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❗Top animals posts of the month❗ (20 Oct 2026) (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [B] to c/lemmydirectory@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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1. 🖼️ Toxic relationship (direct link) (👍820 👎9)

from cats (!cat@lemmy.world) lemmy

Posted by ickplant

2. 🖼️ just a few hours after my last post, Radar the chicken nugget fiend passed suddenly from a seizure (direct link) (👍404 👎14)

from aww (!aww@lemmy.world) lemmy

Can y'all please pout one out for my baby. And maybe get a happy meal in his honor.

He was fine all day and then he just wasn't... The emergency vets did everything they could for him but we couldn't bring him out of it.

Lil dude was the best.

Posted by LaunchesKayaks

3. 🖼️ It. Fucken. Wimdy. (direct link) (👍327 👎3)

from Squirrels (!squirrels@lemmy.ca) lemmy

Posted by ickplant

4. 🖼️ And I mean, nothing (direct link) (👍288 👎1)

from Opossums (!opossums@lemmy.world) lemmy

Posted by ickplant

5. 🖼️ Hmm, that sounds pretty good right around now! (direct link) (👍288 👎3)

from Animals (!animals@lemmy.world) lemmy

Theoretically, this process allows Turritopsis dohrnii to be biologically immortal indefinitely, though they still die in practice. Most individuals succumb to predation or disease in the medusa stage without reverting. 🖍🤖

Posted by JohnnyEnzyme

6. 🖼️ Owl Being Involuntarily Burrowed (direct link) (👍227 👎0)

from Superbowl (!superbowl@lemmy.world) lemmy

From Henrik Nilsson

I'm not sure what the disagreement was all about but I sure was glad not being part of it.

Burrowing owls, Washington state.

Canon 7D II with Canon 600mmf4 III and 1.4x extender.

Posted by anon6789

7. 🖼️ Bluejay (direct link) (👍215 👎0)

from birding (!birding@lemmy.world) lemmy

Posted by negativenull

8. 🖼️ Jimothy cosplay at Dragon Con (direct link) (👍210 👎1)

from Raccoons (!raccoons@lemmy.world) lemmy

Posted by ickplant

9. 🖼️ This is Zero from Salty Fox Sanctuary (direct link) (👍196 👎0)

from Foxes (!foxes@lemmy.world) lemmy

Posted by ickplant

10. 🖼️ I'm still not a bot and you're still the reason I post! Love to you, you beautiful human! (direct link) (👍171 👎3)

from Tan Eggs (!taneggs@lemmy.ca) lemmy

The times are interesting, yes, but we still have each other. I'm carbon-based, and so are you, look at all we have in common! So, I hope you have a great day! I'll try too!

Posted by DaMonsterKnees

11. 🖼️ Have you heard? October is Bat Appreciation Month! (direct link) (👍164 👎0)

from Bats (!bats@lemmy.world) lemmy

This is a pallid bat, the official state bat of California.

Posted by ickplant

12. 🖼️ Butters is special (direct link) (👍161 👎1)

from All Orange Cats Share One Brain Cell (!oneorangebraincell@lemmy.world) lemmy

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/52351738

Posted by Viking_Hippie

13. 🖼️ Sudden rule (direct link) (👍156 👎1)

from Bun Alert System (!bun_alert_system@lemmy.sdf.org) lemmy

Posted by snoons

14. 🖼️ Tired baby (direct link) (👍156 👎3)

from IllegallySmolCats (!illegallysmolcats@lemmy.world) lemmy

Posted by Molvorin

15. 🖼️ stares back (direct link) (👍154 👎5)

from Animals with Jobs (!animalswithjobs@lemmy.world) lemmy

stares back

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/48792057

Posted by ddssazsa

16. 🖼️ Just in case someone needed this (direct link) (👍109 👎1)

from cute dogs, cats, and other animals (!aww@lemmy.ml) lemmy

Our 14 year old Lab with our 14 week old wein. Courage(Lab) and Lola(Wein)... they say hello!

Posted by MrShankles

17. 🖼️ Honey bee loving the lavender (direct link) (👍87 👎0)

from Awwnverts (!awwnverts@lemmy.world) lemmy

Posted by I_Fart_Glitter

18. 🖼️ Golden butt (direct link) (👍79 👎0)

from BeeButts (!beebutts@lemmy.world) lemmy

User Safety: safe 🖍🤖

Posted by Tempus_Fugit

19. 🖼️ Hawaiian Garden Spider (direct link) (👍71 👎1)

from Spiders (!spiders@lemmy.world) lemmy

User Safety: safe 🖍🤖

Posted by girlnamedzero

20. 🖼️ Those ears are massive! (direct link) (👍66 👎1)

from bunnies (!bunnies@lemmy.world) lemmy

Posted by blimthepixie

21. 🖼️ Anyone know what kind of caterpillar this is? Found in Virginia, USA. (direct link) (👍65 👎1)

from bugs (!bugs@lemmy.world) lemmy

Posted by asdfasdfasdf

22. 💬 Rule 9: providing alt text for image posts (direct link) (👍51 👎2)

from Dogs (!dogs@lemmy.world) lemmy

Added rule 9: Alt text required for images with text to help visually impaired users. Also encourages alt text for all images like pets. Example: "Alt: My brown and white Border Collie, sitting on my computer chair looking outside through the window." https://lemmy.ca/post/71504213 🖍🤖

Posted by isVeryLoud

23. 🖼️ Customer's cat is sinking (direct link) (👍37 👎1)

from Cats (!cats@midwest.social) lemmy

Posted by Fallibilist

24. 🎦 Hungry duckies (direct link) (👍17 👎0)

from ducks (!quackers@lemmy.world) lemmy

Hungry duckies

JavaScript requiredIt seems JavaScript is either blocked or disabled in your web browser. We totally get that. However, this page will not work without it. If you are concerned about the security and privacy (or lack thereof) of JavaScript web applications, you might want to review the source code of the instance you are trying to access, or look for security audits. Your options 🖊️️🤖

Posted by ExtremeDullard

25. 🖼️ Two new lagomorphs from the rescue centre. (direct link) (👍13 👎1)

from Rabbits (!rabbits@lemmy.world) lemmy

Not named them yet.

The one lying down has damage to its ear. They were rescued from a park in Madrid and it has been attacked by something.

Posted by blimthepixie

Inactive communities 👻

These communities have had no posts in the last month:

  • Animals@stad lemmy
    • Pictures of animals, art incorporating animals, or anything fun.
  • MEOW_IRL lemmy
    • Memes for "cats of the soul". Post relatable, weird, funny cats.
  • DogTraining lemmy
    • Welcome! This forum is about dog training and behavior. Here you'll find content that will help you train your dogs. This community is geared towards modern, force-free, science based methods and recommendations.
  • Crows lemmy
    • Bring stories and images of your encounters with crows, ravens, and other corvids. Link articles and anecdotes. Note here your literary references. Art welcome.
  • Squirrel Spotting Society lemmy
    • RULES:
  • Lagoloaf lemmy
    • Got a bunny? Does it loaf? Take a pic, share it here.
  • Entomology lemmy
    • A general community to post things about insects
  • What's this Bug? lemmy
    • A community for insect, arachnid, myriapod and general bug identification!
  • Pet Rats lemmy
    • A place for pet rats!
  • guinea pigs lemmy
    • A community for discussion, advice and pictures of guinea pigs.
  • Elephants lemmy
    • Post your favorite elephant pics and memes here. Anything goes as long as it's elephant-related.

Here is a popular post from one of the inactive communities. 🪦♻️

🖼️ hair_irl (direct link), posted in MEOW_IRL (👍458 👎4)

A person wearing a dark grey hoodie holds a light-colored, fluffy cat. The cat, which appears to be a British Shorthair or similar breed, rests comfortably across the person's lap and chest. The person's hoodie is covered in a significant amount of light-colored cat hair, illustrating the "cost" of the affection. Text at the top of the image reads: "The cost of love".

Posted by flipflop97

The main links are using lemmyverse.link which should redirect to the post on your own instance. If you have not used this before, you may need to go direct to https://lemmyverse.link/ and click on 'configure instance'. Some apps will open posts correctly when using the direct link.

️🤖 indicates a summary generated using AI - 🖋️ TLDR This, 🖊️ news3k, 🖍 Deepseek. It is possible that the summary does not accurately convey the meaning of the original article, refer to the source material if in any doubt.

Multicommunity: animals.json

A person wearing a dark grey hoodie holds a light-colored, fluffy cat. The cat, which appears to be a British Shorthair or similar breed, rests comfortably across the person's lap and chest. The person's hoodie is covered in a significant amount of light-colored cat hair, illustrating the "cost" of the affection. Text at the top of the image reads: "The cost of love".

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41 comments in c/cat@lemmy.world view that post
[–] 136 points 1 month ago (16 children)

If you're looking for a way to stop this behavior, you grab them by the scruff of their neck. Don't worry, it doesn't actually hurt the cat. But it does trigger senses in them that they're being disciplined. So you grab the scuff of their neck, and act like your wrist is hurt. (the one they were biting/clawing, not the one you're using to grab the scruff of their neck).

Once they realize they're hurting you, and also realize you can grab them by the scruff of their neck, and are therefore more powerful than them, they'll stop doing that.

Of coarse, this is also assuming you're being a good cat parent to begin with. I see so many videos online titled "Cats go crazy" or something similiar. They aren't going crazy. Their humans are usually doing some shit to repeatedly piss off their cat. And eventually the cat says "FUCK THIS!!!" and lashes out.

As long as the cat routinely feels safe, and loved with you, the scruff thing works. If your cat feels unwelcome in it's own home, yes, it will lash out.

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  • [–] 110 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (10 children)

    Also don't play fight with a cat, especially a kitten using your hand. If you want to play fight use a stuffed animal or something. Teach them from an early age that human hands are not toys.

    My cat would be really confused and probably a bit frightened at this point if I tried to roughhouse with her using my hand but if I get her "battle buddy" stuffed animal out it's on.

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  • [–] 42 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    OOOOH! Yes. That's another good point that I never even thought about. I just naturally never used my hands, because I don't like it anyways, but I always used a feather on a stick/string.

    Another thing I never use is laserpens. I used to. I feel bad that I ever did. It's fun, but then you learn that cats play is only stimulating their hunting drives. And since they can catch the feather on a string, they feel a sense of satisfaction for having caught it. Whereas they can't catch a red dot. So never catching it apparently gives them PTSD. They feel depressed that they can't be good hunters if they can't catch the red dot.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    If you were using both, it was probably okay. The cat quickly learns the red dot is a lie and either decides not to chase it, or decides it's good for a bit of pouncing and then grabs a different toy to fight or a snack of kibble to bite.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Depends on the cat too. I've got one right now that only wants to chase, not catch. He doesn't care about catching the feather on the string, or the toy that I throw, he just wants an excuse to go zoom.

    It'd be nice if he could figure out how to fetch though. I'll throw a toy, and he'll go racing after it, but then when he gets to it he just comes back to me so I can throw another one.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    One of mine. She's only interested as long as it's moving. I once woke up to her with a mouse in her mouth, then she dropped it because it wasn't doing anything.

    The mouse was safely corraled into a tshirt and let outside. His siblings were less fortunate and met the elder floof who is part maine coon and all murder machine.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago

    My partner and I foster cats, and most of them love it when we roll toys back and forth between each other for them to chase/intercept. One time we decided to use an "invisible toy" where we just brushed our knuckles against the carpet as if we were rolling/catching something, and our poor foster kitty freaked the fuck out and it took a good 10 minutes or so for him to get back to baseline after we realized we should stop. Never done that bit again 😅

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  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Play fighting is fine, they just need to learn claw control. Recoil and stop play when you get clawed. I've got three cats here I can wrestle with without getting a mark on my hands or arms. A long thick jumper they know is safe, but bare skin they know is not for claws. It's so well learned that even when you need to do some maintenance or intervention they don't like, they will not claw you. Like washing diarrhea out of their fur, or some emergency medical intervention.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    Yeah, I have a cat who my roommate 13 years ago taught to play with his hand, and let him bite and scratch as hard as he wanted. He would bite hard. It took a while, but I got him to stop by just immobilizing my hand when he started latching on, which made him lose interest and loosen his grip. I'd also give him a high-pitched "ooow" as an audible cue. Once I got my hand out I would poke his nose and say "no bites" then pet him on his forehead. Every once in a while he still regresses, but instead of biting now he almost always just aggressively headbutts your hand.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    I tried to tell my wife this, multiple times. Now she wonders why the cat plays gentle with me but rough as hell with her.

    She (the cat) will still attack my hand, but without claws or biting hard. She'll even get under the blankets to fight me through them.

    The way I accomplished this was by teaching her that if she got too rough it meant no more playing for about an hour. Since she always wants to play, it was an effective deterrent.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    What worked for us is getting cat locked on a kitchen for some 5-10 minutes if it misbehaves, alongside the already mentioned loudly make noise to show that it hurts.

    Like, you make pain = we are not playing with you. It didn't take long for her to learn to hide her claws and stop eating electric cables.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Just do not do this with an adult cat. At best they won't react the way you need them to, at worst it could cause actual trauma to the cat and reduce their trust in you. You're effectively mimicking what a predator like a fox would do to an adult cat and it can make them absolutely freak the f out.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    I had to hold down one of my kittens to give him his spot-on flea treatment and felt bad afterwards. They've never scratched me. They just get so excited to be pet I thought I'd miss. I was like "You're cute, but this stuff is expensive"

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Oh man. You just reminded me of the time I had to give my cat a flea bath. That was like 20 years ago, but I still remfmber I had to wrap her in a thick towel to act essentially as a cat straight jacket. I kept her head free, but everything below the neck was in a towel.

    Oooooooh boy did she growl.

    I hated it, but it had to be done. We got rid of those fleas. And all it cost was traumatizing my baby......and myself. Because I know she hated it. I at least made sure the water was luke warm, so she wouldn't be cold, or too hot. But still.......she HATED that bath.

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    • [–] 45 points 1 month ago (6 children)

    If the cat does that, it's because it doesn't actually understand that it's hurting you.

    Start making a big "YELP" and clearly show that you are in pain when it does it, and it will gradually start to be more gentle.

    It doesn't understand that you don't have fur that protects it the way it does.

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  • [–] 32 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    Can confirm this works, unless he gets too excited my cat is very careful about keeping his claws retracted. To the point that one time he actually slapped the absolute fuck out of my leg, that actually made a slap sound and stung a tiny bit from his pawpads slapping me, without leaving a claw mark. Chaotic little beast.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    I did this so often with puppies and kittens over the years that I had to unlearn it when dealing with women, lol. Believe it or not if a woman bites you yelping isn't the response they are looking for. Well results may vary I suppose...

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    this needs to be the top comment!!! this is the right answer!!!!

    a squeak/high pitched noise - it sounds like another cat/kitten shrieking in pain. that's usually enough to get the message through!

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    • [–] 22 points 1 month ago

    Hands aren't toys! (At least in my household)

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    [–] 15 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Fuk all this good advice. Rock on w your kitty. Looks like fun.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    It is fun and i really dont care about the scratches.

    One of my cats grabs my hand or my arm to the point where she could tear me apart and then starts licking my hand instead. She is realy cute.

    She also is super careful with her claws when playing with me. Just enough to pin my arm.

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    • [–] 7 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    This is a product of both participants and a behavior that can be changed pver time.

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    • [–] 7 points 1 month ago

    Those are the scars of love 💕

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    [–] 7 points 1 month ago

    I love wrasslin with kittens.

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    [–] 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    This stopped real quick with my cat. Anytime he would try to bite me, I would just shove my finger down his throat. Don't worry it didn't hurt him but it did trigger his gag reflex lol now at most he will lightly bite if he doesn't like something. He doesn't use his claws on me as well.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    You don't have to gag them. Just press your finger sideways into their back teeth so they can't close the bite. They'll immediately try and push out your finger with their tongue. It stops being a game for them real quick.

    But this is also a last resort. They're are better techniques as discussed in other comments. The earlier the intervention the easier they learn.

    In my area it's become lore that cats only biting becuase they didn't grow up with other kittens to give them social feedback for bites. The the point where the shelters will insist kittens be adopted in pairs.

    It seems like an insanely lazy approach to me. Like getting two dogs so they'll play without other and leave you alone.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    Interesting. These were older adopted cats; okay well my sister left them with me when she had kids. It was a fun transition for them. The one that took me as his master or whatever; hissed at me the first day so I raised my arms up and hissed right back at him. That was then end of that and he follows me around like a dog. It's always funny when he comes to comfort me when I get pissed off in a comp game.

    I think I only had to do the gag thing like three times, he's a fast learner.

    The pairs thing is actually important in my opinion, they like to play with each other once in a while or run around like idiots crashing into stuff (tile floors). My mum also tells me how he loses his shit when I go to work. I went overseas for a few weeks and when I got back he wouldn't leave my side for at least a week and I mean following me everywhere. I love cats, had em all my life.

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    • [–] 6 points 1 month ago

    My rescue cat (2 years in October) does this with my wife. The exception being, once the cat ‘catches’ her, it’s a half second of confusion then lots of licking.

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    [–] 10 points 1 month ago

    You need to get help. Despite what you may think you deserve a loving relationship with someone who doesn't hurt you.

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    [–] 8 points 1 month ago

    i don't come here to get called out lik this 🫠

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    [–] 4 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Someone pointed out how me saying it was my fault my cat scratched and hurt me sounded like a textbook abusive relationship. Is there a way to unlearn things?

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    • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    At least snip their nails ;-;

    I would often wrap an old sweater around my hand to do this with my old cat. When he was really into it I could pick him while he was still attached to my sweater hand.

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