Reason, Rebel, Rhyme after their first bath.

Fostering kittens

In May 2017 we fostered three kittens who were siblings. I tracked their daily weights out of curiosity and because I while I really enjoy fostering kittens, I would like some good rule of thumb for expected weight gain to help plan life around fostering (eg: Is this likely a 2 week or more of 4 week fostering gig?) The Maui Humane Society had specific weight cut offs for when kittens could be neutered (910 grams or 2 lbs), so for kittens that are socialized and healthy, this weight goal is the last hurdle before their neutering and being put up for adoption. Sadly, I don’t know how old the kittens were when we started fostering them, but I was able to find the foster request email from the shelter, and the director estimated the duration of fostering would be 4-5 weeks. Pretty amazing then that it only took 2 weeks, but maybe she just didn’t have the data to make good predictions on how long it takes kittens to gain weight.

Import and tidy data

The libraries I have loaded are tidyverse, janitor, googlesheets4 (this was added to the updated blog post and code in 2024), and tools. I tried to figure out if their was a code chuck option to show the code, but not show the evaluation of it, but didn’t find it. I’ll need to search through R Markdown. Update found it. Looks like I need to set message to false.

Code

library(tidyverse)
library(janitor)
library(googlesheets4)
library(tools)

Code

#Read google sheets data into R
kitten_weight_gain <- read_sheet('https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1x-Udhm5VkhSh0siWLtipbDZFAMs5Zp7TsTpnUlmz9Jg/edit?gid=0#gid=0')
                                                                                        

#names(kitten_weight_gain)

Code

kitten_weight_gain <- clean_names(kitten_weight_gain)

tidy_kittens <- pivot_longer(kitten_weight_gain, cols = 3:5, names_to = "kitten_name", values_to = "weight_in_grams") 

tidy_kittens <- tidy_kittens %>% separate(col = 4, into = c("kitten_name", "sex"), sep = "_")

tidy_kittens$sex <- as.factor(tidy_kittens$sex)

tidy_kittens$scale <- as.factor(tidy_kittens$scale)

tidy_kittens$date <- as.Date(tidy_kittens$date, format = "%m/%d/%Y")

tidy_kittens$weight_in_grams <- as.numeric(tidy_kittens$weight_in_grams)

tidy_kittens$kitten_name <- tools::toTitleCase(tidy_kittens$kitten_name)

#head(tidy_kittens)

Ok now I have my data in a more tidy format. This is the first time I have used dpylr::pivot_longer. I first tried to use dpylr::spread but saw a little note that pivot_longer was the new kid in town. I thought it was great. Certainly was faster for me to use even though it was the first time reading through the documentation.

Weight gain, graphically

I want to denote a few things in my graph: distinguish the two males from the female kitten, note that the first day’s wieght was by a different scale. And I’d love to somehow squeeze a picture of the kitten into its key–but since I only have a few minutes before my toddler wakes up–basics first.

Code

graphic_kittens <- ggplot(tidy_kittens, aes(x = date, y = weight_in_grams, color = kitten_name, shape = sex)) +
  geom_line() +
  geom_point() +
  labs(title = "Foster Kitten Weight Gain", subtitle = "Journey to adequate weight for neutering and adoption") +
  xlab(" ") +
  ylab("Weight in grams") +
  theme_minimal() +
  scale_x_date(date_breaks = "1 day", date_labels = "%b-%d")+
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90, hjust = 1)) +
  labs(color = "Which kitten?") +
  labs(shape = "Sex of kitten?") 
  


print(graphic_kittens)

Next steps

Questions I have now after the first collection of data:

Do males and females have different weight gain rates?

Do any animal shelters moniter weight gain as an indicator of kitten well being like we have for infant/child growth curves as humans?

What are the currently known determinants of weight gain in domestic kittens? Though these kittens were supposedly siblings, queens can have a single litter with multiple toms fathering kittens, so the kittens from a single litter might be more or less related.

--- title: Growing Kittens author: 'Mara Alexeev' date: 2020-01-26 date-modified: last-modified categories: [R] draft: false description: How quickly do kittens gain weight? slug: growing-kittens image: 'image_for_blog_post.jpg' archives: - function () ,.Internal(date()) toc: true format: html: code-fold: true code-tools: true --- ![Reason, Rebel, Rhyme after their first bath.](images/kittens_after_bath.jpg) # Fostering kittens In May 2017 we fostered three kittens who were siblings. I tracked their daily weights out of curiosity and because I while I really enjoy fostering kittens, I would like some good rule of thumb for expected weight gain to help plan life around fostering (eg: Is this likely a 2 week or more of 4 week fostering gig?) The Maui Humane Society had specific weight cut offs for when kittens could be neutered (910 grams or 2 lbs), so for kittens that are socialized and healthy, this weight goal is the last hurdle before their neutering and being put up for adoption. Sadly, I don't know how old the kittens were when we started fostering them, but I was able to find the foster request email from the shelter, and the director estimated the duration of fostering would be 4-5 weeks. Pretty amazing then that it only took 2 weeks, but maybe she just didn't have the data to make good predictions on how long it takes kittens to gain weight. ## Import and tidy data The libraries I have loaded are tidyverse, janitor, googlesheets4 (this was added to the updated blog post and code in 2024), and tools. I tried to figure out if their was a code chuck option to show the code, but not show the evaluation of it, but didn't find it. I'll need to search through R Markdown. **Update** found it. Looks like I need to set message to false. ```{r libraries, message = FALSE, warning=FALSE} library(tidyverse) library(janitor) library(googlesheets4) library(tools) ``` ```{r import data, message = FALSE, warning=FALSE} #Read google sheets data into R kitten_weight_gain <- read_sheet('https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1x-Udhm5VkhSh0siWLtipbDZFAMs5Zp7TsTpnUlmz9Jg/edit?gid=0#gid=0') #names(kitten_weight_gain) ``` ```{r tidy data to make each row an observation, message = FALSE, warning=FALSE} kitten_weight_gain <- clean_names(kitten_weight_gain) tidy_kittens <- pivot_longer(kitten_weight_gain, cols = 3:5, names_to = "kitten_name", values_to = "weight_in_grams") tidy_kittens <- tidy_kittens %>% separate(col = 4, into = c("kitten_name", "sex"), sep = "_") tidy_kittens$sex <- as.factor(tidy_kittens$sex) tidy_kittens$scale <- as.factor(tidy_kittens$scale) tidy_kittens$date <- as.Date(tidy_kittens$date, format = "%m/%d/%Y") tidy_kittens$weight_in_grams <- as.numeric(tidy_kittens$weight_in_grams) tidy_kittens$kitten_name <- tools::toTitleCase(tidy_kittens$kitten_name) #head(tidy_kittens) ``` Ok now I have my data in a more tidy format. This is the first time I have used dpylr::pivot_longer. I first tried to use dpylr::spread but saw a little note that pivot_longer was the new kid in town. I thought it was great. Certainly was faster for me to use even though it was the first time reading through the documentation. ## Weight gain, graphically I want to denote a few things in my graph: distinguish the two males from the female kitten, note that the first day's wieght was by a different scale. And I'd love to somehow squeeze a picture of the kitten into its key--but since I only have a few minutes before my toddler wakes up--basics first. ```{r} graphic_kittens <- ggplot(tidy_kittens, aes(x = date, y = weight_in_grams, color = kitten_name, shape = sex)) + geom_line() + geom_point() + labs(title = "Foster Kitten Weight Gain", subtitle = "Journey to adequate weight for neutering and adoption") + xlab(" ") + ylab("Weight in grams") + theme_minimal() + scale_x_date(date_breaks = "1 day", date_labels = "%b-%d")+ theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90, hjust = 1)) + labs(color = "Which kitten?") + labs(shape = "Sex of kitten?") print(graphic_kittens) ``` ## Next steps Questions I have now after the first collection of data: Do males and females have different weight gain rates? Do any animal shelters moniter weight gain as an indicator of kitten well being like we have for infant/child growth curves as humans? What are the currently known determinants of weight gain in domestic kittens? Though these kittens were supposedly siblings, queens can have a single litter with multiple toms fathering kittens, so the kittens from a single litter might be more or less related.