A Practical Guide to Impractical Pets

Barbara Burn

Howell Book House, 1997 - Pets - 372 pages

This authoritative one-volume compendium deals with pets of all kinds: mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, and even insects. It covers such topics as creating a suitable habitat, nutrition, parasite control, breeding, keeping, and general husbandry. In addition, animal lovers will learn many useful and interesting things, including how not to kill their pets with kindness. Overfeeding, underdisciplining, and other forms of mistreatment brought about through ignorance of the animal s real needs are discussed as well. Barbara Burn is a realist who divides pets into three categories: easy, difficult, and impossible. With grace and wit, she alerts animal lovers to what they can tolerate and what can tolerate them. Barbara Burn is the widow of Emil Dolensek, D.V.M., who was for many years the chief veterinarian at the Bronx Zoo. From him she

Contents

• PART ONE Selecting A: 3
• Birds: 38
• Small Finches 47 Budgerigars: 48
• Snakes 60 Lizards: 64
• Insects: 70
• Fish: 76
• Difficult Pets: 82
• Sheep and Goats 100 Llamas: 103
• Fish: 114
• Mammals: 121
• Softbill Birds 128 Toucans: 130
• Reptiles: 172
• PART TWO Keeping A: 181
• Learning to Live with a Pet: 194
• Caring for a Pet: 222
• Growing Your Own: 281
• The End of the Affair: 299
• Afterword: 316
• Resources: 357
• Index: 363

About the author

BARBARA B. BURN is Associate Provost for International Programs, Adjunct Professor, and teaches comparative higher education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is the author of "Expanding the International Dimension of Higher Education".

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Practical Guide to Impractical Pets
• Author: Barbara Burn
• Edition: 2, illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Howell Book House, 1997
• ISBN: 0876057245, 9780876057247
• Length: 372 pages
• Subjects: Pets / Reference