The Litter Box

Ceiling Cat

05:29

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Q: What effect does the number of littermates have on the appetite of a kitten?

My ragdoll kitten is now 5 months old and it has developed a somewhat stout body. The healthy cat body figures I've found are showing an adult cat. By these figures my kitten is overweight, but as it is still a kitten I've not paid much attention - until recently. This ragdoll kitten is one of s...

Esa Paulasto

06:14

This question has been bugging me for a good while. I don't quite see what is the goal of it. To me it looks like giving a hint that I should not back up my dog-answers with references from a certain person, The Cesar Millan.

The question is trying to ask a general advice to handling misinformation in answers, but I see it so strongly pointed against Cesar Millan, that I have to assume it is a singular attack against him only.

Why shouldn't I use his advices here in PetsSE? You do notice, that Cesar Millan deals with dogs who have problems. Most often the problems are born from the other end of the leash, the human owner, but even then the dog is the one behaving badly. Cesar Millan is not telling us how to handle our normal easygoing dog pets. He is dealing with problem dogs.

When the questions on Pets SE are about problems with dogs, there may be something to learn from Cesar Millan's advices and methods. I'm not saying everything he says is directly practicable to every question over dogs here. Then again, it can't be said that his every wisdom is rubbish and disagreed by other "professionals".

So, why is Cesar Millan taken as a target in a question about misinformation in Pets SE?

user15026

Remember, that is just the opinion of the person who made that meta post, not the site as a whole - we are going to have different opinions, they were just using their own as an example.

Esa Paulasto

06:38

@AshleyNunn Oh yes, of course. And the answers to that question are fine, focusing on the question title, which also is allright.

It is the question body that bugs me. I'm not a dedicated follower of Cesar Millan TV-shows, I just watch his show whenever I happen to see him while channelsurfing. I've also seen my facebook friends (the dog-breeders and handlers of them) talk badly about Cesar's methods. I think they all miss the whole point, he is handling dogs that have serious issues, not the ordinary house pets.

user15026

I know next to nothing about him, so I can't judge

Esa Paulasto

k

Well, compare it to Jackson Galaxy, whose advice is almost always applicable to all cats, no matter how disturbed the cat was to begin with.

Cesar's methods are often applicable to all dogs, but also quite often not so.

user15026

06:55

I don't know who the cat guy is either

user15026

I have very little exposure to anything that would be on TV

Esa Paulasto

okay :)

I have a 10 year old daughter, so we have a nature channel tuned on TV quite often :)

almost as often as there is My Little Pony -channel on ;)

My Cat from Hell

My Cat from Hell is an American reality television series that airs on the Animal Planet and premiered in May 2011. It stars Jackson Galaxy, a cat behaviorist by morning — and a musician by night — who visits the homes of cat owners in order to resolve conflicts or behavior issues between the owners and their cats or between pets. The series will return for a 16-episode fifth season in early 2014. Philosophy Jackson Galaxy believes that he can help any "problem cat"—provided that its human guardians follow the advice he provides—and that most behavioral problems result either ...

Baarn

09:19

@Esa I think we need to distinguish between the method and the theory here. While C. Milans methods may work, the theory behind it is flawed. And while you might see the difference in the dogs he handles, others might not and repeat his theories no matter what.

And then still there is the image the TV channel wants to sell vs the 'real' thing

Esa Paulasto

11:56

@Baarn Yeah, heavily cut and showing the highlights only. I realize a lot of people are vulnerable to go with it as-it-is without any thinking on their own behalf.

Matt S.

16:46

The problem I have with it is it promotes improper methods. Taking care of a dog or a cat is like taking care of a toddler. If your toddler wet the bed you wouldn't stick it's face in it and expect it to love you afterwards. Even though some of his methods aren't wrong, they're used improperly, and without explanation.

user15026

@MattS. I think then we need to focus on education, when we can.

user15026

And not like potentially just telling people they are wrong, but why and how and stuff.

Matt S.

@AshleyNunn Absolutely, so far I think everyone here is really good at that.

user15026

@MattS. Yeah, I totally agree :)

Matt S.

Our answer rate is up to 98%

I do see some religious beliefs that should be held back a bit. The bit against breeders worries me especially.

Then there's that question about declawing cats, where no one provided alternatives, or tried to argue ways to train the cat. Everyone just linked to apsca pages. Which as nice as that is as a reference, it didn't help the person any.

user15026

17:03

You are definitely going to get strong opinions strongly held in some places. That's just the nature of the beast, I think, when it comes to pet care. And remember, you can always add a new answer of your own if you think the current answers don't work or aren't enough or you disagree or whatever else. :)

user15026

We are working on the breeding stuff, and have made some progress. Remember, we are a pretty new site, so we are going to have bumps and lumps and awkward bits. It's part of the whole beta process.

Matt S.

You're right. And I'm only against those kinds of arguments because of my opinion :P

user15026

@MattS. That's a very good point :P

Matt S.

What pets do you have?

user15026

17:19

Right now, I just have a cat, but I have had lots of other pets in my life. :) What about you?

Matt S.

At the moment, two cats, a bearded dragon, a terrarium of red devil crabs, a catfish, and a mix of orange-spotted and blue-spotted sunfish.

user15026

Awesome :D

Matt S.

I'm trying to convince my fiance not to rescue an iguana, but I might not win that one.

user15026

I'd love to have other pets, but I lack the money and space to really be able to care for more than my cat at the moment.

Matt S.

We're in a 1 bedroom apartment, so while it's not that many, it's still a bit cramped :P

user15026

17:25

Yeah, I have a small basement apartment. I think I could likely get something in my empty aquarium, but I want to be in a place where I can afford food and care before I do that

user15026

(I had frogs, but they died :( )

Matt S.

Yeah, it's a lot of work. The baby sunfish are the only pets we actually set out to buy. The rest we just sort of came across by chance.

user15026

I know how that goes :)

Matt S.

Craigslist for my city if full of people who are getting rid of pets because they can't take care of them. Or college students who got a pet, and don't want to take them along when they move. So it's really a wonder why I only have the couple pets I have right now. :P

The worry is, that once my lease is up and I move into a house, I won't be able to argue that we don't have space.

user15026

And you will have even more pets everywhere? :)

Matt S.

17:37

Oh man, it's going to be terrible.

The problem is, my fiance likes having the pets as much as I do. So I don't have anyone nagging me to keep me from turning my place into a zoo.

In most cases, I'm the one having to decide I don't have any place to keep the animal. :P

user15026

Yeah, when you both like pets, then you want to just rescue everyone

user15026

My cat is a rescue - I got him a few winters ago from my mom's backyard when his mom died and he was so tiny and full of sick

Matt S.

Yeah, that's my first cat. Construction workers found her and brought her to me. We couldn't even guess her age because she was so malnourished it stunted her growth.

She's a whole 6 pounds now. Almost a full-sized cat :P

Compared to my other cat, who I'm pretty sure is part maine-coon, they're quite the pair.

user15026

Once I got him home and cleaned up and many many vet visits later, he is a pretty decent sized cat. :)

Matt S.

17:52

:)

Esa Paulasto

18:38

@MattS. It is the most polite way to say "Let the cat have its claws, moron."

Well, at least I could not come up with anything, not even the apsca quote. So I stayed silent.

Matt S.

18:51

Yeah.. I just think that the question never got answered, cause everyone saw the word "declaw" and hopped on to rant about how bad it is.

Which is fine, but I don't consider it helpful without offering alternatives.

user15026

@MattS. There are some answers (such as the accepted one) that offer alternatives

Matt S.

Yeah, which I think goes to show that the asker wasn't looking for links to why declawing is bad. I think everyone knows that. They were wanting to know what alternatives to try before considering it.

Esa Paulasto

Personally I can accept declawing in the only situation that the cat has a serious illness in a claw, and the removing of that one is the only solution.

Matt S.

Yeah, so there are cases where declawing is necessary.

But that question is something we should have on the site anyways.

Esa Paulasto

20:36

@MattS. Sure, no problem with that.

The same as with the "How can I be sure my dog is okay while I'm on vacation?" for which the answer is "no, you don't leave a dog home alone for even half of a day".

Ceiling Cat

23:44

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Q: What kind of diet do Vietnamese Mossy Frogs need?

I would assume since they're frogs, that they'd be insectivores. But what insects would be a good diet? Just crickets?

diet care frogs amphibians

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