I've figured it out..

Rats :

"You'll be better off with the larger cake-pan cage shown on page 330, or a 10-gallon tank. The cage needs nothing extra in it but the water bottle and food dish, some bones to gnaw on, and some paper towels for your rat to chew up for nest building."

Thing is, she's giving advice based off of what they've done with their own pets. Ideally, I'd like to find a care book for children that doesn't go off of age-old, re-circulated myths. But there doesn't seem to be any. Granted, I haven't actually gone to the book store *yet* to look, and I will, I just don't have my hopes up. Same book also says puppies should be locked up for the majority of the day to reduce accidents, and when they're not locked up, outside taking potty breaks, and they must not come inside until they've messed or puddled. It's been a while since I've had a dog in my care, and I've never dealt with a puppy(that I can remember - too young), but a lot of the information just seems like a "dur, don't do that" even to me.

And for rabbits and guinea pigs she drills in that pellets should be the basis of the diet, and not hay. I should have looked at the sources before (literally) tossing the book in with the bag of kitty litter, but I didn't think of it.

I bet that's an old book (or at least I HOPE its an old book). That kind of thinking was back in the days when you had a house on the prairie and had to hunt for dinner at night.

I wonder what her take on raising children is?

I will say that my two dogs are in cages during the day - but those are their home. They will go lay in them even when we are all at home. They are NEVER NEVER used as punishment. They are associated only with safety and treats. Crating during the day is OK, but it has to be done right. Our dogs are excited when its time to go in (they are also ecstatic when its time for a car ride).

I am sure there are good resources with more modern ideas in them.

Shawn

It was published only in 2003...

I have no issues with crate-training. I have issues locking a puppy up in one just to avoid accidents. =\

Oh my. Thats awful really. Because grabbing a puppy in an aggressive way while eating is totally not going to cause fear based aggression when older.

We had growling with Loki and we simply took the bowl away. With my older and bigger dog, we would feed him little by little so he learned that us picking up the bowl was usually a good thing.

As for peeing on the floor, I think most pups would get so scared that they'd just pee more.

I just read about the book on Barnes & Noble. Holy crap its in elementary libraries too.

And they thought Catcher in the Rye was bad....

All we need to do is to educate our relatives especially the small ones for they will bring it up their last breath.

Buying collectible action figures is a long process. After buying the figures you also need to take proper care of them so that you can gladly show them to your friends.