Surviving as a Baby Sea Turtle: The Perils of Reincarnation in the Ocean

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The discussion revolves around the challenges of reincarnation, particularly as a baby sea turtle, which faces numerous predators and environmental hazards shortly after hatching. Participants express a preference for reincarnating as more fortunate animals like otters, eagles, or kittens, highlighting the difficult and dangerous life of sea turtles. The conversation shifts to the topic of hypoallergenic cats, with skepticism about the breeding claims of a biotech company that produces them. The importance of genetic traits in breeding and the potential for manipulation is debated, alongside humorous takes on the less desirable reincarnation options. Overall, the thread combines humor with serious reflections on animal life and reincarnation.
  • #31
Yonoz said:
hundreds of them out in the street or in animal care societies. Nothing fishy there.
so you only need to go to a hundred thousand or so of those places and test all the cats, hope they haven't been spayed or neutered by then, negotiate the cat's purchase and then do the whole thing again to find another one to breed it with.
 
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  • #32
tribdog said:
so you only need to go to a hundred thousand or so of those places and test all the cats, hope they haven't been spayed or neutered by then, negotiate the cat's purchase and then do the whole thing again to find another one to breed it with.
:rolleyes: Or you are a breeder of cats, and whenever you come across one with the mutation, you hang onto it and keep breeding it rather than sell it. You'd have to do some inbreeding first, then backcross with wild type, and then breed those offspring. Yeah, it would still be a lot of cats, but the same thing is done to breed all the mice used to select for specific mutations. People haven't always gone deliberatly looking for those mutations, but if they stumble across one with an interesting trait, they hang onto it and keep breeding it. It could have been dumb luck they wound up with a breeding pair that both shared the trait, so decided to run with it.
 
  • #33
What is the gestation period of a cat vs mouse, and it's okay to breed 1000s of mice, but do they have places to breed cats like that? I knew of a lady who had 17 cats and she got arrested.
 
  • #34
The gestation period for cats is approximately 63-65 days. The size of a litter averages three to five kittens, with the first litter usually smaller than subsequent litters. Kittens are weaned at between six and seven weeks, and cats normally reach sexual maturity at 4-10 months (females) and to 5-7 months (males).
You wouldn't need to go to hundreds of thousands of animal care societies - I suppose a few major cities would suffice. They don't have to find cats that are already "hypoallergenic", they can breed cats that only have the recessive genes, knowing a certain percentage of the offspring will be "hypoallergenic".
 
  • #35
tribdog said:
What is the gestation period of a cat vs mouse, and it's okay to breed 1000s of mice, but do they have places to breed cats like that?
Yes, the same places that breed mice also breed cats...not in the same room of course. :wink: They don't breed as many, but if you have them and the ability to do the genetic screening, why not...especially if a bunch of the staff working with them have cat allergies and are motivated to have an allergen-free breed! It'd be even better if they had an allergen-free mouse line...almost everyone who works with mice eventually develops an allergy to them.
 
  • #36
Moonbear said:
It'd be even better if they had an allergen-free mouse line...almost everyone who works with mice eventually develops an allergy to them.
I didn't know that, though we have the world's premiere mouse-breeding facility here in the state. That would be tough, to go to work every day with over a thousand sniffly, runny-eyed co-workers!

http://www.jax.org/about/jax_facts.html
 
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  • #37
turbo-1 said:
I didn't know that, though we have the world's premiere mouse-breeding facility here in the state. That would be tough, to go to work every day with over a thousand sniffly, runny-eyed co-workers!
Yep, it's really quite common. I try to avoid it by wearing surgical masks and gloves any time I'm in a room with mice so I don't get as much exposure to the allergens. That's part of why the air handling systems in lab animal facilities have the requirements they do...they have a fairly rapid exchange rate and all the animal rooms have to be maintained at a negative pressure relative to corridors so the air flow is from the corridor to the animal room rather than from the animal room out to the corridor. It keeps all the allergens contained. If you take mice (or any other animals) out of the animal quarters, you have to keep HEPA filter covers on their cages. That works both ways...to keep them from getting exposed to any pathogens in the environment outside the animal quarters, and to protect the people from the allergens.
 
  • #38
That's fascinating about developing allergies from working with mice.

Edited to add: that still doesn't help tribdog not become a seaturtle, though.
 
  • #39
GeorginaS said:
That's fascinating about developing allergies from working with mice.

Edited to add: that still doesn't help tribdog not become a seaturtle, though.
It does help him not become an allergenic sea-turtle.
 
  • #40
Yonoz said:
It does help him not become an allergenic sea-turtle.
Better than being a dung beetle or a candiru...
 

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