The rabbis make clear that we may only move items that are regularly consumed by common animals on Shabbat. That includes glass shards, which are consumed by ostriches. When it comes to bundles of fragrant plants used to feed people, if they are used as firewood we cannot use them on Shabbat for food. If they were brought in to feed animals, we may also use them as food on Shabbat. Feeding oneself these items must be done in an atypical manner.
The rabbis address several different names of spices. Already these meanings had been forgotten.
We are permitted to moved salted meat on Shabbat, but the rabbis argue about unsalted meat. Is there a prohibition of set-aside for Shabbat? There may be different rules for different types of meat; duck may be eaten uncooked which changes the rules around whether or not we may eat it salted and/or unsalted. Unsalted fish should not be moved. Salted and unsalted meat may be carried. We are certainly permitted to move bones on Shabbat because they are food for dogs. We are permitted to move putrefied meat because it may be eaten by a non-domesticated animal. Similarly we may move exposed water which might have been drunk by a snake leaving its venom behind because a cat is immune to that poison. But Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel notes that we should not keep exposed water lest someone else drink it.
A new Mishna teaches that we are permitted to turn over a basket in front of chicks so that they can climb on and off of it. We may also push a hen with our hands to return it to the home from which it fled. We are also permitted to help calves and foals to walk; women may help their sons to walk. If he is dragging both feet, she cannot help him to walk because it is similar to carrying him in the public domain. But if he can pick up each foot and put it down by himself, she can help him to walk.
The Gemara discusses how we treat animals. We are meant to help them by providing them with sustenance so that they might live. But we are not necessarily meant to offer them the comfort of cushions and blankets as well.
A second new Mishna teaches that we may not birth an animal on a Festival nor on Shabbat. We may assist it to give birth. We may also birth a woman on Shabbat and call a midwife for her to travel even though the midwife desecrates Shabbat by doing so. We may desecrate Shabbat for a woman giving birth.We may tie the child's umbilical cord and we may even cut that umbilical cord on Shabbat. All of the requirements of circumcision may be performed for a baby whose eighth day of life falls on Shabbat.
Assisting in a birth of an animal means that we hold the newborn so that it does not fall to the ground. We may also press the flesh around the womb so that the new born emerges. We may also hold the newborn and blow into its nostrils to remove mucus and help it to breath. We may then place the mother's teat into its mouth so that it will nurse.
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel suggests that we have mercy on kosher animas on a fesitval by brining a lump of salt and putting it in the animal's womb so that it will suffer, ermember its suffering while giving birth and have mercy on the offspring. We may pour fluids of the afterbirth on the offspring on the mother so that she can smell it and have mercy on her offspring. These things should not be done for a kosher animal because these do not distance their offspring and if they do, they do not return.
One may birth a woman includes all of the possible acts of desecrating Shabbat. If she needs a lamp or oil these are brought to her. If a friend cannot bring these things to her in atypical ways, it is permitted to do them in typical ways. Even if a woman is blind, a lamp may be brought to her so that she knows that those helping her can see. We are told that as long as a woman is in childbirth; as long as her womb is open, Shabbat may be desecrated for her. Childbirth is a life-threatening situation. Once her womb has closed, Rav Ashi says that the woman who has given birth cannot have Shabbat desecrated for her.
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