One of my special interests is exotic companion animals, which include rabbits, chinchillas, hamsters, turtles and birds. Our clinic has a couple of clients with ferrets, which are not common in Hong Kong. They are not usually bred here and their survival rates are exceedingly poor in Hong Kong, which is partly due to the prevalence of a disease called distemper. The ferret is so sensitive to distemper that even the inactivated vaccine we regularly give to dogs will kill a ferret. Ferrets also have a nasty scent gland they use for marking territory. Given the city's typical shoebox-size flats, let's just say I wouldn't fancy my house smelling like that. That said, ferrets are the third most common uncaged pet in North America and, if kept properly, are very interesting and hyperactive pets. Note that there is a black-footed ferret that is endangered and hence illegal to keep. Rabbits, on the other hand, make great pets with few caveats. Most people are surprised to learn that rabbits live for a long time, typically eight to 10 years, so if you are considering a rabbit as a pet, you need to think about your situation in the long term. Keeping a rabbit involves more day-to-day maintenance than keeping a cat. Like a cat, rabbits need grooming and attention. But there is probably more cleaning up after them. They need grass and hay for food and wood shavings for flooring, which tends to make them a little messy and requires more storage space. On the positive side of the ledger, unlike a cat they have fewer medical expenses. Rabbits need not be caged and can be kept remarkably like a cat, hopping around the house. They can easily be toilet trained, but you'll need to be prepared for their habit of chewing things incessantly, especially wires. Many people keep rabbits in cages, often cages that are too small. A suitable cage should allow the rabbit to hop three generous steps and not bump its head on the ceiling. As you can imagine, three steps means a rather long cage. Rabbit cages are called 'runs' for a reason. Rabbits tend to be more interactive than chinchillas, which also make great pets. The husbandry of chinchillas is very similar to that of rabbits, except they need less space. Their cage is better tall rather than long and hence more suitable for the city's small flats. Chinchillas come from the Andes Mountains of South America, where it is freezing cold, which means they don't cope well with Hong Kong's heat and humidity. So you will need to run the air conditioner during summer, which will add to the cost of keeping them - and to your household's carbon footprint. Like rabbits, chinchillas tend to live seven to 10 years, so they are also a long-term investment. Hamsters are the perfect pet for mums and dads unsure about pets, but whose kids want one. They are easy to keep and live only two to three years. The cardinal rule about keeping hamsters is they are solitary animals. Even in the wild they only come together to mate. If you keep more then one in the cage, they will fight eventually - not to mention they will breed faster then the proverbial rabbit. So always keep them alone in a cage. A pet we often see but would not recommend is the turtle. Turtles live in water and their proper husbandry requires at least a small pond, which very few people have in Hong Kong. Most owners just keep turtles in a small tank and take them out for feeding. These tanks are far too small and the turtle has no way to get sufficient exercise or exhibit normal behaviour. Turtles are omnivores and need a variety of meat and vegetables with a healthy dose of calcium and daylight to keep healthy. Unfortunately many owners in Hong Kong only feed meat to their turtles, which will invariably become sick. The common red-ear turtle was introduced from North America and is a nuisance to native wildlife in Hong Kong, so remember never to release a turtle into the wild. Tortoises, on the other hand, are more suitable as pets, but they are messy because they can't be toilet trained. Some grow very big. You have to be careful not to accidentally purchase an endangered species. The plus side of tortoises is that they are usually vegetarian and therefore easier to satisfy as far as their diet goes. I personally have never been much of a bird keeper, believing that birds should be free to fly - and hence they need a lot of room that may be impossible to provide. The birds I have kept have always been free to fly around the room, but that leaves the problem of them depositing their droppings everywhere. The larger, intelligent birds such as cockatoos and grey parrots can be great pets but require lots of attention, training and care. They will often outlive their owners, so require long-term planning for after you have died.