Customer Reviews

A Practical Guide to Impractical Pets

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is the most comprehensive guide to animal care and selection that I have ever seen. It lists pets by category: Easy, Difficult and Impossible, and goes to the trouble of explaining why some animals (listed in the "Impossible" section) just do not make good pets for the average person. There is also a lot of information on the basic care of the species and covers, in all, somewhere around 84 species. Recommended reading for anyone who loves animals.

I enjoyed this informative book with interesting facts on how to care for a tropical fish to a hedgehog to a iguana. However, I was worried about a things that were untrue in her book. She listed that iguana has teeth. I have a four-foot long iguana, but it doesn't have teeth! But in any form, this is an excellent book to read and remember.

As someone who works and lives with "exotic" animals, I found this book to be full of misinformation, both on anatomical and temperment. I have personal experience with a number of species she has listed, some of her "facts" are totally unfounded. Perhaps if you only see these animals in a zoo situation, they may be as troublesome as she contends. However, this is supposed to be about PETS. No, exotics are not for everyone. Yes, you do have to rearrange your life around them. The same holds true about any pet. Several of my friends also read this book, we all felt it was unfairly biased. The hidden agenda seems to be, anything unusual belongs in the wild or a zoo. We share our homes and lives with several "impossible pets", amazing how we seem to be surviving and loving it. The title is totally misleading. It is not a guide, but a tirade.