Masturbation among birds is ‘natural’ and should not be punished, say experts | Animal behaviour

1362 points by kwentongskyblue a day ago on reddit | 170 comments

Ashamed-Status-9668 | a day ago

Cardinal sin.

Gnosis1409 | a day ago

Goddamnit

Stunning-Zone6607 | 19 hours ago

Youre shocked?

Garbhunt3r | 23 hours ago

Poor man’s award for you🏆

MantusTMD | 22 hours ago

Oh my god

ddz1507 | 18 hours ago

getout.gif

gorpie97 | 17 hours ago

🤣🤣🤣

Not enough upvotes for an 8-hour old comment!

nomadichedgehog | 6 hours ago

I think a lot of people wouldn't get it

gorpie97 | 4 hours ago

I guess those not raised with Western religion/Catholicism might not. And that's probably a majority on the planet, but maybe not a majority on reddit. IDK

nomadichedgehog | 2 hours ago

I was actually talking about the bird itself

sixhoursneeze | 22 hours ago

No blue bird has blue balls in the wild

Charmegazord | 15 hours ago

Comment has me crowing. I’m gonna parrot it everywhere…

3pok | a day ago

I am proud that I never found myself punishing a bird for jerking off. I am very open minded.

Commercial-Avocado-3 | a day ago

i don’t punish myself either.

noodletropin | 23 hours ago

I consider not punishing myself to be punishing myself. Or was that not a euphemism?

hopefullyhelpfulplz | 7 hours ago

The difference is that you ARE bad and need to be punished

Whole-Energy2105 | 7 hours ago

Oh I punish myself extremely while masturbating.

camshun7 | a day ago

Who in the heckiedoodie is ratting on the little fellas, smh

the_scarlett_ning | 23 hours ago

I buy my birds bird-porn. That way I can make sure they’re watching safe porn with adult birds only.

TesseractToo | 22 hours ago

That's called a mirror

Some birds just fall in love with their reflection

morganational | a day ago

I've been watching you, and I'm proud of you. 👍🏼❤️

AlexandrTheTolerable | 23 hours ago

Creepy

TheFlyingBoxcar | 22 hours ago

r/brandnewsentence

Stunning-Zone6607 | 19 hours ago

What would be the appropriate puishment? What if the bird is a repeat offender? Or chirps out that far from regreting jerking his bird pecker off, he enjoyed it and will do it again? Enjoyed it! No regret! What can you do with such birds. No wonder threyre up in those trees chirping away. I always suspected something was going on.

edgarecayce | 23 hours ago

So reading this right, I should have never gotten on that list for whacking it at the aviary? I mean, I was masturbating amongst birds.

Fold67 | 23 hours ago

Only if they were all adult birds.

edgarecayce | 20 hours ago

Well the ones in the eggs couldn’t see

Living-By-The-River | 19 hours ago

I’m going to start screaming into the trees now that I know what they’re doing up there.

promiseheron | 13 hours ago

i dont think you can call women that anymore

Oaktree27 | a day ago

Who is punishing the birds?

Faolyn | a day ago

According to the article, vets. They were telling owners to discourage the birds from doing it, or even prescribing meds or surgery to stop it. They believed the birds masturbated because if stress or boredom.

Researchers discovered that wild birds did it more than pet birds, however.

TesseractToo | 23 hours ago

Some of them never ever stop. They'd give gooners a good run for their money

I had a budgie that was constantly doing it the other birds in the cage were grossed out by him and one day right in the middle of doing his thing he dropped dead from a heart attack

He went doing what he loved, but the other birds were so happy and sang so much when he died lol

[OP] kwentongskyblue | 22 hours ago

gooned too close to the sun

TesseractToo | 22 hours ago

~~never mind~~

Acceptable_Trip4650 | 17 hours ago

You know what? It’s my fault for reading this far.

TesseractToo | 17 hours ago

Sorry I got carried away with the Icarus analogy :<

Faolyn | 23 hours ago

Death by chirp-chirp?

TesseractToo | 21 hours ago

The ladies were not interested in chirp-chrip with him

stryst | 18 hours ago

Birds are *brutal*.

TesseractToo | 17 hours ago

Yeah I'd underestimated how much his behavior was bothering the others, I was so busy trying not to project that I ended up making their living arrangement less than optimal, I should have given him his own space

Remarkable_Cake_4735 | 21 hours ago

Lol

XhaLaLa | 20 hours ago

So they thought it was a coping/stress behavior, and the solution was to medicate or even surgically prevent the birds from engaging in their coping mechanism? Humans really never change, huh?

Faolyn | 19 hours ago

There's a strangely large number of people who think that if they have two cats or dogs of the same sex snuggling, that means they're gay, and there's also a disturbingly large number of people who think masturbation is a sin or something. Which means there's gotta be people who think that if animals do anything sexual, and it's not to produce little baby animals, it's bad.

Maleficent_Pilot1137 | 20 hours ago

I mean I could absolutely see this being a response to stress and boredom, but the prescribed solution by these vets makes no sense. Why not focus on what is stressing or why the bird doesn't have enough engaging alternative activities? It seems like this course of action would only cause the bird to be even more stressed.

Faolyn | 19 hours ago

According to the article, it was feared that the birds would "hurt themselves" somehow. I'm not someone who is into keeping birds, but it seems that if you do keep birds, their cage should be set up that rubbing against things wouldn't hurt them. Maybe it's one of those things like how a stressed cat may overgroom themselves raw; a stressed bird may boink themselves into an injury? I dunno.

TemporaryElk5202 | 20 hours ago

Dumb vets imo. Birds are intelligent. Intelligent things like to masturbate. Birds, dolphins, humans, etc.

Remarkable_Cake_4735 | 23 hours ago

Well, wild birds are bored too, duh

ennuiui | 23 hours ago

And what's more high stress than living outside with all the predators?

AlexandrTheTolerable | 23 hours ago

Having a vet that won’t even let you masturbate.

Remarkable_Cake_4735 | 21 hours ago

Lol

Remarkable_Cake_4735 | 21 hours ago

Constant stress becomes boring

rainywanderingclouds | 21 hours ago

the thing is people are very controlling when it comes to these type of behaviors they see it is disgusting because humans do it 'privately' where as other animals do it in the open.

you could tell many people over and over again its natural behavior for birds to do this and still most bird owners aren't going to like it.

loungesinger | 21 hours ago

Seems like these birds may have a lawsuit. If only we knew someone adept in bird law.

Find_another_whey | 10 hours ago

Stress boredom, solitude, good company, relaxation, overstimulation, as a replacement for a bird...

Remarkable_Cake_4735 | a day ago

My guess is some pet owners

Regurgitator001 | a day ago

The church probably.

Noy_The_Devil | a day ago

I hear if you masturbate too much your wings grow feathers. Is this true?

Remarkable_Cake_4735 | 23 hours ago

Lol

jerbthehumanist | 23 hours ago

Sorry man, my bad. I will stop punishing the birds for masturbating.

sixhoursneeze | 22 hours ago

If you go on any of the parrot subreddits there is an ongoing thing of sending a bird to “horny jail”, which means isolating them in their cage. The thought is that allowing birds to become hormonal makes them more aggressive.

_Nacktmull_ | a day ago

No species should be punished for masturbating.

Siderophores | 16 hours ago

What about dogs and setting boundaries on the couch 😭

_Nacktmull_ | 2 hours ago

Punishment in animal training is an outdated and sadistic concept that has been replaced by positive reinforcement years ago.

Informal_954 | an hour ago

Nothing to do with your comment, but I want to take a minute and complain about the scientific term positive/negative reïnforcement/punishment.

I think they really should change it to additive/subtractive reïnforcement/punishment. Mostly because positive punishment is completely counter-intuitive and almost an oxymoron. Additive and subtractive make way more sense for giving and taking something away as punishment.

No_Performance8070 | 17 hours ago

What if the species is into that?

_Nacktmull_ | 2 hours ago

I don't kinkshame...

costafilh0 | 17 hours ago

Except monkeys.

loztriforce | a day ago

We have a cockatiel that loves to grind on one of its toys.

It's funny because the only thing our bird can say is "good bird", so it'll be getting itself off saying that.

bizarre_lizard | 23 hours ago

To be fair there's a lot of humans who get off on toys while being called "good boy/girl", so idk that seems pretty normal to me

sixhoursneeze | 22 hours ago

Reminds me of a comedian who said it’s hard to do dirty talk on non-binary people.

Sexy voice: ”You’re a bad person”

bizarre_lizard | 20 hours ago

As a nonbinary person, I can confirm this would work on me

AlbertTheHorse | a day ago

I think a lot of animals do it.

I've seen it in horses.

Very unsubtle.

Glittering-Lead246 | a day ago

They have no hands! Or arms!

AlbertTheHorse | a day ago

They have bellies. *shrugs*

Men, right?

costafilh0 | 17 hours ago

Some women like to help horses with that. You can see it on the internet.

Fresh_Sock8660 | 6 hours ago

Username...checks out?

AlbertTheHorse | 4 hours ago

Yes…I have a horse named…..Albert.

(It wasn’t him, btw)

zoidmaster | a day ago

Who the hell is punishing an animal for masturbating

CleaningCoyoteCalf | a day ago

The church I grew up in for one.

greenistheneworange | 3 hours ago

In the bell tower?

TemporaryElk5202 | a day ago

probably people with pet birds

GarbageCleric | 22 hours ago

Bird Satan.

Responsible_Ad1940 | 16 hours ago

catholics

costafilh0 | 17 hours ago

Porn stars.

nCubed21 | a day ago

Isn't everything animals do by definition natural?

Blue_Butterfly_Who | 23 hours ago

If they're in nature, most of the time the answer would be yes (even there they're influenced by humans in their surroundings). Putting an animal in a cage (for example) however is not natural, and it can incite behaviours that aren't natural. In captive animals that have too little (natural) stimuli, 'stereotypical' behaviour can occur, like weaving, walking the same path endlessly etc.

costafilh0 | 17 hours ago

Humans are also animals.

nCubed21 | 14 hours ago

You know I didnt know that. I was under the impression we were robots. Are aliens also animals?

Blue_Butterfly_Who | 9 hours ago

No, they haven't been uploaded in the matrix yet, they are still an unknown

nCubed21 | 9 hours ago

Wait yeah thats weird. Because its like schrodinger. In order for them to be in the matrix, we would have to first observe them, but for us to observe them they'd have to first be in the matrix.

Blue_Butterfly_Who | 7 hours ago

Schrödingers aliens 😅

Ugaritus | a day ago

Birds gonna get in hell for this.

WokkitUp | a day ago

Are there fun names? Like Feather Tethering? Or Beaking Off?

stilettopanda | a day ago

There are now.

Bird sex has a fun name though. Most birds only have an all purpose hole, and join them together- it’s called the “Cloacal kiss” hahaha

WokkitUp | 23 hours ago

And here I was, hoping for a name like "Beast of Birdin'" but it'll have to do. I don't have the heart to look it up though. That'd probably take a lifetime to erase that image lol

ArchStanton75 | 21 hours ago

Of course it’s a cockatiel in the thumbnail. I had a very sweet cockatiel who would whistle songs with us and coo. He would also hop on my wife’s hand to masturbate on her pinky knuckle. At first we thought he was just doing a weird dance. Then he got slower and more deliberate and grunty. He shook and flew off to his perch, but left behind… a residue. My wife had to start hiding her hands when he was out of his cage.

SortLow314 | 20 hours ago

(Insert hand fetish copypasta)

burnsian | 20 hours ago

I'm sorry, but can we just take a moment to appreciate the opening sentence of this article?

"An investigation into acts of self-pleasure among parrots and other birds has reached a climax, with the results providing welcome relief for vets and researchers, not to mention the birds themselves."

Change21 | a day ago

#science

morganational | a day ago

Guys, stop punishing these horny birds! C'mon!

Western-Bet2285 | a day ago

Now these are the headlines I love showing up on my feed!

Plus-Ad-7983 | 23 hours ago

r/NotTheOnion

AlexandrTheTolerable | 23 hours ago

They don’t accept articles from The Guardian

[OP] kwentongskyblue | 22 hours ago

bonkers tbh

AlexandrTheTolerable | 22 hours ago

Indeed.

Edit: Makes me question the integrity of the mods. They seem to block most decent publications.

NoAbrocoma9357 | 21 hours ago

Who is punishing birds for masturbating?! If I ever see a masturbating bird I'll pretend I didn't see it and let them take care of business. Same for other species.

Darth_Lacey | 19 hours ago

Vets thought it was a sign of stress due to captivity. Turns out wild birds do it even more

TheMuffler42069 | a day ago

Who was punishing horny birds ? And how were they able to identify that the birds are masterbating ?

TesseractToo | 22 hours ago

Ohhhhh you can tell

antipolitan | 23 hours ago

Stop buying pet birds in the first place. Hell - stop buying pets.

If you must - adopt, don’t stop. Breeding is wrong and exploitative.

TallTallent | 14 hours ago

Who tf if our here punishing birds for this?!

Doridar | 12 hours ago

Any religious zelot denying Nature

PsychologicalLog4179 | a day ago

Great now I feel bad for choking my chicken.

Patralgan | 20 hours ago

Wait.. Who punishes that? Why? How?

Particular_Peacock | 17 hours ago

What sort of controlling asshole punishes their chirp for having an orgasm?

6ory299e8 | 17 hours ago

natural or not, what kind of psycho would punish a bird for that?

DrPeterVankman | 9 hours ago

Did a bird write this

bean930 | a day ago

Does...does anyone have a video of this happening? You know, for science?

[OP] kwentongskyblue | a day ago

FBI, this fella right here

AlexandrTheTolerable | 23 hours ago

I’m sure they’re already aware.

gigantesghastly | 23 hours ago

Every other post on r/parrots is “what is my bird doing” and the reply is always a big old wank.

Physical_Dentist2284 | 23 hours ago

The Catholic Church would like a word…

Rumblestillskin | 23 hours ago

I wonder if there are nofappers in the bird population punishing themselves for no good reason.

Prestigious-Copy-494 | 21 hours ago

Saw a video of a parrot in the wild get on a researcher's head and go at it.There were claws involved but the researcher managed to keep his cool. Ouch!

ph33rlus | 21 hours ago

Who’s been shaming birds all this time for this to be news?

ahmtiarrrd | 20 hours ago

"Bobby, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I want to be a scientist and study animal masturbation!"

Kaslight | 20 hours ago

Imagine spending your whole life in a FUCKING cage

and then being punished for jorkin it

griffaliff | 19 hours ago

I had this article sent to me in various WhatsApp chats / groups four times today. Funny stuff.

TipAfraid4755 | 16 hours ago

Ok noted with thanks

GhostGrom | 15 hours ago

Were there bird owners out there punishing this behavior?

DocumentExternal6240 | 12 hours ago

Why is the word natural in quotes in the headline?

bazonthereddit | 10 hours ago

Birds should wait until they are married to engage in sexual acts.

porizj | 23 hours ago

Try explaining that to the judge who banned me from Central Park!

iridescentcotton | 23 hours ago

Same with dogs humping. It's natural and people should just let them be.

AlexandrTheTolerable | 23 hours ago

Depends on what they’re humping.

Garbhunt3r | 23 hours ago

The same goes for when cats make sin biscuits. Disturbing? Yes. Natural? Also yes. We all seek pleasure one way or another

Big-Criticism-8137 | 22 hours ago

People are punishing it ? As far as I know people kept thinking their birds are "dancing" lmao.
God i hate some people.

juanbiscombe | 21 hours ago

Not exactly punishing, but some people are telling their birds that they will grow feathers on their feet. This is quite disturbing for those birds that speak English.

Big-Criticism-8137 | 21 hours ago

I am too high for this

ALittleWit | 22 hours ago

r/brandnewsentence

ColdBeginning2543 | 21 hours ago

I understand about birds but what about pussies?.

glakhtchpth | 21 hours ago

This reminds me of how Robert Scott became aghast and shot his sled dogs when he caught them eating feces out of a craving for unmet nutritional needs. Prudish dumbshit popsicle.

beigechrist | 21 hours ago

Oh, so I have to stop spanking that sparrow on the porch

Femveratu | 20 hours ago

Bailiff? Whack his pepe!

MouseEXP | 20 hours ago

Aight

morguerunner | 19 hours ago

Oh okay, I was wondering

engineeringsquirrel | 18 hours ago

We're a kink shame free zone. That include birds.

costafilh0 | 17 hours ago

Ain't no bird of mine onanist. Ain't no bird of mine going to hell.

covex_d | 16 hours ago

who tf is punishing birds for masturbation?!

fields_of-elysium | 16 hours ago

Who da fuk is punishing birds

MonkeyD_Horus | 16 hours ago

Me:Who would want to punish birds for beating off? Catholic Church: stares intensely at a cockatoo.

catslikepets143 | 15 hours ago

Masturbation in every animal species is normal & should never be punished.

ocxtitan | 15 hours ago

Then why do I get arrested every time I visit the aviary?

Butthole_Ticklah | 15 hours ago

Polly wanna cracker

Vitiligogoinggone | 13 hours ago

There’s nothing wrong with peckers.

Captainoblivious9 | 9 hours ago

Who’s mad at birds jerking off

MmmmmmKayyyyyyyyyyyy | 6 hours ago

It must be my mom, out there slappin birds for rockin it.

lowkeytokay | 5 hours ago

r/brandnewsentence

ThirdSunRising | 2 hours ago

Masturbating birds must be punished

anxietyhub | 55 minutes ago

What about me?

ThrillaWhale | 42 minutes ago

> “An investigation into acts of self-pleasure among parrots and other birds has reached a climax, with the results providing welcome relief for vets and researchers, not to mention the birds themselves.”

Slow clap for that first sentence.

DangMeteor | a day ago

Finally the answer to a question which no one has ever cared about. Thanks science.

TesseractToo | 23 hours ago

Some of them never ever stop. They'd give gooners a good run for their money

I had a budgie that was constantly doing it and the other birds in the cage were grossed out by him and one day right in the middle of doing his thing he dropped dead from a heart attack

He went doing what he loved, but the other birds were so happy and sang so much when he died lol

Sea-Louse | 22 hours ago

Another article of journalistic excellence by The Guardian. I’m surprised they didn’t bring climate change into the conversation.