Guest Author - Denise Lacazette

Raising an animal from infancy is a difficult task at best. With exotic animals, few resources exist that can help an owner refrain from ‘reinventing the wheel’ or experimenting for lack of information. While Hand-Rearing Wild and Domestic Mammals is geared for veterinarians and zoo personnel, there is a great deal of information that can be used by exotic pet owners.

Animals covered in this book include rabbits, puppies, kittens, foals, pigs, kids (goat), camelids (alpaca, llama), opossum, sugar gliders, hedgehogs, lemurs, tamarins, raccoon, ferret, etc. You may not have a use for the section on walrus, elephants, and rhinoceros, but it makes for interesting reading! While many of the chapters are small – and this book does cover an inordinate amount of animals – the basics are covered. You will learn when to intervene (even if the parents are around), what to feed, what tools are needed, housing, weaning, common medical problems, product sources, and additional reference material for your subject.

Why I like this book

Many people search the internet for information after an emergency comes up. This is the ideal book to have on hand for those odd encounters. I wish this book had been on my shelf when we found the orphaned opossum. It is also something you will want to have on hand if you intend breeding any of your exotic mammals (like sugar gliders or hedgehogs). Much of the internet information is trial and error on the part of others; this book is authored by a veterinarian with over 40 contributing veterinarians. These guidelines have worked for the professionals. I especially like the section “Sources for Products Mentioned” which is included in every chapter. I know from experience it can be painfully difficult finding specialized products if you are just given a product name or company name and thingamajiggy description.

Title: Hand-Rearing Wild and Domestic Mammals
Author: Laurie J. Gage DVM
Publisher: Blackwell
ISBN: 0813826837


This book is available from Amazon.com: Hand Rearing Wild and Domestic Mammals