(Part 2) Best products from r/subnautica

A couple other things to consider:

Ever heard of the canary in the coal mine? Birds are INSANELY sensitive to toxic fumes. One of our cockatiels died because it was near an open window (2nd floor) and one of our apartment neighbors decided to smoke a cigarette on the ground floor below. We also lost a Sun Conure to Teflon poisoning (the non-stick coating on much of today's cookware - if it gets too hot, it will gas off, and that stuff is like insta-death for birds). So, if you or anyone you live with is a smoker, don't get a bird. If one of your neighbors is a smoker, be very conscious of where they like to take their smoke breaks, and mind your windows. Get rid of all you Teflon pots and pans (go for ceramic instead, just don't use metal utensils with it or you'll ruin it). Be careful with paints, cleaners, aerosols, etc. Seriously, don't fuck around with fumes.

Prep your house for your bird; not your bird for your house. I'm talking about wing-clipping. Don't do it. 100% of a bird's body is optimized for flight. Take that away from them and they'll start getting health issues from top to bottom due to inactivity; it'll also kill their mental health. We clipped our Sun Conure's wings due to some behavioral issues with it, and regretted it immediately. Seeing a depressed Sun Conure is fucking heartbreaking... and that was shortly before the Teflon thing, so it never got the chance to grow them back to fly again. That was over 10 years ago and I still feel guilty about it.

ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT PARROTS ARE A PREY ANIMAL! The biggest mistake I see in new bird owners is to treat it like a cat or dog - both of which are predators and respond well to dominance (i.e., they need to know who's the leader of the pack). If you try to show a bird "who's boss" all you'll do is teach it to bite and fear you. You are part of it's flock - you have to gain it's trust, not 'win' its loyalty. Respond to good behavior by giving it positive attention/treats; respond to bad behavior by ignoring it - NOT punishing it (don't ever flick its beak, blow on it, etc). At worst, you can give it "time outs" if it's displaying really bad behavior, but don't use it's main cage for that (or it will start to despise it's cage / misbehave intentionally when it wants to go home) but a small travel cage with nothing but food and water; and don't leave it there for too long (after 10 mins or so, it won't even remember why it's in there anyway).

And finally: parrots can be potty trained!! Get something like this and give it a treat every time is shits while perched on it; don't give it a treat when it shits anywhere else. Eventually it will catch on and actually fly to it when it needs to drop a load; and cleaning shit off the smooth plastic surface is a lot easier than off your clothes/furniture/walls/ceiling (yes ceiling... one of our parakeets managed that, judging by the size of the turd... no idea how the little bastard managed to pull that off). I never did have luck potty training any of our parakeets; but 'tiels can learn it if you stick to it long enough (talking months here). Both of my conures picked it up within a few weeks. Best trick you'll ever teach your bird!! ...I've met folks who have owned parrots for like 30 years, and never thought to try potty training them - just not something some people consider with birds, but now you know, so don't neglect it!

> I appreciate your time and answers!

/salute!

Pardon the wall of text (holy shit, I got carried away with that!!). Lots to consider though!

There's a lot of great writing on it, off the top of my head the easiest read I'd recommend is titled The Unthinkable.

TL:DR; freeze/lockup is a sort of overload of new experiences. Only when something recognizes that it's life or death, but something else happens and just zombifies them. Taking action is infinitely harder to pin down, but rooted in leadership/independence and being able to focus on the familiar/ignore the full scope of the disaster to avoid lockup.
My best interpretation on why it's unreasonably easy for humans to just sit still and let themselves die is because of how social we are from an evolutionary standpoint. As a group, it's massively beneficial for 90% to just blank out if the other 10% can stand up and shout "This way!" to keep them from going toward the danger. Doesn't work so well in today's world, as much because the guy running for the exit doesn't think to give orders as it is everyone else being conditioned to be passive.

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There's a lot more on more generic emergency moments than the physical/fight stuff. Why people fail to even pick fight or flight is commonly the topic. The thing I've mentioned is closer to choosing fight, but doing a piss-poor job of it. Sort of like the fight response being broken.