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From the Editor

Welcome to the Fall/Winter 2005 issue of CritterNews from ExoticHobbyist.com! We'd like to wish all of you a very happy Holiday Season and New Year.

We've expanded our lineup of chats on the site, including ferrets and other small pets in our Pet Health Chat on Wednesdays and Holistic Pet Care Chat on Thursdays. You can view the complete schedule and access the chats here.

We wish you all a wonderful holiday season!

Christie Keith
Editor, CritterNews

ExoticHobbyist.com Bookstore News

The lines at the bookstore getting you down? Don't have time to drive to the bookstore? Then check out the ExoticHobbyist.com.com Bookstore! There is a wide variety of books to chose from and even calendars and magazines, all personally selected by your bookstore editors.

Our current Top Ten Books in the bookstore:

1: Tiger Moon: Tracking the Great Cats in Nepal
2: Infectious Diseases of Mice and Rats Companion Guide
3: Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story
4: The Bats of Europe and North America: Knowing Them, Identifying Them, Protecting Them
5: Bats of the Rocky Mountain West: Natural History, Ecology, and Conservation
6: Lop Rabbits As Pets
7: Quick and Easy Dwarf Hamster Care
8: Mammal Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species
9: Mountain Lions 2006 Calendar
10: Exotic Pets: A Veterinary Guide for Owners

Eighth Annual Chat Week: Who Would YOU Like to See?

The Eighth Annual Chat Week on ExoticHobbyist.com will be held in February of 2006, and we would love to hear your suggestions for chat guests. If you would like to be a guest, or know of someone you'd like to see as a guest, or even a topic or subject you'd like to see covered during chat week, please use this link to let us know:

Contact PHChristy

Please be sure to give contact information for a guest you are suggesting, if possible.

Veterinary Care for Exotic Pets
By PHValkryie

This summer, I started working for a veterinary hospital that treats not just dogs and cats, but also exotics and wildlife. It's a new world for me as my only experience working with exotics is as an owner and the little bit we are taught in vet tech school. One class during one quarter of the first year is dedicated to exotics. That's 10 weeks worth. In that 10 weeks we cover snakes, reptiles, amphibians, rodents, rabbits, ferrets and even fish. They covered spiders too, but I'm pretty sure I passed out during that lecture.

During my first few days I kept being told by the vets, "Be careful with the ferrets, they bite." I'd snort and scoff. Oh come on now, they're ferrets! My ferrets are sweet and lovable. They nibble once in a while, but nothing to be cautious about. Finally one of the vets looked me straight in the eye and said, "ALL ferrets bite." Well this got my dander up a bit and I said, "MY ferrets DON'T." Her eyes softened a bit, her voice lowered and with a gentle tone said, "All ferrets bite at the vets, they're scared, this is an unfamiliar place to them and some don't feel well."

Of course.

I had just made a client's typical comment. How many times did a client say to me regarding their dog or cat, "Henry doesn't bite, he's good boy, don't worry," only to have Henry try to take a chunk out of me and the client either deeply sorry or convinced that I did something to deserve it. My rule quickly became, all dogs and cats bite at the vets, they're scared and in an unfamiliar place, some don't feel well.

With this knowledge I always take precautions to prevent accidents. Unfortunately, these precautions can be considered offensive by clients.

Scruffing, for instance, scares many clients. They're concerned that you're hurting their beloved pet. From my side of the table it is considered using proper retraint and preventing injury to both pet and human. I also liberally use muzzles; if a dog looks very scared I know that their best defense is to growl and bite. They don't mean to hurt me, they're simply scared.

The same goes with the little critters. Ferrets, rodents, rabbits and other "pocket" pets need to be treated with respect when they go to the vets, but the vets, techs and assistants are going to take precautions to prevent the injury of your pet and themselves. It's not that you have a "bad pet," it's that you have a scared pet. We're not being mean, just careful.

PHValkyrie is Nancy Campbell, RVT. She is the host of ExoticHobbyist.com's weekly Natural Ferret Care Chat, owns the Natural Ferret email list, and also runs the Vet Techs Blog.

Everybody Loves Some Bunny Sometime
By Christie Keith

When Marinell and Bob Harriman brought their rabbit Herman home to live with them, they put her (yes, her) in the kitchen just until they could build her a backyard hutch. That hutch never got built.

Over the two-and-a-half years that Herman shared her life with the Harrimans, she taught them a thing or two about rabbits: That they can open doors, be litter box trained, love affection, and have many special dietary, social, and health care needs. Marinell took the lessons she learned from Herman and wrote a book that has become a legend: The House Rabbit Handbook, first published in 1985 and now in its fourth printing.

But Herman's legacy did not stop there. Out of the handbook has grown an entire organization, the House Rabbit Society, and its publication, the House Rabbit Journal, along with a nationwide network of rabbit owners, fosterers, vets who provide expert and discounted care, and volunteers seeking to educate rabbit owners.

If your only exposure to rabbits has been caged bunnies in a classroom or backyard, you will be astonished at the potential complexity and depth of the human-rabbit relationship. While they have needs different from dogs and cats, they are no less capable of finding a place in your heart. It is the sterility and boredom of their limited lives that makes caged rabbits seem uninteresting; bring them in and make them a part of the family, and you will be amazed at what you've been missing.

The switch from hutch to home will benefit the rabbit as well as the humans in the family. Domestic rabbits have not changed very much from their wild ancestors. As renowned small mammal veterinarian Dr. Susan Brown points out, "The normal territorial space of an adult of this species is about two acres but may be even larger if food is in short supply. This is the area over which the rabbit would wander each day to feed and to look for mates. We know that the rabbit requires large volumes of high fiber food that would necessitate traveling great distances each day, particularly during winter months. In addition, rabbits are anatomically designed to be able to move at great speed in order to elude predators. Observe the powerful back legs built to run and leap.

"So, we take this beautiful, graceful animal that is designed to range over a large area, at times even at great speed, and put it in a cage that is 24" x 24" x 18"H for most or all of it's life and expect it to thrive and do well."

In addition to boredom and loneliness, a life in a hutch or cage leads to a number of health problems as well.

If a rabbit shares your life, or you know of a rabbit who could use something to brighten his or her day, the House Rabbit Handbook is a must-have. Packed with over fifteen years' worth of stories, tips, information, and health care resources, it is liberally illustrated with photographs and the stories of individual rabbits.

Even if a rabbit isn't the pet for you, the heartwarming stories in the House Rabbit Handbook earn the book a place on the bookshelves of every pet owner.

Consider joining the House Rabbit Society or supporting them with a donation; they help abandoned rabbits, rabbits in shelters, and rabbits in inappropriate living situations or with health and behavior problems, and they do it with 100 percent volunteer power - no high-paid office or administrative staff for them!

You can send your donations, or requests for more information, to House Rabbit Society, 148 Broadway Richmond, CA 94804. You will also find a world of information on house rabbits, links to join the Society, email addresses to get rabbit advice, and a place to make online donations, on their award-winning website at http://www.rabbit.org.

Copyright 2005 by Christie Keith. Used with permission.

The Tears of the Cheetah
By Stephen J. O'Brien
Reviewed by Christie Keith

I previously dubbed Robert Sapolsky's Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers as the best recent popular science book, and it is, but The Tears of the Cheetah is a close second. It's not as funny as Sapolsky's book, but it's more broad-ranging, covering the genetic heritage of the human race and all its cousins and ancestors in the animal kingdom. Profound, whistful, clever, and sometimes maybe a bit too technical for a popular audience, this is a remarkable and fascinating book about genetics. Topics include HIV, dog and cat diseases, conservation, cloning, evolution, and of course, cheetahs.

Copyright 2005 by Christie Keith. Used with permission.

Come Chat With Us!

Come hang out with your critter-loving chat hosts and other small pet owners and hobbyists in our chats! No registration is required and there is nothing to download. You can join our chats here.

Questions about our chats, or how to access them? Check out our Chat FAQ!

CritterNews is copyright 2005 by OnlineHobbyist.com unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.

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