’ll bite to avoid having to let go. Great horned owls and bald eagles have a tendency to try to turn around and bite you while they’re restrained for exam or treatment. Barred owls will do that too. Vultures in the Americas aren’t actually capable of footing with any purpose so they just try to bite down hard and then twist their head to pull at your skin. Some also wing slap (ouch) and stomp at you.
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is-the-owl-video-cute · 11 months
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hi!! i was talking to a friend about bird erogenous zones and he suggested your input as a raptor rehabber. i’m super curious about which birds other than parrots have erogenous zones like them or if it’s unique to parrots specifically? because it seems the same safe petting rules don’t apply to like, pigeons and chickens. is it JUST parrots that are like that?
So it’s not so much that parrots are the only ones with erogenous zones so to speak, and more that parrots are monogamous and mate for life (most species of parrot at least).
Pigeons are similarly stimulated by the same touches, but it doesn’t negatively affect them because while pigeons tend to have one mate, they still fool around with friends from time to time and really aren’t monogamous.
Parrots become sexually frustrated by touch, but the main issue comes from the fact they interpret that touch along with you giving them food to mean you’re their mate. So when they see you interact with other animals or humans, they may interpret it as you cheating on them and become aggressive, vocal, and self destructive in the form of plucking and/or biting at their feet and wings.
Pigeons just see it as good fun really.
Raptors in general will really only be interested in touch if they’re hormonal and ready for breeding season. It generally isn’t encouraged to stimulate a raptor this way unless you’re intending to use them for artificial insemination or to brood eggs for you as it does increase their nesty behavior. Male raptors trying to mate with your head is not preferred unless again you’re trying to breed them. Female raptors may attack if you ignore their advances because they figure if you aren’t there to mate you’re just an intruder trying to steal their nest location. Either sex will also attack anyone who doesn’t look and act like you if they enter the mews after you have stimulated them and they think you’re their mate.
To answer your original question though, I would say most birds are somewhat stimulated by you touching their back, lower belly, or tail. It’s just a matter of how that mentally affects the animal.
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https://twitter.com/fasc1nate/status/1626106710669553664?s=46&t=mc-CCb-tmUlPT1hSm0ZUUw hi, i came across this video and it seems... unsafe? to be feeding a very large raptor like this, but i wanted to confirm that with somebody who actually knows raptors well
It’s extremely dangerous.
Bald eagles are often given the reputation of “sky pirates” because they have a tendency to be Food aggressive and snatch what they want right out of another animal’s mouth or grab smaller birds and swing them upside down until they drop a catch.
Holding out food like that is encouraging the eagle to want to take it from him. Feeding the eagle at all is removing what limited fear it has of people. Feeding it is also making it associate humans with food and expect handouts.
If the eagle gets impatient one day, its instinct will be to grab him. If a bald eagle grabs any part of your body, it can break whatever bone it finds in that grasp with about as much effort as it would take you to crush a piece of popcorn in your fingers. Raptors don’t have smooth tendons in their digits like we do, their tendons have sharp grooves that allow them to ratchet shut and stay shut. This means it can hold onto your now broken arm as tightly as it likes and not use any energy in keeping that pressure.
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This not to even speak of the very large talons themselves that can embed very deep into your flesh if you are grabbed with any purpose by a bald eagle.
They also have a nasty bite and weigh around ten pounds on average with no hesitation to throw that weight around, so honestly habituating a bald eagle and waving food in front of its face is insanely stupid. It’s an excellent way to get permanent damage done to your arm.
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is-the-owl-video-cute · 11 months
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Hi Deer Anon here!
I live in a neighborhood with a Lot of deer and have a neighbor who feeds these deer to the point they follow him around for food and actively seek out people for food. I've also been having a problem of said deer coming into my fenced in backyard and eating my potatoes
Is there anything you think I could do to, at the very least, save my potatoes if not get to deer to avoid my yard entirely?
they make deer-proof fencing and generalized wildlife repellent that deer don’t care for. You can also make a point of clapping and shouting any time you catch them in your yard. Hazing habituated wildlife helps remind them that humans are not friends and can help them stay wild. In general what your neighbor is doing is both against wildlife ethics and illegal in most of the US.
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Is The Owl Video Cute?
Rating: Cute
This owl is in the incredibly competent care of Ben Woodruff, one of my favorite falconers in the country. He is one of the precious few falconers I’ve known to fly owls as falconry birds successfully, which is what this one is being raised for.
This sweet baby will also go on outreach programs to teach the public about owls and their natural history.
Owlets at this age are incredibly inquisitive, as in the wild this intrigue is what draws them out of the nest to explore nearby branches. This youngster seems to have just discovered the wonders of the air conditioner. Who knows what this little one is thinking.
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Hi! Sorry if this question has been asked before, but are you completely against keeping owls as falconry birds?
I practice Arabic falconry and while we don’t hunt with our owls, they’re still taught to come to the glove / fly perch to perch depending on the trainers preference and birds responsiveness, some owls are just uncomfortable on the glove so we avoid it. But yes they are often used in the sport
I’ve been reading your owl behaviour posts (which are super interesting btw) and it’s been making me reflect on the owls I’ve personally worked with so I was wondering what your opinion is with keeping them? While we have a lot of distinctions in how we train and house falcons, hawks, eagles and buteos compared to the owls, I can definitely see how behavioural cues get mixed up and how that can hurt them so I’m glad I can be more conscious of it now
(side note: the owls are almost always captive bred and imprinted / créche reared and most “hot-weather” owls are diurnal or crepuscular species (ie, desert eagle owl) so I’m not sure if everything you say when talking about non-imprints and nocturnal owls applies)
I don’t have an objection to falconers or education centers using owls, only an objection to it being done improperly.
I actually had no idea owls were used in Arab falconry at all, if you don’t hunt with them what do you use them for? You’ve got me curious now!
Generally speaking yes an owl can be ethically flown if imprinted correctly and given the freedom to say “no” to being out on the glove if it’s uncomfortable with it. For what it’s worth if you have the patience you can actually hunt with them, it’s just a lot more work than it’s worth for most people.
But yes, it can be ethically done as long as the owl’s space is respected and it’s allowed generous time to itself in the mews. Most imprint falcons can be quite pleased to ride the glove all day and hang out perched in your bedroom, but owls really do like their alone time as adults. Owlets on the other hand need frequent interaction with people to feel safest. Sitting on the ground and allowing the owlets to cuddle up against and under you as they would if they were in the nest with their mother builds their confidence that they can rely on you to keep them safe. That’s crucial in the field, in raising imprints in general the role of that sort of contact cannot be understated. Though they are very different from humans, they still suffer from lack of maternal contact as babies just as we do.
As far as flying owls goes, the biggest thing is to be careful with weight management. I’m not sure about diurnal owls, but nocturnal owls are less confident in being out and about in the open and may be more reluctant to fly. An easy pitfall some falconers fall into is lowering the weight too much and more or less starving the poor bird. I haven’t had the pleasure of working with many diurnal owl species though, so I can’t tell you too much there. Just that they seem easier to get hunting if you choose than a nocturnal owl tends to be.
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I know it’s not an owl, but uh, is this cute?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CizKW1IJpiA/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
No.
This bird was kidnapped. Wild birds may indeed leave a fledgling alone for hours on end while they’re foraging for food. This helps the fledgling learn independence and is they grow older they will be motivated to follow the parent where they will learn to forage for themselves. I also have little doubt that this person “waited for hours” standing right next to the bird. This does not always make the parent willing to return because they will be afraid to approach with you right there.
I don’t want to know why the dog “started producing milk” but I sincerely hope this weirdo didn’t feed it to the bird.
Oh, and I HIGHLY doubt they spoke to any wildlife professional, likely just an illegal backyard rehabber. Raising a wild bird, imprinting it on humans (and dogs!!) is illegal in many countries due to being completely unethical.
It’s a miracle the dog didn’t accidentally harm the bird when it was young, but I can’t imagine the average backyard dog will be as gentle. Every part of this reads very “white person who thinks they have a spirit animal and watches the dodo religiously” which is not a good thing.
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What’s the typical age requirement to volunteer at a raptor center handling birds? There’s a place near me called lowcountry raptors that has fairly young kids handling the birds and I’m wondering if that’s normal for a center.
The normal minimum age to volunteer is 16-18 at most facilities.
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And I do hate to say it, but Lowcountry Raptors is no place I’m a fan of. Note the handler placing a small owl on the perch while not wearing a glove, and more glaringly note the GREAT HORNED OWL PERCHED DIRECTLY NEXT TO A SCREECH OWL THAT IS ON A GOOD DAY 1/14 ITS SIZE. Aside from being a HUGE safety risk if the larger owl’s tether fails for any reason, keeping several owls within view of one another is stressful for the smaller ones involved because THEY KNOW the larger owl sees them as potential prey.
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They even keep two different species of owl on the same perch as seen here. Both owls seem to be wild specimens that sustained debilitating injuries, most severely on the burrowing owl with a blind eye and terribly misaligned wing fracture. As wild specimens they are far more likely to exhibit aggression to other species they think they could feasibly take in a fight. The only reason they aren’t doing so may well be stress from being constantly surrounded by (loud) children.
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And of course, still perched in sight and close proximity of the great horned owl.
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I have yet to see a single image of a raptor that looks content or even relaxed when handled or displayed on perches from these people.
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They let children crowd WAY too close to the birds as well. Also note the bird on the far right IS A MERLIN FALCON NOT EVEN AN OWL WHY IS A BIRD SPECIALIZED IN HUNTING BIRDS BEING PERCHED WITH BIRDS OF OTHER SPECIES.
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And here’s one to close us out on this facility. One of the (multiple) child volunteers hugging the owl for a photo. Abysmal. Grim. This entire facility gives massive red flags consistent with what I see in owl cafes. This last picture alone should have had them shut down by USFWS.
They seem to be a prime example of “means well, but good lord do they not know what they’re doing nor what should be shared with the public”.
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is-the-owl-video-cute · 11 months
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hi! i have a bird question. or more of an egg-and-nest question? my parents noticed a nest in the bush on the side of our house, where we keep our trash can. there's at least one egg inside (it's a light blue and i live in north georgia) but i don't have the knowledge to ID it :( my parents are convinced that the birds have deserted the nest because they haven't seen them there tending to the eggs; they think they were scared off because we're back there so often to do stuff with the trash can (and they also insist on letting our cat roam outside unsupervised which i privately think might be the reason). should i call a wildlife rehab center? i checked the website of a few in my area and they said they tend to hatchlings and idk if that applies to ones that are uh. unhatched i guess. it's been 3 days since my parents noticed the nest; if the nest really is abandoned and they aren't being incubated would that mean the embryo(???) inside is dead now and i should just leave it be? im sorry this is so long haha i just didnt know who to ask. thank you in advance!!
Many birds won’t actually start incubating until all eggs are laid and the eggs may be laid a couple days apart depending on species and food availability. The eggs are not viable until the birds begin incubating, so doing this will allow the babies to hatch at around the same timeframe and remain at the same general life stages.
It is however possible for a bird to start a nest and change its mind after laying an egg and realizing it’s an active area.
It sounds like an American Robin nest, they can be fickle. Nest fidelity is low up until the first egg hatches. Birds will readily abandon nest and eggs if things go wrong. Cats can also be a factor. Even if the cat doesn’t eat the parents, they may decide the area is unsafe.
Most rehabs don’t take in eggs as the chances of them being non-viable are pretty high by the time humans find them. It may not even be fertilized. There’s a bit of back and forth among rehabbers as to whether or not ethics dictate you should or should not rear eggs since they can be a valuable food source to other wildlife and to raise a baby bird from day one is very risky in terms of accidental imprinting.
Overall, I would personally just say leave it be. The parents may well still be tending to them. Just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t around, and just because the eggs could have viability does not mean they are best served at a rehab in a chicken egg incubator.
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