Your Pets

[Nocturnal]

My husband just got us a min pin puppy, Cleo! she's the cutest thing.

BTW Does anyone have any suggestions if I should Spay her? Is this a good idea?

I like to wait until at least 2 years old, but I'm super cautious. If you just can't keep her from males though, you can do it earlier (after a year old). Gives time for their growth plates to close, those hormones do a lot more than just make them reproduce... they help them grow and fill out properly. Even my little dogs continued to gain weight and have chests drop and musculature develop until they were 2 years old... if you compare one of my puppies to their early-spayed siblings, you'll notice the puppies that were spayed or nuetered earlier are much taller and lanky... kind of forever in that "lanky puppy stage" of growth... where my dogs are shorter and more compact, and heavier, with much better defined muscles and deeper chests.

It's all up to what you are comfortable with, and what you can manage. There are pros and cons to fixing them, and I think it's important to know both, as usually people only focus on the "pros".

 

[Nocturnal]

I have a cat fish in a tank by him self, 1 old red lored Amazon parrot named Red and a very lazy Chihuahua named Fern.
Becky, I've been told that my parrot could live to be over 100, I think she just may out live me

I hear people say that a lot, but in truth we really haven't kept birds as pets for very long in modernity. I think it's honestly more likely that, because parrots DO live for decades, they often get passed from home to home, with their original hatch-dates being forgotten (if they were even hatched in captivity, and not wild caught as many older birds were), and their ages artificially inflated. I worked with parrot rescues and the oldest birds we got with pretty reliable ages on them were in their 40s... of any species. African gray, cockatoo. And they all LOOKED like 40 year old birds. They had cataracts, and bad feathers, and hernias and other problems. I'm not saying it's impossible, but for an amazon I would probably expect about 50-80 years, if VERY healthy.

My oldest bird is 26, and she is looking ragged. The expected lifespan of her species is 30-40 years.

 

[Becky]

cats don't recognize themselves in the mirror, they aren't conscious.

Good job I was joking

 

[Icecold]

Good job I was joking

I can't see that over the internet.

 

[marlingardener]

I agree that cats aren't conscious much. Ours could sleep 20 hours a day, but when she was awake, oh boy!
I've read that lions sleep about the same amount, and if I ever meet a lion in the wild, I'd rather it not be conscious. Let sleeping lions lie . . . .

 

[aquaticneko]

Aww, This thread makes me think about my babies back home. i cannot have them in my current apartment and I miss them so much. A ragdoll kitty Luna, a lop eared bunny, Pie and a german sheperd boy named Twix. I'm very close to getting my own place, I cannot wait to pet proof it and my new garden and have them home with me!

 

[Icecold]

I agree that cats aren't conscious much. Ours could sleep 20 hours a day, but when she was awake, oh boy!
I've read that lions sleep about the same amount, and if I ever meet a lion in the wild, I'd rather it not be conscious. Let sleeping lions lie . . . .

they aren't conscious when they're awake either.

cats are biological automatons, they run purely on biological programming, instinct.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

cats are biological automatons, they run purely on biological programming, instinct.

mine know a few phrases, "Go to your room" "lets go for a walk" "do you want to go outside" and comes to his name when called.

 

[Icecold]

mine know a few phrases, "Go to your room" "lets go for a walk" "do you want to go outside" and comes to his name when called.

yeah, learning is mostly an instinct.

your cats don't actually recognize you though, their visual memory is terrible, it only lasts a few seconds.

 

[marlingardener]

Icecold, have you ever had a cat?

 

[Icecold]

Icecold, have you ever had a cat?

sure, we had an extremely old family cat when I grew up, it was euthanized at like 31.

but I think the card you're trying to pull is anecdotal evidence, which has little to no value to science judged from a anthropomorphised point of view.

there's no evidence cats have any of the components of consciousness, they lack all signs of it, so as far as it's known: it's not there.

 

[granjera]

Hey, everyone, keep it down. The subject of my photo would be mortified if she knew that her picture sparked a discussion about C-A-Ts.

All I told her so far was that she was adopted.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

the two cats that know the phrase "Go to your room" later in life got triggered when we got a TV that made a noise when we clicked it off. As structure would have it, when I turned the TV off ---so to got to bed----I would say "go to your room" immediately after clicking off the TV. And some would guess it. Got so that all I had to do was click of the TV. and both would jump off the couch and run in their room, which happens to be the garden room, get on chairs in there and proceed to sleep. That particular TV was changed out so they are back to the verbal phrase.

These two cats were part of a 7 kitten crew I rescued when they were about 5 weeks old. At that time "their room" was my small study. But each day, they were left out in the morning to roam and play through the house, while I got ready for work, cleaned their litter box out, freshened their water, filled the food bowl. and yes play with them, handling them etc. so to make them ready for adoption. So they all, all 7 of them got used to the phrase "Go to your room". And in the study they would all run, kisses and hugs given, door closed, and I would go to work. Same system when I got home. It was so much fun with them all, I still think of those that are adopted out, 5 of them I hope are healthy and happy, I was quiet particular with their adopted families, making sure no one would declaw them, still the horrid thing USA does.

Yes, @Icecold maybe you have not had a cat.

If I have to put flea drops on them, Just the sound of the paper unwrapping it will send them to hiding, so it is unwrapped the day before. And I have to be quick about getting them for the deed the next day. Thank goodness they both have no issue with clipping nails.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

your cats don't actually recognize you though, their visual memory is terrible, it only lasts a few seconds

Just noted that, yes they do recognize me. If I am in the garden, and one spies me from the other part of the property, is is a quick gallop to get to me. And one greets me at my car when I come home from work. He almost knows how long it should take for me to get out of the car by his running back to say, hey, how come so long.

 

[marlingardener]

Just a slightly humorous aside--we had a garden club come to see our garden, and they also wanted a tour of the house. They made appreciative noises about our furnishings and choice of wall colors, but when they got to the master bedroom the noises turned into cooing and aahing. It seems our cat Feliz had decided that 12 ladies were about 11 too many, and had taken refuge under our bed. Her tail was sticking out from the dust ruffle, and 12 ladies were on their knees, peeking under the dust ruffle, and admiring Feliz. Feliz held her ground under the bed and refused to come out and greet her fans!