Two questions about pets

Factual Questions
1

  1. Why do hamsters die when they drink their own urine? Hamster pee is more toxic than human pee?

  2. It’s true that, if you give Alka Seltzer to a bird, it will explode in mid-flight?

2

Can’t help you on the first question, but regarding the second… it’s not true.

This topic is covered at snopes.com if you wanna check it out. I’d hook you up with a direct link, but my connection is really slow right now, and I’m not real tempted to find it.

The idea behind the exploding bird phenomenon was that alka-seltzer would expand in their stomach, and since birds cannot burp, the air would build up so much, that they’d burst.

Well, they don’t. (I know, I was disappointed too.)

3

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_081.html

Uniball. Seriously. Maybe you should spend a day or two exploring the archives before posting your questions. You’re gonna get a rep!

4

A day or two? The archives are HUGE! And the search engine always give me broad results. REALLY broad, if you know what I mean. Can’t you replace it with some more Altavista-like?

5

Just out of curiosity, five minutes ago I decided to slip some Alka Seltzer to the annoying bird my neighbour have (a cockatoo, I think; same one Baretta from the TV series has). The bird didn’t exploded (bummer!), but he died quickly. Is Alka Seltzer POISONOUS to birds?

6

Uniball, I hope you are joking.

7

UGH…
Uniball-what is YOUR deal?

8

I’m not. It was a vicious and noisy cockatoo, and it almost poked out the eye of my younger sister once. It was a well-deserved fate.

Now, I want to know the issue about hamster urine. As far as I know, human urine is sterile. Then why hamsters die when they drink their own urine?

9

My best guess is it’s nature at work. You know, only the strongest (or smartest) survive, or as its commonly referred to “natural selection”. If any animal is dumb enough to drink it’s own urine, it deserves to die. BTW, human urine seems to be sterile because it’s slightly acidic, my best guess is that Hamster Urine is too acidic for their little rodent stomachs or kidneys to process, and most likely causes internal bleeding.

10

Interestingly, pet killers have a more difficult time getting their questions answered in this forum. If you have any other psychopathic tendencies, please keep them to yourself.

This thread is closed.