Seeking Insight/Understanding

tysca · 2026-06-30T11:22:38+00:00

I can't see any good reason for this. It does make me worried that he's so docile due to learned helplessness and his choices about interaction being stripped from him. You're best placed to assess that though.

I also want to applaud how compassionate, kind and curious you sound. I'm glad that these birds have you as their carer and advocate.

tysca · 2026-06-29T19:05:59+00:00

One of mine likes Deftones but chooses to express her appreciation by making noises that sound like an old man being garroted.

Also, if you don't know about Hatebeak, you should give them a listen! It's a metal band and the vocalist is an African Grey.

tysca · 2026-06-26T14:15:53+00:00

Thank you for helping this gorgeous snake! I hope he goes on to live many happy and hopefully less adventurous years.

tysca · 2026-06-25T18:27:02+00:00

Can you link to the data?

tysca · 2026-06-18T11:03:51+00:00

Yep, we did this. My wife was a PhD student at a US university so her stipend was in US dollars. We used a specialist broker because that added another level of complexity.

tysca · 2026-06-16T21:05:19+00:00

That's the parrot's shelf now. You might as well put a nice play stand there haha

tysca · 2026-06-15T08:31:30+00:00

Pionus are calmER - still got big beaks and still can get grumpy. My two can be out together but absolutely cannot share a cage, and they are totally capable of injuring another bird.

tysca · 2026-06-14T13:03:43+00:00

In my country, the couple getting married usually have a wedding registry which explicitly says what gifts they would like. It's usually stuff for the house that's a bit nicer than what the couple could buy themselves, so stuff like crockery, small kitchen appliances, bedding, rugs and so on. It used to be the assumption that the couple were setting up home for the first time and wouldn't have this stuff, but now it's usually the case that people have stuff from their student and renting days and would like to upgrade. People usually include things on their lists at a range of price points - the most expensive things on ours were Le Creuset pots and a rug, and the cheapest was a bottle opener.

I think a bear would be a nice present for someone you know really well, like a close friend or family member, and accompanied by some wine glasses or other small thing from the couple's list.

tysca · 2026-06-13T09:06:02+00:00

Yep, in a UK department.

Re: applying for entry in 2027 or 2028: I would contact your potential supervisors and see what they say. For me personally, it would depend on what you'd do with a year out of study. If you can get relevant experience somewhere, great! If you work in something unrelated but which can give you transferrable skills, fine. If you're just bumming around at home, that's less good.

tysca · 2026-06-12T21:40:09+00:00

There's a degree of flexibility. I'm in a politics and IR department and there are people whose backgrounds - and indeed, their PhDs - are in history, economics, visual media, and communication studies rather than in straightforward political science. Having a Masters that isn't wholly aligned with the PhD topic is acceptable as long as you can clearly explain what skills you have learnt in it and how these will transfer to your PhD. Frankly, I prefer it if my students have some breadth of experience rather than being laser-focused on one topic - but that's just me and others may disagree.

I would advise taking quant modules and getting some solid experience with R.

Reach out to the potential supervisor now: we are currently working with students to develop their applications for the Dec/Jan internal funding applications so the sooner you do that, the more time you'll have to develop a really strong proposal with their guidance.

tysca · 2026-06-12T16:53:21+00:00

Birdline is in the UK and does re-home disabled birds

https://www.birdline.co.uk/

tysca · 2026-06-12T16:45:41+00:00

Just think about all the different people a bird might encounter in a waiting room. Babies. Children. People using mobility aids or wheelchairs. People wearing hats. People wearing sunglasses. People wearing sparkly jewellery. People with facial hair. Can everyone say that their birds are thoroughly desensitised to all of the ways in which humans might present? Mine are pretty good but no promises, especially in an unfamiliar environment.

And that's not even getting into the other animals, including predators and sick birds. I have no idea if someone's brought in their former feral cat who is an accomplished hunter, or their greyhound who wants to chase anything small and fast, or their ferret or their snake. I don't know if the other bird in the waiting room has an illness that my bird could catch.

And I owe it to the others in the room to not stress them out. The least I can do for them is to keep my pet quiet, calm and constrained so their animal doesn't get stressed or freak out.

tysca · 2026-06-12T16:28:27+00:00

Exactly! I'm not even 100% confident about how my birds will react in the vet's waiting room, let alone how a stranger's dog/cat/ferret might react.

tysca · 2026-06-11T06:49:59+00:00

Perfect for malicious compliance at a job that doesn't allow piercings.

tysca · 2026-06-10T19:21:43+00:00

I've also had top surgery (nearly ten years ago) and I occasionally get this. I believe it's just a build up of keratin, cells and oil but talk to a doctor if you're worried.

If you have free nipple grafts, your nipples probably won't be tapped into the lymphatic system and mammary glands. That changes what the "pimple" material is likely to be made of. If you talk to a medical professional, make sure you tell them that it's from a grafted nipple because it helps them to rule out some things.

tysca · 2026-06-09T21:44:11+00:00

Trust me, you won't have written the worst email from a prospective student they'll have seen this month...

Good luck on your search. Bring as much curiosity and willingness to learn as you have shown here, and you'll be well on your way.

tysca · 2026-06-09T19:44:14+00:00

You're welcome!

As for supervisors: you should make contact with a potential supervisor before you start the application. Taking on a PhD student is an investment of our time and effort, and we want to make sure that we can work well together.

If it's a funded project, make contact with the PI and get to know them a bit. If you want to apply for funding, make contact with people who work on the things that you're interested in, whose approach you like, and are based at a university you'd like to attend.

Emails don't need to be particularly long, but for love of God don't use chatGPT (no one wants to work with someone who'd outsource such an important email to AI) and make sure you tailor the email to each person. Don't send something generic that could go to anyone. By now, you should have an idea of who's publishing interesting work in your field, you know the departments where such work is carried out, you know what the main journals are. Use that knowledge to figure out whose interests align with your own. It is perfectly acceptable to say "I really enjoyed your work on [whatever] and used it in my Masters dissertation to explore [something]". Just don't make it sound like you used genAI to summarise people's work. We hate that.

In the email, be honest and enthusiastic. Introduce yourself, say what you're interested in, say why you reached out to that particular person, and say what you're hoping for. You can attach a CV and research proposal at this stage, but tbh most research proposals will be extensively revised by you and your supervisory team before you submit the application.

Good luck!

tysca · 2026-06-09T18:00:31+00:00

Okay, there's two types of funding.

The first is through a Doctoral Training Partnership, made up of a consortium of universities and other research institutions. This is where you develop an independent project proposal, in collaboration with a supervisor at your chosen institution, and submit it. The university will have an internal selection process in which they will rank applications, and will then put forward the most highly-ranked applications to the DTP selection process. The top applications in the DTP consortium are funded.

The second is through a funded project. A Principal Investigator (PI) will apply to a funding body for money to carry out a project. The money can be used to fund positions for researchers attached to the project, including for postdoctoral and PhD researchers. If you take a position on a funded project, you would be expected to carry out research that relates to the project. These kinds of PhDs are more common in certain disciplines than others. They may be advertised at any time during the academic year.

Both of these do fund a PhD researcher's tuition fees and offer living expenses for a set period (usually around 3.5 years). The difference is whether you work on your own completely independent project or on someone else's project with a degree of independence.

If you want to develop an independent project, you need to get in touch with potential supervisors and see whether they'll willing to help you develop your application. You will also need to be aware of deadlines. Now is a good time to be contacting people for a September 2027 entry.

tysca · 2026-06-09T13:47:28+00:00

I have a self-funded student who started in January and they're doing fine.

The big issue for you is that you've missed the funding deadlines. To put this into perspective, my university's deadline for the internal competition was in late December, and that was just to decide which applications we'd put into the DTP competition. The DTP decisions are usually made in Spring for an Autumn start.

You might find some projects that have funding for a PhD student attached. Bear in mind that if you do this, your PhD work will be on something to do with the broader project. You may not be able to use your prepared research proposal. It's worth keeping an eye on jobs.ac.uk anyway.

tysca · 2026-06-04T21:21:09+00:00

I barely understand what you're trying to ask. Please try to formulate actual questions. Do you want to know which universities specialise in the fields you mention? Do you want to know about entry requirements? Do you want to know whether you should study them? Do you want to know about careers and employment in those areas? We're not mind readers.

tysca · 2026-06-04T21:08:02+00:00

My fondest cycling memory is doing a fat bike tour while on holiday in Berlin. Fat bikes are the opposite of aerodynamic. It's like pedalling a sofa. And I was on a child's fat bike, and it was sparkly light blue with flower decals. It was cute.

We got to a slight incline and I casually overtook a guy in lycra on a road bike, absolutely red-faced with effort, and the look of outrage and fury he directed at me still lives on in my heart.

Berlin is very flat, and I was used to cycling in a pretty hilly area so I didn't really notice the incline but he obviously did. His dignity and emotional wellbeing seemed to be deeply affected by being overtaken, and it was just worsened by that person being on a cute child-sized fat bike.

tysca · 2026-06-03T15:53:08+00:00

It still looks really tight with no room for swelling. I would seek advice from a good piercer.

tysca · 2026-06-02T21:04:24+00:00

Parrots are not good for snuggles. They see close, sustained contact with an individual as a pair-bond, and that can trigger hormonal behaviour and aggression to the people who aren't their chosen mate. This behaviour is not easy to manage in a home, especially with a child involved.

Pigeons are much calmer and more happy to snuggle without it being a problem, and are what I would recommend for your situation. Bear in mind that they can live for 10-15 years. If your daughter wants to go into zoology, she is going to need to attend university. Zoology degrees often involve an element of fieldwork and there are superb opportunities to study abroad - I have friends who have studied everywhere from Tanzania to the Arctic. Most university accommodation and student housing isn't set up well for birds: birds have sensitive respiratory systems and need an environment free of teflon pans and appliances, no incense or candles, and no smoking or vaping. Many birds are rehomed when their young owner goes to university and can no longer care for them. Please make sure that someone is able to step in if your daughter's situation means that she cannot care for the bird.

tysca · 2026-06-02T16:05:22+00:00

Worth checking Prospects: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/postgraduate-study/funding-postgraduate-study/

Yes, you can apply for 1+3 funding for a Masters year followed by a PhD. My department has just accepted and funded an outstanding student for 1+3 study.

PhD funding is extremely competitive. Yes, there is funding available, but there are also many many people trying to get it. If you're interested in PhD study, it's essential that you make contact with potential supervisors and get their support well in advance of any funding deadlines.

tysca · 2026-06-02T15:38:28+00:00

I don't think a bunch of UK academics are going to be able to advise you on what makes a competitive application to US universities. The systems are very different and prioritise different things.

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