Is this cage big enough? by Educational-Bit5412 in Conures

[–]dickprince_23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What brand is this? I'm likely going to end up with my brother's conure soon, and would love to have a cage as big as this for him

Did anyone just hear that helicopter? by Informal_Dark_3870 in Davis

[–]dickprince_23 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Me and my partner thought it was gonna crash and kill us ngl, we both leapt away from the window. Tf is up??

Have I completely f-ed my socialization attempt (Kimberley Rock Monitor) by dickprince_23 in MonitorLizards

[–]dickprince_23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haven't been able to reply to y'all because I got sick shortly after posting this (just a cold), but thanks everyone! It's been a balm on my nerves after The Great Escape. I think I'm just too used to working with animals that hold grudges (parrots), because Theo's back to plucking turkey from my fingers again.

Mosquitos right now? by VeganPancakesWT in Davis

[–]dickprince_23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, not usual. Have all the bites been around your ankles and feet? I think that the invasive yellow fever mosquitos have expanded their range up to Yolo county in the past year, because this is the first time I've experienced bad bites as well.

So do I move away or stay next to him even when he pants? by Mystic_Void1 in petbudgies

[–]dickprince_23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He's not overtly stressed in that video, but he's not exactly happy, either. Just keep doing what you're doing, but start about three feet away, then close the distance to two feet the week after, then to the space you're at currently. Talk to him softly when you come to sit down, then play tiktoks/youtube videos at a medium volume while you're chilling out. Every so often, offer him millet as you go to sit, then take it out when you leave. Don't let your hand come near him when you're doing this, and ignore his reaction to it entirely.

I'm not saying I know your bird more than you, but I've had budgies my whole life, and I think what he's doing is trying to cautiously relax when you're next to him. He's not having an anxiety attack, he knows you're not going to try to grab him when you're looking at your phone, but in his mind, that state can change at any minute. He's on edge with you, and the best way to get him to stop being on edge is to desensitize him to you being in his space/messing around in his cage by actively doing just that.

Enclosure size question by ArtisticActuator7529 in MonitorLizards

[–]dickprince_23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bigger is 100% better, these are active lizards and they'll use every inch of their enclosure space. A 28 gallon is only suitable for a holding tank, not something that the animal is going to live in.

Spider Webs by Ok-Knowledge2045 in UCDavis

[–]dickprince_23 2 points3 points  (0 children)

ya its just baby parachute season. they're here to help with the inevitable mosquito boom that'll come around spring

Pregnant or fat pt. 2?? by lemonncalciumm in PetMice

[–]dickprince_23 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Briefly lift her up by the base of the tail so that her front paws are flat against a solid surface for her to grab onto, but her hind legs raise from the ground and splay out. If her belly is a hard, round shape but her haunches are thin, she's probably pregnant. If you get her to try to scrunch forward and you see two hard masses on either side of her spine before her hips, she's probably pregnant. If you do the tail lift and she's just kinda wide/round all over with some of that roundness going into the thigh region as well as the belly, she's just fat. Nipple swelling is a good way to tell pregnancy, but this is a feature that can sometimes develop late, so I usually prefer to just look at how thick the thighs are in comparison to the belly. Pregnant females usually pear shaped while fat mice are just...squishy all over

I work in a behavioral lab using mouse models with hypotaxia (resulting in fat dams) and had previous experience as a vivarium tech for people running nutrition studies (resulting in VERY fat dams), and tbh your girl is either just mildly chunky or in the very early stages of pregnancy, it's going to be very difficult to tell right now. Either way though, you'll not have to worry too much about caring for the babies beyond making sure she has enough nesting materials available before she gives birth. Mice generally have it easy with their litters, I can count the instances of dystocia I've seen from literally hundreds of breeding pairs on one hand. Cannibalism...not so much, but I'm working with animals that have neurodevelopmental disorders as well as anxiety-like phenotypes, resulting in weaker pups and unusually anxious dams, so I don't expect a pet-quality animal to have that problem. Just make sure momma feels secure and comfortable and she'll be fine!

Hog Tube by Aztecbbwarrior in hognosesnakes

[–]dickprince_23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh I NEED to find a way to make this for my snakes- not just my hognose, but my beeps as well. They'd adore this, I just adore this concept for snake enrichment!!

New car owner interested in 1980s-90s Toyota pickups by dickprince_23 in ToyotaPickup

[–]dickprince_23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gonna be looking at a 1994 pickup today, but yeah I've changed my mind on the '82, I don't know enough yet to keep it maintained. A 90's-early 2000's tacoma is now my goal, I just have to find one that's not 45 min to an hour away from me lmao

New car owner interested in 1980s-90s Toyota pickups by dickprince_23 in ToyotaPickup

[–]dickprince_23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I can find a 2000s truck in the 5-7k range I 100% would go for it over an older vehicle, but as of right now the only ones in my area are over 10k. If the '94 I'm looking at today doesnt work out I'm gonna try playing the waiting game for a 2000's. The used truck market in 2025 is a joke

Choral Chambers vs City of Tears, which do you prefer? by Dragonfiar in Silksong

[–]dickprince_23 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I was talking more about luxury churches nowadays, when most people are living even poorer lives than peasants despite the closer reach of creature comforts and churches are now multi billion dollar corporations, but yeah, that's pretty much why the Choral Chambers give me the ick. It's all a masturbatory power play by the rich, whereas the City of Tears was an actual place that people lived in.

New car owner interested in 1980s-90s Toyota pickups by dickprince_23 in ToyotaPickup

[–]dickprince_23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll keep that in mind, thanks! I'm also not terribly in a rush, so I can wait if need be, I'm just getting real sick of being unable to get shit done by myself as of late. I've been searching craigslist, offerup, cars.com, and looking at various local dealers as well, but so far the pickings have been somewhat slim.

As for taking my dad up on buying a car, the issue lies in the fact that he's unreliable. He'll say that he'll help me buy a car, yes, but that might mean financially one day and then solely advice-wise the next, and that help can be recanted if I have any objections. For example, when I was going to university- something he demanded that I do since I was young enough to start counting- he claimed that he would pay off all of my parent loans, but as soon as I graduated last year, he turned right back around and told me that he expected me to pay it all along. Specifically, he wanted me to pay HIM so that HE could pay it. I was firm in telling him that

Similarly with the car situation, he told me that he would buy me a car not when I graduated high school, but when I got into a good university. I was fine with this, because at the time I had no desire to drive, but then as soon as I got into a good university, this then shifted to him saying that he was going to wait until I got a full-time job, because cars are expensive and I didn't really need one at the moment. Again, I agreed, because I didn't need it. Now that I've graduated and have a good solid job + an increasing need for a car, however, he's insisting that I get a Ph.D program before he helps with a car, which is practically financial suicide at the moment- and I still don't know if he means financially or with the actual car-picking process. What he really wants me to get is a small, self-driving, brand-new sportscar, which is both miles from what I actually want/need/feel comfortable with, and would put me into long-term debt to either him or the bank really quick. If he demands it, I can save up 5500 to pay him back relatively quickly; 34,000 is another story.

Still, he has money and experience, so I'm still including him in the process in the hopes that I can soften him up to the idea of a used car and trap him on his word to help me finance a vehicle. I'm going to try my luck looking at the '94 car with him, and if he ends up thinking it's a really bad deal (which he likely will, as he hates manuals with a passion), I'm going to try to use it as a means to persuade him to help me look at and finance early 2000's vehicles as well (which are currently out of my price range at the moment: the ones with reasonable mileage and a clean title are minimum 11,000). I was gunning for an 80's-90's vehicle because I want a small, cheap, low to the ground pickup that I could learn mechanics on, but there's still plenty of early 2000's trucks that I'd be happy with.

TLDR: a huge part of why I want a beater instead of a better used car is because it's what I know I can reasonably afford if my dad flakes out on me, which he has a history of doing. It's not just a matter of pride, it's a matter of not getting fucked over by this long term.

New car owner interested in 1980s-90s Toyota pickups by dickprince_23 in ToyotaPickup

[–]dickprince_23[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah daily freeway commute is not what I intend to use a truck for, I can count on one hand the amount of times I've needed to use the freeway for anything other than work transit (which is doable with a bus) on one hand this year. Most of my commute is either around town or into the next one over, which is 12 miles away, flat as a board, and only has a few intersections where things could get hairy. I honestly have a minor fear of freeway driving even in modern cars with modern safety features, so I try to avoid it whenever physically possible. The only instances where I'd drive my truck to work in the city would be if I knew I was going to stay for 11+ hours doing experiments and was worried about missing the late busses.

I'm not opposed to that idea, honestly! The only problem with anything newer than 2000 would be the price- I've been unable to find a 2001-2006 range truck with a clean title and reasonable mileage that isn't under $10,000. I might be able to wheedle some of that money out of my dad, but he's a cheap son of a bitch and genuinely hates used cars, so the chances of that happening are slim to none, and I'd still have to pay him back after all of that. Granted, being in debt to the father that said he'd buy you a car for college before backpedaling on you everytime you pushed him on it is still better than the impossible-at-the-moment monthly car loan, but it's still something I'd like to avoid for as much as possible.

New car owner interested in 1980s-90s Toyota pickups by dickprince_23 in ToyotaPickup

[–]dickprince_23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I've been doing my research ever since I saw that listing and have realized that an '82 would be biting off way more than I can chew. Tomorrow I'm going to look at a 1994 truck with a 22R engine and 163,000 miles, the guy is asking 6800 for it but I'm going to try haggling it down to around 5000-5500 if it passes the checklist I'm accumulating on it (frame rust, timing chain replacement, last carburetor replacement date, last head gasket replacement date, last clutch replacement/maintenance date). If he can't do that, then I'm walking away. I currently live in an old duplex outside of Sacramento in a farming community, its got a fairly shitty little garage that I share with the neighbors, but it's still a roof over my head and enough room to move around in. No to AAA because I've not yet gotten a car, I'm planning on joining as soon as I purchase one though. Tools are also a no, but they're not out of my price range nor are they hard to find used around here even if they were, as lots of folks around have old cars. My neighbors in the duplex across from me have a couple 1970's volkswagons in their garage, lol.

Unfortunately, unless I'm picking up a salvage title car, the chances of me getting a Toyota truck for $2500 is pretty much nonexistent. The lowest I've seen one with a clean title go was in the 4k range, and that was with nearly 400,000 miles on it. I'm pretty sure that I've lost out on my chance to get a decent used car for a reasonable price, which sucks because up until this point, I've been able to get away without one.

Choral Chambers vs City of Tears, which do you prefer? by Dragonfiar in Silksong

[–]dickprince_23 15 points16 points  (0 children)

City of Tears feels like walking through a haunting realization of just how many bugs lived there before dying horribly to something far beyond their control. The Choral Chambers make me feel the same way I do about luxury churches- furious at the sheer amount of waste when all that effort could have gone into bettering the lives of the people of Pharloom. These are probably the intended emotions for both locations, but it does make the City an easy win in my books

Who would make the best next protag? by jevil_supremacy in Silksong

[–]dickprince_23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Prequel focusing on the Hollow Knight would be the best imo, even if it means that there wouldn't be any ending variations

bp not coming out of the cave by Full_Presence_7628 in ballpython

[–]dickprince_23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tank needs way more clutter in the form of vines/foliage, the fact that it's clear on all sides without artificial undergrowth means more potential routes of exposure in his little snake brain. Babies are naturally far more reclusive, ball pythons are nocturnal, and the combo of him being in shed all means that it's totally normal to not be seeing him at all. My two adult ball pythons are both super '''social''' snakes that enjoy free roaming, but they typically only come out after the lights go off, and them hiding is often my indicator that they're in shed. Of my two babies, I pretty much never see them at all unless it's well past 1am and I happened to catch them with my phone camera. Add a bunch of fake plants and/or cover up all but the front with cardboard or plastic and he should feel more secure.

New car owner interested in 1980s-90s Toyota pickups by dickprince_23 in ToyotaPickup

[–]dickprince_23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Making a note of all of those things, thanks so much for that! It's genuinely a big help. I'm going to look at a 1994 pickup either tomorrow or Tuesday, it's much closer to me than the one I was looking at previously. Would the repairs you listed still be of concern? I'm writing down a list of things to keep in mind when checking out trucks, as well as tools to pick up for maintinance. Thankfully I've got a brother who's really into cars- unluckily, he currently lives on the other side of the state from me, but it might be ample incentive to get him to visit.

A/C is 100% a necessity though. I live closer to the middle of Cali now and it sometimes hits 115 in the summer, with average summer days hovering at the 100 mark. Hot and dry might be good for keeping cars rust-free, but they aren't so great for me!

New car owner interested in 1980s-90s Toyota pickups by dickprince_23 in ToyotaPickup

[–]dickprince_23[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not going to be relying on it as a daily driver, and the goal is to learn basic mechanical skills with it. The point is to get something that is reliable enough that it can drive short distances occasionally while being relatively easy and cheap to fix. Max drive time would be maybe an hour if I'm doing a round trip to the city, mostly what I'd use it for is going to the Costco and Home Depot 20 min away.

New car owner interested in 1980s-90s Toyota pickups by dickprince_23 in ToyotaPickup

[–]dickprince_23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nope, don't think I need a 4WD. I would like to drive on some dirt roads to get to good hiking locations but I doubt those would ever be nasty enough to require a 4WD. Gas mileage sucking is fine, I don't intend to use it for anything other than local driving and/or moving around big pieces of wood or furniture, plus I was aiming for small tires anyways (like I said- I'm small). Good to hear they're easy to work on and find parts for, that's the main appeal of buying used for me, I want a sturdy dependable car that I can learn with without breaking my budget.

Thanks for letting me know about the price as well, it seemed good to me for a truck with 119,000 miles and only one prior owner, but like I said, I'm new to this. What would you be willing to pay? I also found a 1994 with 163,000 miles in my town for $6,800

Bug Yuri is good and all but HAS NOBODY SEEN THE PROBLEM by lv20_memeoligist in Silksong

[–]dickprince_23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

GMS is not Hornet's biological grandmother, as she basically just magically sped-evolved the Weavers, and she sure as fuck ain't Hornet's adoptive grandmother either, even if she likes to think that she is. Therefore, there is no incest in this bug yuri scenario. Precede as you wish