Who we are, and why a site just for unusual pets

Why a separate site

Why exotic pets need their own aftercare guide

Dog and cat aftercare advice is everywhere. Advice for a sugar glider or a tarantula mostly isn't. That's partly because the market is small: one industry estimate puts the revenue split at 60.1% dogs^[1], with cats close to a third and every other kind of pet sharing what little is left. Providers see unusual species rarely, so they're often unsure what to promise.

Yet exotic animals aren't a rarity at the vet. At the University of Tokyo's veterinary pathology service, exotics made up 20.5%^[2] of necropsy cases over 15 years. Keepers of these animals have real questions: will anything come back, can the body be preserved, who is legally allowed to handle it. This site exists to answer them.

We focus on sugar gliders, hedgehogs, amphibians, invertebrates and the larger animals that fit nowhere else, like skunks, wallabies, primates and big non-parrot birds. Snakes and lizards, parrots, pet fish and small rodents each have their own sister guides in our network, written for those keepers.

Where our facts come from

How we research unusual species and aftercare costs

Every number on this site links to a source. Prices come from published price lists, consumer studies and regulator reports. Species facts, like a hedgehog's typical weight or a glider's lifespan, come from veterinary and academic sources. You can see the full list on our research page.

Where good exotic-specific data doesn't exist, we say so. We'll often apply a general rule, like cremated remains weighing about 3-5% of body weight^[3], and then explain where it may not hold for your species. Frogs and axolotls return less; tarantulas return nothing.

Some figures are our estimates, calculated from sourced facts. They're always labelled as ours, and the working is shown. Our ashes weight estimator uses the same approach, so you can see exactly how each range was worked out.

Here's one example of how that works. The UK competition regulator's provisional decision on veterinary services found that only 9% of cremation buyers compared providers; combined with the share of owners who choose cremation, our estimate is that only around 6% of all bereaved UK owners shop around at all^[4]. For species facts we start from veterinary references such as the Merck Veterinary Manual's hedgehog overview. The result feeds pages like our questions to ask a provider and your local page.

Being open about money

What using this site costs you, and how providers are treated

Reading the site and sending a request cost you nothing. If a provider ever has a commercial arrangement with us, such as paying for introductions, we'll say so next to their name. No arrangement of that kind changes what we tell you about prices, species experience or what comes back.

Most people don't shop around for pet aftercare. In the UK, 89%^[5] of owners who bought a cremation never compared providers. For exotic pets, where the first provider may not even take your species, comparing is more than a way to save money. It's how you find someone who will treat your animal properly. The cremation cost calculator gives you a fair range to compare quotes against.