Guest Author - Denise Lacazette

The Exotic Pet Handbook introduces you to a variety of exotic pets - canaries, finches, budgerigars, snakes, lizards, tortoises, frogs, newts, goldfish, tarantulas, scorpions, and freshwater fish to name a few. Each chapter provides an introduction along with descriptions of the various species, housing, feeding, general care, health, and breeding information. The book is 160 pages long with beautiful color photographs and covers many different animals. You are not going to find in depth species comparisons, or answers to all your specific pet questions. You are going to find very concise summaries of basic information. Novices may find the basic information helpful – especially if their pet purchase was impulse-driven. The prospective pet buyer will get a good grasp of the type of maintenance required for a particular animal.

The author has written many books on various animals and is considered an expert. You will find differing opinions in some of the techniques (feeding, housing, handling, etc) from other writers/owners/breeders, but you will find contradictions owner to owner, breeder to breeder, etc. The techniques he presents are valid and used by many. For many readers, this book will be the only reference needed for their exotic pet. Others may find a species-specific book to be more appropriate if they are interested in more than the basics or finding different techniques.

I personally found the chapter on invertebrates fascinating. Growing up I was often catching the odd bug and did not have a clue how to keep it alive in captivity. Stick insects, preying mantis, millipedes…do you have a child at home bringing you “cool” critters like this? I wish I had this book growing up. It provides a fascinating look at many of the animals we think we might keep, some we do, and others we wish we could. Who knows? Perhaps reading the book will actually enable you to have that exotic pet of your dreams because maybe it is not as complicated or demanding as you thought….

Recommended: Yes
Level: Prospective buyer & novice

The Exotic Pet Handbook is available through Amazon.com.

Title: The Exotic Pet Handbook
Author: David Alderton
Publisher: Anness Publishing Ltd. (Southwater)
Copyright: 2003