ailing pet

[Sammy Sam]

Suppose you have a flock of birdies and one of them gets infected with a seasonal virus.

Which of the following adjectives is best suited for the infected pet?

Ailing pet, ill pet or sick pet as in

I need to separate the ailing pet from the flock?

Secondly, can sick or ill be used for pets?

 

[Barque]

I need to separate the ailing pet from the flock?

I need to separate the sick bird from the others.

Secondly, can sick or ill be used for pets?

Yes. Don't use "ailing"--too formal a word for informal speech.

 

[emsr2d2]

Suppose you have a flock of birdies birds and one of them gets infected with a seasonal virus. Which of the following adjectives is best suited for the infected pet?

Should I use "ailing pet", "ill pet" or "sick pet" as in "I need to separate the ailing pet from the flock"?

Secondly, can "sick" or "ill" be used for pets?

Please note my corrections above. Make sure you mark out words, phrases and sentences you're asking about in some way. Above, I have enclosed them in quotation marks.

 

[Barque]

Suppose you have a flock of birdies

Also, if you keep birds as pets (presumably in cages), I'm not sure the word "flock" fits. I associate "flock" with groups of birds that aren't pets or reared for food.

 

[emsr2d2]

Also, if you keep birds as pets (presumably in cages), I'm not sure the word "flock" fits. I associate "flock" with groups of birds that aren't pets or reared for food.

A friend of mine has a dozen pet chickens, not for meat but for the eggs, and she refers to them as her flock. They're free-range but have a coop to sleep in at night. Not all pet birds are kept in cages.

 

[Tdol]

That works with the context, but the original sentence did look a bit weird to me.

 

[Barque]

A friend of mine has a dozen pet chickens, not for meat but for the eggs, and she refers to them as her flock. They're free-range but have a coop to sleep in at night. Not all pet birds are kept in cages.

But would you call chickens kept for eggs, pets? I did think of chickens kept for meat and/or eggs too, which is why I added the words "or reared for food".

I wouldn't be surprised by a chicken-keeper casually referring to them as "my flock" but if you have, say, a collection of parrots and parakeets and songbirds in cages, would you say you have a flock of birds? It sounds just a little off to me. It'd work if you said "My flock has gone all quiet suddenly" but not so much in "I have a flock of birds [at home]".

 

[Skrej]

I don't think it makes any difference whether they're wild or domesticated, confined or not. A generic term for a group of birds is a flock. I'd be more concerned about the number than their living situation. To me, there would have to be quite a few parrots or songbirds to merit calling them a flock, but if there really were that many, than I'd be okay with it. For example, I wouldn't refer to two parrots and a couple of songbirds as a 'flock'.

Like most animals, there are specialized collective names for birds that vary on the species. Here's one such list. Here's another. Many of these are more theoretical and not widely known or used. Some terms, like 'bevy', 'pack', 'gaggle' and 'covey' are widely used, while others I think are just whimsical plays on words or characteristics (a mewing of catbirds, a scold of jays, a prattle of parrots, or an ostentation of peafowl, etc.)

While 'flock' works in the original example as a generic term, you could (however not necessarily should) also choose a more appropriate specific term for whatever type of birds you happen to have.

I separated the infected quail from the covey.
I separated the infected raven from the murder.

 

[Barque]

I separated the infected quail from the covey.
I separated the infected raven from the murder.

If "covey" and "murder" are used as collective nouns for quail and ravens, respectively, why do you say the first is fine but not the second? Because of the more usual meaning of "murder"?

 

[Tdol]

But would you call chickens kept for eggs, pets?

I guess that would be up to the people concerned and their attitudes towards their chickens.

 

[Glizdka]

My neighbor has a pet chicken, and because every other neighbor has a pet dog, it seems to think it too is a dog. It even "barks" at people passing by, which is hilarious; it sometimes goes full-on cock-a-doodle-doo at them. I think that would qualify it as a pet, admittedly a weird one, but still a pet.

Other than that, I agree with Barque. A flock of pet birds sounds off.

Like most animals, there are specialized collective names for birds that vary on the species. Here's one such list. Here's another. Many of these are more theoretical and not widely known or used. Some terms, like 'bevy', 'pack', 'gaggle' and 'covey' are widely used, while others I think are just whimsical plays on words or characteristics (a mewing of catbirds, a scold of jays, a prattle of parrots, or an ostentation of peafowl, etc.)

This reminds me of the joke in TFS's DBZA:

"What do you call a group of humans?"
"An infestation"

 

[emsr2d2]

But would you call chickens kept for eggs, pets? I did think of chickens kept for meat and/or eggs too, which is why I added the words "or reared for food".

My friend certainly referred to them as pet chickens. The eggs she got from them was an added bonus. She doted on her chickens in the same way other people dote on their cat/dog/hamster etc.

 

[Tdol]

This site that Skrej linked to uses peep and brood for chickens- brood sounds OK to me for chickens seen as pets.