Science desk
< August 18	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	August 20 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

August 19

Parrots yawn/open their mouths when you rub the sides of their heads

This is a thing. Many pet parrots seem to enjoy it when humans rub their cheeks/faces/sides of their heads between thumb and forefinger. However, if you keep doing it, the bird will then open its beak wide, stretch its neck and stick out the tongue.

It looks like a yawn, but I don't know if it actually is a yawn.

I've seen a few explanations proposed.

- you're triggering a feeding reflex that remains from when it was a chick and its mother would feed it by regurgitation

- you accidentally pressed on the bird's ears and popped them, so he/she is equalizing the pressure

- it's just an "ah, that's good" reaction

Does anyone know for sure, what this is? --Iloveparrots (talk) 07:39, 19 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This seems to have some information, and also has some links to further reading. --Jayron 32 14:38, 19 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Silica gel dessicants

To avoid moisture buildup is it a good idea to keep silica gel dessicants inside products they are placed in (like laptop bags) instead of throwing them away? Brandmeister^talk 10:27, 19 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Searching for keep using silica gel after opening or the like turns up lots of hits for ways to re-use or keep using those little packets. They are handy little things, but I'll note that most of the suggested uses also involve long or medium term storage in closed conditions (jars, drawers, envelopes, small containers, etc.). In the case of your laptop, where you probably open the bag multiple times per day, the amount of moisture in the air would probably overwhelm the little packets eventually. But it wouldn't hurt (unless the packet opened up and you ended up scraping your screen on the pellets or something) Matt Deres (talk) 14:33, 19 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Or if you mistook it for a Chiclet. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:40, 19 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

They'd eventually get saturated with moisture, and you'd have to replace them. As Matt Deres pointed out, the exposure to moisture would be greater in situ than it was before sale, so you'd have to use bigger packets than the original one. In my view, unless you live in a very humid climate, it's not worth the bother. Rhythdybiau (talk) 16:36, 20 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, when saturated, the packets can be regenerated simply in a conventional oven at about 120 °C. In chemistry labs, it is standard practise to regenerate the gel (which normally isn't in packets). Mike Turnbull (talk) 16:43, 20 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]