Customer Reviews

Gerbils (Animal Planet Pet Care Library)

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First off, I've read MANY of Sue Fox's books, and I find absolutely no fault with her research or presentation. As a small animal vet, I give her opinions great weight. That being said, my issue is with TFH and other "pet care" books affiliated with the pet food and product industry... specifically, the placement of easily identified products in photographs, even if those products are not the best items for the featured pet.

In two of the Animal Planet pet guides, for example, there are written sidebars or paragraphs "debunking" the issue of pine and cedar bedding. Fueled by the wood producers, these try to convince first time owners that there is no hard science proving that phenols from softwood shavings cause lung damage in small pets. This is patently false - see a paper written by a doctoral student here:

http://www.ratfanclub.org/pine&cdr.html

No legitimate breeder or rescue will recommend softwood bedding - not only for the risk of lung damage to the small pet, but because it can also carry in parasites such as mites much more readily than paper bedding (though this is largely the case when the producer is not one of the "big name" bedding producers).

When an author's work is edited or revised to align with pet industry interests, it is an insult to the author - again, Sue Fox is a wonderful writer and her work is largely VERY good advice. Also, due to the fact that she is a veterinarian and writes about a large variety of species, she is not able to specialize in any one - whereas Donna Anastasi, author of GERBILS, is president of the American Gerbil Society. I'd suggest reading both books together, and pulling the best information from that cumulative effort.