Germs—Good understanding on the hygiene theory. Its worth also adding that younger children get over sickness easier and probably won’t have a memory of any pain of the process, so if you were to catch chicken pox—best to do it earlier in life. I personally believe in dirt and other exposure.
Lead—I don’t know if you are aware but lead testing kits are pretty easy to acquire. Basic chemistry can help you figure out if a thing is lead or not.
Cats—I would say not to live with cats at all, especially not a small child. I know you think your cats are indoor cats, but a few experiments have been conducted on cats with collar-cameras which showed even the nicest of cats seem to manage to get out and eat things when no one is watching. I wonder if looking into this information will change your mind about the safety of living with cats. Part of me is very concerned about how much we don’t know about what toxo does to humans. We know it makes rats more attracted to cats urine to encourage them to get eaten and pass on the toxo. I am concerned for the ability of toxo to get to the brain and modify it.
pets—certainly live with pets, I believe it does wonderful things for social-ness and empathy and companionship. (there is a vegan argument against having animals, but I believe it is important to have them), food animals—i.e. chickens—will help children understand where food comes from, as well as growing foods and herbs, lemon trees, and others add childhood memories to one’s life. I personally keep bees, depending on your climate that might not work for you, and also the risk of stings exists. Having a personal model of a creature of a simple mind and simple behaviour is a good thing for building social intelligence brains.
IQ—I have no answer, but there is information that being more than 30 points away from your peers can be socially isolating and not actually lead to progress. If IQ was a good predictor of success (in various metrics) it would be more clear to be so. If you expect the world to change significantly to make this not a problem in the future then carry on, but I don’t know how to consider limiting IQ to more socially productive levels.
Good Luck!
Edit: fish—I would trust some fish sources, i.e. river farmed, or private farm—depending on what they feed the fish and where the food comes from. also for the nutrients of fish oils.
One possibility is to get a cat that already has toxoplasmosis (I believe you can get them tested), since they can’t shed it after the first few weeks. But you’re more likely to get it from undercooked meat, anyway, so if you’re really concerned it’s probably best to focus attention there.
Source on cats getting out of the house, killing and eating animals, and then sneaking back in unnoticed? Especially unlikely in our second-floor apartment since the cat would have to make it through a closed door four separate times without anyone knowing.
the basic facts:
Cats that are outdoors seem kill a lot of other animals.
Sometimes they bring them home, sometimes they do not.
Estimates suggest massive 10^6 − 10^9 sort of numbers of animals being killed.
If you are sure that your cats never leave the house and never have a chance to eat animals, that’s fine, I am still suspicious, what about birds near windows?
--
I have first-hand anec-data about the seriousness of toxoplasmosis.
Having said all this I definitely have a personal preference for liking dogs over cats. As a separate point I prefer the psychology of dogs to that of cats where dogs are happier, and cats are temperamental at times (not counting for variations in both dogs and cats where either can be happy and either can be temperamental)
None of these sources are about indoor cats. They are all about feral or indoor-outdoor cats.
I did find a study about the prevalence of toxo in Polish indoor cats, which was 19% if they were not fed raw meat. A study on “indoor” cats in Rhode Island animal shelters found 26% had toxo. That last one seems a bit odd, because you don’t know much about the history of a cat at a shelter. A lot of cat adoption places make you promise to keep the cat indoors, but they have no way of checking, so people returning an unwanted cat to a shelter may claim to have kept their promise even if they didn’t. In any case, no indication of whether these cats got toxo while they were indoor cats, or for example while kittens with a different owner.
I would feel more comfortable without cats, but since they belong to my housemates they’re not my choice. Luckily one is blind and the other seems pretty incompetent (the cats, not the housemates).
Yes it seems like cats are less bad than I already registered. Most of my argument rests on me also not liking cats. Glad the information has been shared.
What kinds of pets are third floor apartment friendly? We too have an 1.5 year old girl and would consider a pet when she will old enough to take responsibility for it, like, at 6.We are held back with stuff like cats will fall out a window and disappear. I never had a pet and don’t like them much but for example I have seen some apartment kids having turtles, which look like a boring kind of a pet.
Axolotl’s are very boring. turtles are interesting if the temperature is above ~25c. often swimming around and eating things. Finches are dumb birds but budgies and larger sized birds are quite smart, have plenty of personality.
I don’t think personality is a necessary trait of a pet. All my sons showed interest in animals large and small to some degree but the second oldest (9) developed a deep interest ina all kinds of animals and knows many more animals and there properties (including typical weight and size) than me or his mother. He observes the animals but doesn’t necessariily develop a relationship with them.
really good review.
Germs—Good understanding on the hygiene theory. Its worth also adding that younger children get over sickness easier and probably won’t have a memory of any pain of the process, so if you were to catch chicken pox—best to do it earlier in life. I personally believe in dirt and other exposure.
Lead—I don’t know if you are aware but lead testing kits are pretty easy to acquire. Basic chemistry can help you figure out if a thing is lead or not.
Cats—I would say not to live with cats at all, especially not a small child. I know you think your cats are indoor cats, but a few experiments have been conducted on cats with collar-cameras which showed even the nicest of cats seem to manage to get out and eat things when no one is watching. I wonder if looking into this information will change your mind about the safety of living with cats. Part of me is very concerned about how much we don’t know about what toxo does to humans. We know it makes rats more attracted to cats urine to encourage them to get eaten and pass on the toxo. I am concerned for the ability of toxo to get to the brain and modify it.
pets—certainly live with pets, I believe it does wonderful things for social-ness and empathy and companionship. (there is a vegan argument against having animals, but I believe it is important to have them), food animals—i.e. chickens—will help children understand where food comes from, as well as growing foods and herbs, lemon trees, and others add childhood memories to one’s life. I personally keep bees, depending on your climate that might not work for you, and also the risk of stings exists. Having a personal model of a creature of a simple mind and simple behaviour is a good thing for building social intelligence brains.
IQ—I have no answer, but there is information that being more than 30 points away from your peers can be socially isolating and not actually lead to progress. If IQ was a good predictor of success (in various metrics) it would be more clear to be so. If you expect the world to change significantly to make this not a problem in the future then carry on, but I don’t know how to consider limiting IQ to more socially productive levels.
Good Luck!
Edit: fish—I would trust some fish sources, i.e. river farmed, or private farm—depending on what they feed the fish and where the food comes from. also for the nutrients of fish oils.
One possibility is to get a cat that already has toxoplasmosis (I believe you can get them tested), since they can’t shed it after the first few weeks. But you’re more likely to get it from undercooked meat, anyway, so if you’re really concerned it’s probably best to focus attention there.
Source on cats getting out of the house, killing and eating animals, and then sneaking back in unnoticed? Especially unlikely in our second-floor apartment since the cat would have to make it through a closed door four separate times without anyone knowing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_behavior suggests that cat behaviour is to escape or try to do so.
some sources of cats damaging wildlife: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/pets/9462354/Cats-killing-more-wildlife-than-previously-thought.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/pets/9307745/CatCam-could-vindicate-pets-accused-of-killing-birds.html http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/01/29/170600655/behind-cute-face-a-cold-blooded-killer-study-finds-cats-kill-billions-of-animals
papers: http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/research.html http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n1/full/ncomms2380.html
a fact-check on some information: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-13/greg-hunt-feral-cat-native-animals-fact-check/5858282 which is hilarious and embarrassing and evidence that chain-of-whispers is very real.
a source that is biased: http://www.australianwildlife.org/media/27964/AWC-Wildlife-Matters-Summer-2012-2013.pdf
a good summary of multiple sides of some studies: http://members.iinet.net.au/~rabbit/catdeb.htm
the basic facts: Cats that are outdoors seem kill a lot of other animals. Sometimes they bring them home, sometimes they do not. Estimates suggest massive 10^6 − 10^9 sort of numbers of animals being killed. If you are sure that your cats never leave the house and never have a chance to eat animals, that’s fine, I am still suspicious, what about birds near windows?
-- I have first-hand anec-data about the seriousness of toxoplasmosis.
Having said all this I definitely have a personal preference for liking dogs over cats. As a separate point I prefer the psychology of dogs to that of cats where dogs are happier, and cats are temperamental at times (not counting for variations in both dogs and cats where either can be happy and either can be temperamental)
None of these sources are about indoor cats. They are all about feral or indoor-outdoor cats.
I did find a study about the prevalence of toxo in Polish indoor cats, which was 19% if they were not fed raw meat. A study on “indoor” cats in Rhode Island animal shelters found 26% had toxo. That last one seems a bit odd, because you don’t know much about the history of a cat at a shelter. A lot of cat adoption places make you promise to keep the cat indoors, but they have no way of checking, so people returning an unwanted cat to a shelter may claim to have kept their promise even if they didn’t. In any case, no indication of whether these cats got toxo while they were indoor cats, or for example while kittens with a different owner.
I would feel more comfortable without cats, but since they belong to my housemates they’re not my choice. Luckily one is blind and the other seems pretty incompetent (the cats, not the housemates).
Yes it seems like cats are less bad than I already registered. Most of my argument rests on me also not liking cats. Glad the information has been shared.
Also, there’s now a chicken pox vaccine, so no need to catch it at all.
What kinds of pets are third floor apartment friendly? We too have an 1.5 year old girl and would consider a pet when she will old enough to take responsibility for it, like, at 6.We are held back with stuff like cats will fall out a window and disappear. I never had a pet and don’t like them much but for example I have seen some apartment kids having turtles, which look like a boring kind of a pet.
Axolotl’s are very boring. turtles are interesting if the temperature is above ~25c. often swimming around and eating things. Finches are dumb birds but budgies and larger sized birds are quite smart, have plenty of personality.
I have always found that mice smell.
Stick insects are cool!
Gerbils? Guinea pigs? Mice? Birds? They don’t have personality in the way that dogs or cats do, but might appease a six-year-old.
I don’t think personality is a necessary trait of a pet. All my sons showed interest in animals large and small to some degree but the second oldest (9) developed a deep interest ina all kinds of animals and knows many more animals and there properties (including typical weight and size) than me or his mother. He observes the animals but doesn’t necessariily develop a relationship with them.