Actually cleaning litter boxes -is- an issue with pregnant women, not due to the brand of the litter but the fact that it's got cat waste in it. This is due to toxoplasmosis and is a very real problem... for humans... but would have no issue with sims (unless there's an increased risk of general sickness with sims cleaning cat boxes). I guess they don't want to encourage risky behaviours in real life or something? I don't know.

Sims are unable to get Toxoplasmosis and therefore have no real need to worry about changing cat litter, pregnant or not, there is no reason to not have a mod allowing them to.

but ... really it has to do with the waste product itself and not the litter.

Hey !
Just wanted to say that it's not the litter itself that is dangerous, but the cats' excrements. It may causes toxoplasmosis, a dangerous disease for babies. I've got this disease. I'm 17 so I wasn't pregnant but the doctor told me what it could do.
I just wanted to say this.
When I saw this in game, I was surprised, but in a good way.

As I have nine cats, and IF, by some strange event, I was pregnant, I would think that wearing gloves, (Latex Free, of course!) and a gas mask, (For the fumes.) cleaning the litter box would be relatively safe.

However, as Sims are pixilated people who don't exist in real life, I feel that it's plain stupid to have them barred from cleaning the litter box.
So, thank you! :D

Who knows

~ Warning: Veterinary Public Health Lesson 1 ~

In any case, toxoplasma infection in adults is more likely to be contracted by ingesting tissue cysts in undercooked meat or poorly washed vegetables, or even from gardening...maybe EA ought to remove that from the game Human medicos often go into hysterics over pregnant women owning cats, when in fact the litter tray is of minimal risk...oocysts in cat faeces don't sporulate for 24-48 hours, so as long as people clean the litter tray every day (as you'd expect), the risk of infection is virtually nil. Additionally, adult cats rarely shed (more a problem in kittens/young cats), and quite a high percentage of people who've been exposed to cats for much of their lives have been subclinically infected with toxo. Unless a person is immunocompromised, the only real risk of toxoplasma infection is in a previously unexposed pregnant woman - usually causes no problem for her, but can cause very severe foetal abnormalities.

Still of course advisable for a pregnant woman to get a family member to do the dirty work where possible, or to wear gloves if she has to do it herself, but I know of several single women who upon becoming pregnant were advised to get rid of their cats without even the suggestion of checking antibody titre. Silly, silly, silly.

~ End of Lesson ~

And thankyou very much for the mod

There's also a correlation between cat feces being in the house and these fetuses being born and then being diagnoses with schizophrenia. Just a correlation though, it's not strong enough to be labeled a cause.

Sims with schizophrenia are funny though, so whatev.

LOL! I never expected to see so much discussion on this topic.

Thanks for a useful mod.

I think it is a great mod

With that being said, it is dangerous for living people to change cat litter boxes. Doctors don't have time to monitor how well someone cleans their cat box, so they all just say "don't do it."

It's not as harmful as most people think. My sister was pregnant and at the time of her first pregnancy we owned 3 cats, two of which were indoors only. And she never once got sick, but then again I can't vouch for the rest of the world's population :P

When I was younger, I learned about how pregnant women were not suppose to clean litter boxes, I just assumed it was common knowledge.

Any way…

Maybe instead of just disabling the litter box when your Sims get Prego ,EA/Maxis should have put some educational information in the guise of a pop-up , so when you try to clean it your sim says "The Dr says that ......" explaining why they can't clean it. Or when your sim gets Prego, you get a pop up. Seriously, if the person playing doesn’t know about the whole pregnant ordeal then they will have gained that additional information. To me It's better to explain a situation rather than just have it in their. It makes it's point useless to throw something like that in their and not explain it…

Yep. I loved that part of pregnancy No cat box cleaning...daddy has to do it! I think it is cool that Sims doesn't allow pregnant sims to do it, another little piece of reality!

This mod has also been a cause for conversation where it is posted at InSim, as well:

http://www.insimenator.net/showthre...695#post1273695

I think it is good from a public education standpoint.

Haha...great mod. Sooo random though. I bet Maxis said that they didn't include pregnant women cleaning litter boxes because they were lazy and forgot to put it into the game. Excuses, excuses...

Since I tend to lean towards realism in my Sims, I won't be getting this mod because it IS dangerous for a pregnant woman to clean cat litter. However, good mod and thanks!

While it's true that cleaning the litter box poses a small risk of the transmission of toxoplasmosis to the fetus in real life (which can be minimized by changing the litter often, gloves, etc), as someone else pointed out, so does gardening and handling raw meat.

As the game doesn't keep pregnant sims from gardening or cooking pork chops, I see no reason why my single pregnant sims should let the cat box reek up the house for three days. :P

Changing cat litter is dangerous for pregnant woman because of the risk of toxoplasmosis, like others have said. I know this for definate because my aunt was pregnant and lost her baby because of it.

Well, here's my issue:
If they were going for realism, wouldn't they just make it so that it makes pregnant women sick or something? It's not like in real life pregnant women CAN'T change the litter box.
As a side question:
Are pregnant males able to change the litter? I honesty don't know.

Health unit told me to get rid of my cat. I said 'I've had the cat longer than I've had the baby daddy, and I'll probably have the cat long after Baby Daddy's gone, so ... NO.' I just didn't change litter for about nine months. So yea. But still and all, great mod for single moms who don't have anyone to change it for them!

It is dangerous to pregnant women because of what is in the cats pee or poo. when scooping the litter you inhale it and it can harm the baby.

It is definitely dangerous for pregnant women (as well as people with renal disorders or suppressed immune systems) to clean litterboxes, as they run the risk of getting toxoplasmosis, which can be fatal. I didn't even know that Sims 2 blocked pregnant women from cleaning the box, as I have only had the Pets expansion pack for a short time. I suppose they're adding realism to the game - in the GC version, eating turkey subracts energy points from a Sim, a nod to the urban myth of the seratonin in turkey causing drowsiness.

Anyhoo - I suppose Sims can't really get toxoplasmosis. Clever idea.

I'm sorry if the answer should be obvious, but I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer....when you state "Compatibility: Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, FreeTime" do you mean it will work with any of the listed EPs or that you Must have all of the listed EPs installed for the mod to function properly?

The game icon area lists only Pets, is that all that is required?

Thank you to anyone who can clear up my confusion.

EDIT: Nevermind, my addled brain jump started, you're saying that this mod is compatable with any mod from Pets through Free Time... ignore me, please...

http://cats.about.com/cs/catmanagem...anpregnancy.htm
http://www.persiancats.org/customhtml1/
http://familydoctor.org/online/famd...llness/180.html
Just a few of the MANY sites I found on the subject, just to be helpful. :D

I figured they couldn't cuz the belly wouldn't let them bend over to get to the box..

Thank you dickhurt for this great fix! :-)

The other discussion about whether it is realistic or not that preggy Sims could clean the cat litter or not, or whether it should be a health warning poppin' up or not in game, is really sooo American... *gaaah* You guys are afraid of everything, aren't you?

Desire for realism or interest in health issues isn't particularly american. If we have social workers to cart off the children when they do badly in school and our sims can burn the house down if there is no smoke alarm, the catbox thing is just one more way to add detail to the game. And randomcrazychik made a good point about the pregnant belly.

I was surprised to see a mod like this coming from dickhurt, who is a favourite of mine because of making so many great hacks to improve realism. But for those who prefer to make their gaming as uncomplicated as possible, this will be very helpful. And what if a pregnant sim lives alone, with cats? So thank you for this.