What Do Organisms Feel Like When Are Touched?

Few ethical issues, but if you don’t know what you’re doing and aren’t wearing gloves it’s a quick way to get a rash :P

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So true ! Still helps with identification though, and helps it stick in your memory ;)

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Stinging nettle = hurty.

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I once visited an animal rehabilitator who had a back room full of juvenile raccoons. As I stepped into this room, eight of them climbed up me and started feeling me all over, especially my face and hair. Their paws felt remarkably like tiny hands, but moving frenetically, and with sharp little finger nails that pricked my skin lightly as they pat-pat-patted everywhere. I felt soft, painful, alarming, hilarious, and familiar all at the same time.

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If you’re used to petting furries like cats and dogs, petting an adult chicken is quite disappointing. Not soft.

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Just read about the person caring for the Giant Pacific Octopus at the Seattle Aquarium. It said that multiple circular hickies often are the result of working with their pair. The octopus also feels them back.

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Beaver–we only have a stretched tanned hide with fur on it at the local museum, to talk about the fur trade here. The outer guard hairs are quite stiff, stiffer than the outer coat on a Labrador dog. The inner hairs are soft grey down. That was what the fur traders were after for making hats. They actually preferred old coats where the guard hairs fell out from use and contact with the uric acid of the person wearing it–because it left the soft down exposed and more accessible. I wonder if a live beaver’s hair is as oily or more oily than a Labrador’s? They both are swimmers.

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The claws aren’t even the only part of dragons that’ll hurt you. A long time ago I had a Chinese Water Dragon (though I would never recommend them as pets to inexperienced reptile keepers now) and got hit by its tail. It stings, kind of like a paper cut or cat scratch.

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Yeah, well you’ve never petted my chickens! They aren’t soft, exactly, but they have a certain velvety feel about their feathers. Only one of them is less so, because the rooster jumps on her a lot and the feathers on her back are all messed up. But I would never call petting a chicken “disappointing”!

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The surface of the feathers on some chickens feels quite silky when you pet them.

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