Customer Reviews

Rats (Small Animals)

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

 

 

If you're looking for a good general rat care guide, this is not the book for you. It's packed with great photos but at times seems to be style over substance -- some of the "rat" photos are of mice! The experience of reading the book is similar to finding the occasional mouse photo, there's some interesting stuff but every once in a while there's some jarringly bad info (like the suggestion of cedar chips for bedding). It will be hard for a first time rat owner to tell which is which. More recent offerings by Debbie Duccomun or Ginger Cardinal are much better choices for your first rat care book.

As a complete beginner to the world of rat keeping, I found this book to be useful regarding practically every aspect of rat keeping. The section on taming and training was excellent, much better than any other book that I had seen. For me that section was the most important since it deals with how to make the pet-owner relationship more rewarding for both parties involved. Susan Fox obviously also owns her own rat/s which means the book is written from personal experience, not just theoretical conjecture. Very good information and interesting reading.

pictures of mice, and a suggestion to use pine as bedding! If you have rats you should know pine causes resperitory problems due to the oils and such in it. It's just not a very good book, and she obviously isn't very well informed on rats.

This book had so much information, especially for someone who is unfamiliar with having a pet rat. When my daughter wanted one, we had no idea about how to care for it. This book told us everything we wanted to know, and told it to us in a very easy-to-read and easy-to-understand style. I have recommended it to my daughter's friends when they want to get a pet rat like hers.

This book is a well-researched guide, although sometimes written at a bit of a simplistic level. Approximately 80%-85% of the book is information about proper care for a pet rat and diagnosing possible diseases. The book contains little information about rats as a species that is not commonly found in an encyclopaedia; if you are looking for a general book, this one will probably leave you unsatisfied. However, if you are looking for a guide to keeping rats as pets, I can say that the book is quite useful. When I've kept rats, I have particularly found the section on ailments to be valuable. For people who are new to raising rats, the book is an excellent place to start.

I hate to complain, but Susan Fox did not do a very good job with the book. The first chapter was (I think) usless encylopedia knowlage. The book was very vauge, most so in the part dealing with rat illnesses. Maybe this book would suit a beginner to the world of rattery, but it did not please me and really let me down. END