Review by Kathy Lyon (Click on stars for an explanation)

This book is Out of Print.

This book is intended for the continuing education of technicians in the exotics practice. I found topics that were not sufficiently explained, and that was a distraction. Pigeons and doves were omitted from the list of commonly seen passerines.  These birds are too widely kept to have been left out off of the list. There was no mention of the coelomic cavity in birds (as opposed to a thoracic/abdominal cavity) and the lack of a diaphragm. The author makes several statements that will confuse the reader (i.e., "Severe illness or even death may result from an incorrectly placed cage."). Some of these statements need to be explained so as to understand what he is trying to say.

His recommendations for cage-wire size state that the size of the wire mesh be determined by the size of the bird (I think he means gauge size, not mesh size), but he makes no recommendations for rodent/snake control other than watching for signs of damage. His recommendation for restraint of psittacines needs more explanation. A nervous technician could misread his instructions and damage fragile neck vertebrae.

In the section on diet, the components of an avian diet are explained (fats, proteins, amino acids, etc.), but no recommendations are listed to help the reader provide a balanced diet. There is one short paragraph on pelleted diets. The author still refers to "French moult" in his section on illnesses, but he does mention that it is a polyomavirus.

The section on reptiles begins with the statement: "Like the bird, the snake has no diaphragm, so no separate thorax and abdomen. Instead it has a coelomic, or common, body cavity." Well, maybe I missed it. I went back to the avian section, but still could not find this fact under avian anatomy.

The sections on reptiles and small mammals are similar to the avian section; there is a lot of good information, with some information thrown in that -- while not incorrect -- is not entirely accurate either.

There are several pages of color photos, but I found some of the captions to be poorly worded (i.e., "Parrot beaks make impressive crushing tools such as this blue and gold macaw.").

I do not want to discount this book entirely, because there is a lot of good information, but it seems that it needed to be reviewed prior to publication by someone certified in these species, and edited by someone more familiar with sentence structure.

Blackwell Science, distributed in the US by Blackwell Publishing (2003).

Paper cover, illustrated, black & white and color, 314 pages.

ISBN: 9781405107471.