What’s this blog all about?

Dr Amber Lee

This website is the culmination of lots of hard work for you – the exotic pet owner. Here you will find exotic pet care articles and news, that I hope will help you learn and take care of your exotic pet.

There is a lot of information out there on care for exotic pets. This is one of the reasons I created my website in the first place. This website is for everyone. It is for the exotic pet owner who has had pets for many years and is well versed in their care. It is for someone who is starting to think about owning an exotic pet and wants to learn more. I also hope that this website will serve as a resource for the entire exotic pet community including veterinarians, technicians and nurses.

There are certain trends that we see in medicine, meaning there are common conditions that different species are prone to. Something that we see a lot of in exotic pet medicine is that failure to provide adequate housing, enrichment, diet, and climate for certain species. This puts them at risk of developing illness.

Here are some examples of poor husbandry and diet contributing to illness in exotic pets:

Rabbits and small herbivores:

Rely on a constant supply of fiber (grass hay) for their digestion and tooth wear.
Therefore, without a diet of mostly hay, they can develop serious dental and gastrointestinal problems.

Parrots:

Birds fed an allseed diet (which is high in fat and low in vitamins and minerals) can become calcium and vitamin A deficient.
Additionally they can be prone to obesity, heart disease and reproductive diseases.
Instead we recommend a balanced diet with pellets, vegetables, fruits, healthy table foods and small amounts of seeds.

Reptiles:

Reptiles are probably the most specific with their requirements in captivity.
Keeping them within the preferred range for temperature, humidity, UVB/UVA light supplementation, and providing a proper diet for their species is important.
If this is not done, then they can be prone to secondary nutritional hyperparathyroidism also known as metabolic bone disease.
This can have quite a profound affect on the pets overall health.

With all this information in mind, I would like to direct you to the Pet Care area of my website. Here I want you to explore all the different species we see and how to take care of them. Check out the information sheets on the different species to learn more about our recommendations for nutrition, housing and veterinary care. Do you know someone with an exotic pet you can share this information with?

To learn more about me, my background and my passions click here.

To learn about the services we offer at VCA Wakefield, including what species we treat.

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