Tumblr Thread: Burrito-ing Animals Is Always The Right Way To Go

Have you ever wondered about how difficult it must be to control a wild animal when it comes into a shelter? We read these amazing animal rescue stories every single day, and every time, we wonder: how in the heck did they manage to hold these little things without being hurt or hurting them. Well, apparently, the answer is quite simple: the animals get burrito-ed. 

Oh, yeah, apparently itty bitty purritos and burritos are not just one of the most awwdorable things on the internet, they are also the easiest, best way to hold an animal when it gets to a shelter. And we mean any animal - from kittens to dogs to parrots to baby elephants. Well, actually the birds get taco-ed, but same difference lol.

Author image for Mariel Ruvinsky Mariel Ruvinsky
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  • 01
    Font - vet-and-wild Follow The best restraint tool in vet med is a towel, hands down. Do you know how many things I've restrained with a towel? Angry cat? Burrito it. Scared bunny? Burrito it. Tiny squish faced dog that you cant get a muzzle on? Burrito it. Screaming macaw? Burrito it. Injured wildlife? Burrito it. I burritoed an arctic fox today. Last week it was a cormorant. Before that it was a blue heron. When in doubt, burrito it.
    via vet-and-wild

    You know what this makes us think about more than anything? That just want to have your heckin' job, you lucky human. Getting to see adorable animals like that all day long and getting to burrito these animals? The level of jealousy is not even funny. 

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  • 02
    Hand - weezord-leezords Follow Burrito'd
    via vet-and-wild

    Amazing. Just amazing. Look at this little heckin' burrito. This burrito is so cute, we wanna smooch it. We don't care if smooching it might be dangerous. Nothing can be dangerous when burrito-ed like that. My goodness, we are painfully in love. 

  • 03
    Font - wildlifemajor Follow As someone who used to burrito elephant seals can confirm. furbearingbrick Follow get burrito'd wikdsushi-v2 Follow How do you burrito a bird? Don't they suffocate if you wrap them up?
    via vet-and-wild
  • 04
    Font - vet-and-wild Towels are actually super helpful for safely restraining birds! Birds have complete tracheal rings so you can be pretty firm when you control the head. You just don't want to constrict the movement of their keel (breastbone) because that will prevent them from breathing well. They have airsacs that act like bellows, so if they can't move their keel they can't breathe.
    via vet-and-wild
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  • 05
    Arm - LafeberVet.com This helps keep the wings in place, provides the handler some protection from the beak, and makes it much easier to safely/gently catch a bird.
    via vet-and-wild
  • 06
    Hand - ackle
    via vet-and-wild
  • 07
    Eye - So I guess it's more of a taco than a burrito sometimes
    via vet-and-wild
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  • 08
    Font - earlgreychina I caught a wild bird one time. It was indoors where it shouldn't have been but it was caught by another person once before and it flew back inside. But in order for me to catch it again I took off my hoodie and gently lowered it upon the bird and I held it taco-style just like this. I'm not a vet and I don't own any birds but I felt that taco-style was the safest method of transporting the bird outside anyway. It was a very small bird, the tail feathers had a black one in th
    via vet-and-wild
  • 09
    Font - copperbadge Follow Oh man, I tried to burrito Polk, and I got really mad at those "it's so easy to do" videos where the cat just lies there while it's wrapped up. My cats have never lain still to be covered with something in their life. I studied a couple of different techniques, and while l'm sure part of it is just that I wasn't fast enough, I also learned two things: 1. If the cat is both small and unwilling, you will not succeed. 2. That is the last you will see of the cat for several
    via vet-and-wild
  • 10
    Font - hellenhighwater Follow Generally speaking, I either have to burrito Vice or get very, very lucky if I want to put him into a cat carrier. He's too polite to do intentional damage to me with his claws but it does really scare him. So here's my words of wisdom to those who are trying to burrito their small anxious animals so they can get necessary vet treatment: Before you attempt the burrito...lure them into the bathroom and close the door. If you fail at the burrito, like Sam said, that a
    via vet-and-wild
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  • 11
    Font - a cuzosu-blog I absolutely agree with the burrito assessment. (And the small space such as bathrooms.) Do it. Sometimes, as practice, do it loosely if your animal appreciates cuddling and/or likes to burrow into warm, fuzzy spaces. But also? If you think for any reason you might need to put your animal up for travel purposes, get them used to the kennel/ carrier beforehand. I say this because we had to start kennel training our cat when she, then a kitten, went after oxygen hoses. So we g
    via vet-and-wild
  • 12
    Font - My cat sees her carrier as a necessary annoyance. Doesn't ever want to go inside, but tolerates it when we get her in. Her kennel? Is her safe space. And this is a cat with abandonment issues. (The key is that we have never put her in the kennel as a punishment. She gets snuggled by my spouse when she's in trouble, or scruffed and snarled at by me.) Basically, if you want an animal to tolerate or react well to something that could be traumatic, then you need to take steps to help them adj
    via vet-and-wild

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