Listener Questions: Pets Say The Darndest Things!

way across the country. Uh. So that means I will need a few weeks off to do everything. But do not worry, I will be back. I am still going to do the podcast, and in fact, I will be back for a new season. I don't now that I'm recording this, I don't remember what season we are. I think it's season three. I think it's season three. So season three is coming up. It is gonna premiere on September eight. But before you panic thinking or what the heck, how what am I gonna do with that creature feature

between now and September eight, Well, don't you worry. I'm going to have during this time. Uh, some listener question

episodes just like this one. I'm also going to have some old episodes that I am going to dig up from the way back is the pod closet, These old tapes, old dusty old tapes, you know, wipe the dust off of them, gonna re upload them, do some do some little fix ups, little edits here and there with little little intros and yes, so just some of my favorite episodes that I've done over the years that I'm going to revitalize, do a little spit shine on so you

can listen to them. So I will still be putting out episodes every week until we're back. But yeah, I I really appreciate everybody for listening to the podcast all this time. Now I'm so excited for season three. I've got got big plans, big plans, just big elephant sized plans. It's not like an actual elephant. I'm not going to

have an elephant on the show. I really looked into that option though, I gave it serious thought, but unfortunately, it's hard to get a mic stand to the level of an elephant and get getting all the levels right. It's really hard. If you do any audio editing, you know how hard it is. To do a podcast with an elephant's very difficult. But other than that, I I have some some good plans, some fun, fun new segments I think we can do on the show. So I'm very excited and I cannot wait to come back for

season three. And in the meantime, please enjoy the listener question at a sods and my old episodes because they are some of my favorites. I think you'll really like them. So let's get right into the listener questions, you guys. So this week for listener questions, I thought I would focus on a theme, and that theme it's pets. We love our pets, but not just the kiddies and the doggies. We love all pets. And here's the first question. It is from James on Twitter, who wrote to me, what's

up with the cutest animal? Hermit Crabs? So? I had a hermit crab as a pet when I was a kid, and I gotta say, not the best pet. I loved it, I really did love it. But it's favorite thing to do was crawl inside my armpit, pinched my skin and not let go until I literally had to use tweezers too delicately, Priy, its claws open so it would release me, which you know, I don't think was fun for either me or the hermit crab, to be honest, but I didn't. Maybe it was trying to see if my arm pit

could be its new home. Was hoping. Maybe I don't know. Also, if you have a hermit crab as a pet, it actually requires a lot of care to keep it healthy and alive. You need to provide new, bigger shells for it as it grows. It needs moisture, it needs food, it needs space. Uh. If you're ever looking into getting a pet, even one as simple as a hermit crab, definitely do a lot of research beforehand so you know you have the right environment and the right resources for it.

Because they are delicate creatures. Despite their hard looking exterior, they're actually quite soft on the inside, as you will find as we discuss so. Hermit crabs are a family of very interesting crustaceans that famously do not grow their own shells. Instead of investing in armor, they grow themselves. Like most of their decapod cousins, like crabs and lobsters, hermit crabs don't armor their abdomens and instead rely on the protection of abandoned shells from ed molluscs, So why

invest your own resources into something you can scavenge. This is the strategy of the hermit crab. Its claws and fore limbs have a hard exoskeleton, but it's abdomen is soft and curls inwards to one side. Kind of looks like a little macaroni noodle attached to this hermit crab. It can be quite surprising to see the actual body of a hermit crab if you've never seen that. So this curled shape allows it to anchor itself into an abandoned spiraling shell. Hermit crabs are both land dwelling and

marine dwelling. Uh there are some hermit crabs that have specially adapted for the land and some who mostly spend their time in the ocean. So land dwelling hermit crabs can breathe as long as their gills are kept moist, whereas primarily marine dwelling hermit crabs. They can breed for a limited amount of time if their gills are moist, but mostly they do the water. So as hermit crabs grow, they must find new, bigger shells. So normally, if you

have another decapod another crustacean. They have that hard exoskeleton that they will grow out of. So what they do is they crack that old exo skeleton, they shed it, they hide while they grow their new exoskeleton. Hermit crabs instead of doing that, they exit their old shell that they scavenge from some other mollusk, and then they find a new shell that some dead mollusk left behind and they use that as their new upgraded home as they grow. Often uh they use the shells of sea snails, but

other shells will do as well. Some hermit crab species will even use chunks of dead wood or immobile structures such as abandoned coral Hermit crabs will often compete with other hermit crabs over idea eel shells, but sometimes there is a fair amount of cooperation that is truly incredible to see. So if a hermit crab finds a shell that is a bit too large, it will actually hold onto that shell and return to its original cramped shell, and then it waits for a hermit crab to approach

the large shell if it fits this newcomer. That means that the first hermit crab can have the larger crabs old home, which is probably going to be the perfect size for this hermit crab. I imagine you go to the store and you're buying a pair of jeans and you find a pair of jeans that's just one size

too big for you, but you hold onto them. And someone comes up to you who's a little bigger than you, and they've got some old jeans that they've grown out of that would probably fit you perfectly, And you're like, hey, what about these genes that are a little bit too big for me? And so you swap jeans. Now you have a pair of jeans that fits perfectly, but also you live in of jeans and you never leave the jeans until you get bigger, which now that I'm talking

about has kind of been my lifestyle lately. But anyways, So what this results in is a congo line of hermit crabs who are exchanging shells with each other. So it's this chain of hermit crabs trading homes one size up. So it's like, all right, I've got a shell, it's too small for me. I found a shell it's too big for me. You're big enough for this new shell. You take off your old chill, I take that I

don't need my old smaller shell. And then a smaller hermit crab is going to see that and say like, oh well, I can take this even smaller shell and shed my shell. And then a smaller hermit crab was like, oh okay, but now I can get this shell. So lines of hermit crabs trading houses. The next h G TV reality show swapping hermit shell houses coming to a TV in some kind of ocean near you. Here is another email about Pet's fellow Katie. First of all, I

love your show so much. I'm excited for the week's topic. Thank you. I've always loved animals and science classes so much that a lot of my time I've spent researching random animals of my own actually have a question for you or the pod. I have a cockatial named Cora, and she is just full of radiant personality, like hissing at me for looking in her direction and adoring my mom.

I was wondering if she may actually experience spite and keep track of people's actions parents similar to Corvid's thriving group living and can communicate a lot to each other and seem to experience a wide array of emotions, so I think she may be experiencing more than the simple observed risk aversions. Thank you so much for your amazing and hilarious content on Creature Future. You really make my week all the time. All thank you so much. And this is from Anthony, and Anthony sent me a bird

hacks uh who who. He reassured me that that Cora is a vet certified to be a beefy lady. She is larger relative to other cockatils and with muscle in a tiny bit of stomach pudge, but she's healthy and beautiful. Thank you for this picture of the cute chunk of feathers that is Cora. Amazing, beautiful, glorious, radiant. So you are correct. Cockatiels and other parrots are highly social and

extremely intelligent. In fact, this means that, as you probably know Anthony, having one as a pet is a massive commitment. They require constant social attention and affection and experience very complex social emotions. So in terms of your question, is it experiencing spite does it have these sort of more sophisticated emotions, I would say that's very likely. Studies have demonstrated that cockatiels have a deep under standing of complex

cognitive concepts such as object permanence. Object permanence is something that humans have to learn as young babies. They we go through a period of time where we have to learn about object permanence as we grow into toddlerhood. So the fact that cockatiels have this sense of object permanence is very promising for their intelligence. Cockatils do hiss, as you mentioned, and typically hissing is to express annoyance, although there is an exception. Male cockatiels will sometimes hiss as

part of their courtship rituals. So if it looks at you and hisses, has definitely given you some attitude. So cockatils in the wild demonstrate complex social behaviors. They are endemic to Australia, meaning that's the only place that they are found in the wild. They're one of the smaller members of the cockatoo family. They have a yellow face and a crest and rosy red cheeks and a gray body plumage. They are highly social. They live at least in pairs, if not in large flocks. Sometimes up to

a hundred cockatiels can flock together. They use their crests as a way to signal their emotions. Perked up crests, that little little the crest is that little feathery whoop on top of their head, if you know what I'm talking about, the little, the little lootle bopper right on top of their head. It's adorable. Perked Up crests can indicate excitement, while flattened crests can indicate anger or defensiveness.

But there are less obvious angles of the crest, such as nearly flat but kind of sticking out in the back, which males sometimes do to appear attractive to females, like they're doing slick back hair or something. Sometimes they have the crest at like a forty five degree angle when they're relaxed. It can be hard as a human to always read a cockatiel's crest expressions, but if you can get a handle of it, you will be able to

better understand your cockateal. If you're thinking about adopting a cockatiel, I would really research them because they can live to be over twenty five years old, and they need a lot of space to exercise outside the cage and huge

amounts of lug and attention. I think in some ways, intelligent birds like a cockateal can be a bigger commitment than a dog, and certainly other parrot species can be a much much bigger commitment because they live such a long time and they're like I've said this before, but it's like a two year old's brain for some of these birds, like cockatoos and parrots and macause, it's like putting a two year old's brain in a dinosaur's body with a very powerful beak that can break through nuts.

So you've got to really think about if you want to deal with that responsibility. Cockatels are a little easier to take care of than something like a cockatoo, but there's still a huge commitment. Like I said, they can live to be over twenty five years old, and they need so much social attention. You need to have that time to be able to give them that love and attention. Uh. Budgies or parakeets as they're called, are less intensive. They

still need socialization. They're going to be the happiest if you have them in a group or in pairs, but they don't live as long, they don't need as much space. They live to be about five to eight years old. So if you really love birds, but you don't think you have the time commitment for a cockatial I would advise getting something like a like a finch or or um.

You know, but if you really want that social interaction with a bird, but you you're maybe kind of a little concerned about having the commitment of something like a cockateal. Parakeets are highly social, but they aren't quite as they don't live as long as they don't need as much as a cockatil does. But they still need attention and they really do like to be in pairs. They really enjoy each other's company. Large cockatoos, such as the sulfur

crusted cocka two, can be a huge responsibility. It is like having a screaming dinosaur with a toddler brain, and they can live to be over sixty years old. So if you're interested in owning a bird, really do a lot of research and think about whether your lifestyle will

work with the needs of these little flying literal dinosaurs. Um. But yeah, if you have the resources, time, and emotional capacity to take care of a cockatil, they can be extremely affectionate, very rewarding, and form a very intense bond with you. It is absolutely right or die with birds. I am a huge lover with birds, but I know my limitations. I don't think I could ever own a bird more complicated than a finch um with my current lifestyle, even though I have a dog and she requires a

lot of attention. But that's part of it. God, this would be such a jealous household if I had to manage the emotional needs of my dog and of a bird. Oh the drama. Well, I'm avoiding that time to talk about cats. It's cats times. Sometimes I feel like I don't talk about cats enough. I love cats. I'm a currently a dog owner. I want to get a cat because my dog seems to accept the presence of cats, and she actually likes cats a lot more than she likes other dogs. So big cat lover grew up with cats.

So I'm delighted to answer this email about cats. Hi, Katie, I've been meaning to write for ages to tell you how much I enjoy your podcast. Thank you, it was especially helpful during the pandemic. I'm so glad. I'm really happy to hear that. Here are a few photos of my current kitties, Pangaia and Physic wonderful names. Pangaea, my eight year old female is the smaller dilute tortoiseshell one, and Physics seven year old male is a larger, buff colored cat. I've seen these cats. I can confirm to

you the listener, they are adorable. So I have a couple of cat related questions. When Pangia plays, she often likes turning her head so she's looking at me up side down. Any idea why that's a good angle. She also makes little noises during the day, not me owing except when she wants my attention, but little grunts and other small noises, kind of like she's muttering to herself. I have a friend who has a cat who makes similar noises, but until these two, I hadn't run into

cats who made noises like that. Do you know if there might be any meaning behind it? Thanks again for your podcast, Erica. Thank you so much, Erica, not only for your kind words, but your beautiful pictures of your wonderful little kitty cats and for your cool question. I love kitties. I, like I said, I had cats growing up. I'm probably riddled with toxoplasmosis. Uh, that's probably why I

love cats so much. But anyways, as someone who loved both dogs and cats, I really enjoy noting the difference between these two animals. Dogs co evolved with us in a way that makes it almost intuitive for us to communicate a dog's body expressions, I think are pretty easily read by a human. Uh. And dogs have gotten undergone these immense changes from when they're wolves. But cats, they basically figured, I'm already perfect. I don't need to change for you humans, Like I'm gonna stay as cat as

I can be. So once we started having a grarian society's cats noticed all the rodent problems we had with our grain. Like I noticed you got a mouse problem. I can take care of them, maybe for a little dish of milk, you know, just asking for a little a little bit off the top of your milk, and I can take care of your mouse problem, no problem. And that's uh, that's how we formed this mutually beneficial

relationship with these cute little murder beasts. So uh. They were good for our grain supplies, probably good at preventing the spread of disease by killing rats and mice. And we had this, we formed a business partnership. So that's why house cat behavior is not all that different from the behaviors of wild felines, they really didn't have to evolve much to be accepted into human society. They're kind of lifestyle worked with ours, whereas with wolves, wolves are

much more aggressive. They're they're kind of lifestyle as wolves in the wild didn't really jell as well with humans. So wolves had to go undergo a domestication in order to fit into our lifestyle. And so that's why a dog is. Their behavior and their appearance is much more different from a wolf than say a domesticated cat or a I guess a house cat, compared to say, like

a wildcat. You may see some species of wildcat. You look at a cat, it's like, well, their coat color is kind of different, but they're basic attitudes and and uh behaviors are are pretty similar. Now that's not to say wildcats are just like housecats that you can pick up in love and they'll be perfectly fine. No, but they are. Their behavior can be remarkably s miller and uh that's why some of their quirks are just so strange to us and so hard to understand what they're doing.

You may be baffled when a cat rolls over on its back it exposes it's belly. You think, oh, you want a belly rub. You try to rub the belly. Nope, it was a trap. Now you've got an angry cat scratching your eyes out. Uh. When dogs roll over onto their backs, we think, okay, it's a belly rub, and they often are asking for a belly rubs. But in cat language, it's like cats are speaking Greek and we're speaking, uh, some other language than Greek. It's so hard to understand them.

When cats roll over onto their back, uh, it may be a signal that hey, I trust you. Uh. It rarely means they actually want belly rubs. Some cats might. You know, cats have very different personalities. Some of them will be real oddballs. Like I had two cats growing up. One was, you're very classic like grumpy cat. She was, she had an attitude, she had pride. She was gray, paceful, a great hunter, and she would flame mice in front of my eyes, and she would accept pets if I

did them in a very respectful way. My other cat couldn't kill a fly. He was a goof as he was scared of his own shadow. And he uh would want to like sit on my chest with his face

in my face every morning. So just very different behaviors from different cats, um, but generally speaking, a cat rolling on its back means it's comfortable with you, and it's showing you it's belly because it's saying like, hey, you know, I'm I'm not afraid you're going to attack my belly and you're not gonna like get me in these sensitive areas,

so it's comfortable. In terms of cats turning their heads upside down, sometimes a friendly cat will turn their head upside down and like rub it on the ground because they are leaving a pheromone marking on the things that they feel at home with. But your cat is just sitting there with its head like turned upside down and it's not rubbing anything, and it's just looking at you.

I don't really know what that means. My best guess is your cat is curious about what you're doing, and she's trying to get another angle on you, just trying to get a different view of different perspective to maybe better figure out like what's going on with you. Especially if she's playful, she may be trying to get sort of a new perspective of what you're doing, playing around, having a good time, getting a getting a good view as for muttering around the house. So this is another

thing where it's really remarkable to me. Different cats often make different vocalizations. I had a cat who would chirp at birds, whereas the other one really wouldn't as much. But cats do chatter at birds. Uh. The reason they do this is something of a mystery. There's a number of theories. It could be excitement, it could be frustration and not being able to chase the bird. It could

be a form of mimicry. There's a there's a cat, a wildcat called the margart cat, which is it looks kind of like an awful lot if you know what that looks like. It's sort of got rounded ears, a spotted pelt. It's one of the it's a smaller wildcat but weighs up to about eight pounds or four kilograms, and it lives in Central America, Brazil, Paraguay and sort of tropical UH forests. And it mimics the sound of

a crying baby monkey. So they actually love to eat uh monkeys, small mammals, and so they will mimic this cry of a pied tamar and baby So pied tamar is very little monkey, very cute um, but for the margar it's a wonderful meal. So they will pretend to be the sound like this little crying monkey, and then that seems to cause other monkeys to go out to investigate and oops, it was a trap. It's actually pretty

insidious when you think about it. The cat is pretending to be a crying baby, and then when the monkeys go and investigate because they want to help, they get eaten. Quite devilish. But in terms of house cats, we don't know if they chirp to try to attract birds. That's not not anything proven, but we do see in the wild that there there is an example of a wildcat that does use its vocalization is a form of mimicry,

so that is that is potentially possible. Another theory is that cats have an instinctive activation of the throat and mouth muscles when they see prey because that's what they use to like bite the prey. So they're making this a little like chirping squeaking sound because they want to bite it, which I don't know if that's true, but whatever the case is, it's very cute. Uh. In terms of your cat just kind of muttering, not in the presence of birds, just kind of stomping around the house

and muttering to itself. Uh, there's a variety of meetings for cat grunts. Some cats are just more vocal than other cats. They'll just make noises when they move, and it's hard to know exactly what that is. You kind of have to use context for what their little grunts mean. If the cat is content and happy, they're probably just making happy little noises just you know, cats like to Cats like to make noises when they're happy. Sometimes they

do a little meal, sometimes they prayer. Sometimes they can just like little make little grunts. So it could be a sign there just chilling, having a good time, just almost like whistling to itself or something. Uh. If the cat is uncomfortable, she may be voicing annoyance or displeasure. So in order to understand the cat lingo, you've kind of got to take in the cat's body language. In general, vibe you gotta vibe check your cat all the time.

Vibe checking a cat is a complex procedure, uh, multifaceted operation. Best of luck to you vibe checking your cats. But from what I can tell from these photos, these are happy kitties and they're probably baby making, happy little grunts. So thank you guys so much for tuning into my Pets Listener Questions episode. If you have a question about your pet or about an animal, about a strange creature that's been stalking you in the night, send me your

questions at Creature Feature Pod at gmail dot com. You can find me on Instagram at Creature Feature Pod. You can also find me on Twitter at Creature feet Pod. That's not et that is something very different. And if you're enjoying the show and you leave a rating and review, I read all the reviews and I appreciate them. I really do. And of course, as always, thanks for the Space classics where they're super awesome. Song excel Lumina. And

again we will be back for season three. Yeah, I think it's season three on September eight, with all new episodes, all new animals, all new terrifying stories about about creatures. Yeah. So I can't wait to see see you guys again. And I mean that because I've got all sorts of spies all over the world. That you see a bird outside, that's probably me spying on you with my spy birds. You can't wait to see you guys again for season

three and uh but again. In the meantime, we've got oldies but goodies that I'm refurbishing, fit shining for you to listen to. Uh so stay tuned for those. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts like the one you just heard, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or Hey, guess what where have you listened to your favorite shows? See you next Wednesday and see you in September for season three.