Incredible Animal Facts: Pet Edition

By A.K. Blakely

Did you know that there are over 393 million pets in the United States alone? Two out of every three households own a pet. That is a lot of pets! In this book, you will learn the most interesting and amazing facts and behaviors of eight of the most popular pets and the reasons why people love to have thes

• Language: English
• Publisher: DB Moose Publishing, LLC
• Release date: Jul 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781087977201

A.K. Blakely

I am A.K. Blakely and I am an animal lover through and through. I grew up in a small town outside of New York City right on the Long Island Sound. During my childhood, I had almost every pet you can imagine. My family and myself were always huge animal lovers and made our home available to many different types of animals. We had 3 dogs, 2 cats, a raccoon and several gerbils and hamsters. We also had a duck and a pet bass, which is a wild fish, that both lived in our swimming pool. It was almost as if we had our own little zoo and my friends loved to come over to our house to play with our many animal friends. It was a really fun and sometimes crazy house to live in.And as I got older, my interests turned to reptiles and I owned 2 geckos, an anole and a ball python snake named Monty. Now I am the proud owner of a cute little white fluffy dog named Bernie and a bearded dragon named Sergeant Major.I have always been fascinated by the animal kingdom and spend a lot of my free time researching interesting facts about the animals that we share our planet with. So one day, I decided to share it with the world. I hope you find this series entertaining as well as informative and have as much fun reading it as I had writing it. Enjoy and be well, my friends!

Book preview

Fish

We will begin our journey through pets with Fish.

The first pet we will talk about today are fish. Believe it or not, there are more fish in US family households than any other pet!  Although they aren’t as cuddly and playful as their dog and cat counterparts, they make the top of the list based on the fact that there are twice as many pet fish than the closest runner up. But we will talk about those other pets in a bit. I’m sure some of you listening today have fish as pets and I’m here to tell you that there is a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to these little creatures. They truly are amazing!

Fish have been on this planet we call Earth for more than 450 million years, whereas mammals, which are animals that produce milk, have hair or fur and give birth to live young, have only been on earth for roughly 200 million years.

Today, fresh and saltwater aquarium fish are the most popular pets in the U.S. Approximately 12 million households have aquariums.

The number of fish in these households is approximately 139 freshwater fish and 18 million saltwater fish. That’s a whopping 158.1 million fish! People love fish!

Let’s start with some fun fish facts about the species as a whole.

Fish are vertebrate animals that live in water. That means they have a spinal cord and bones or cartilage.

A fish’ body is covered in scales and most have a coat of slime to help them move throughout the water with ease.

Fish breath underwater!  All fish have gills that remove oxygen from the water to keep them alive.

Keeping that in mind, fish can actually drown!  If the water doesn’t have enough oxygen in it, fish can suffocate and die.

Compared to their body size, fish have pretty small brains compared to other animals their size.

Now let's talk about some of the reasons that fish make such great pets.

Fish are beautiful!  They come in all different sizes, shapes and stunning, bright colors.  Almost any color you can think of.

Fish are believed to have a very calming and soothing effect on people who look at them.

Fish are relatively easy pets to take care of.  They don’t require a lot of expensive food or care except to keep their environment clean.

Fish are quiet! Unlike a dog or a bird, they make no noise.

Fish don’t really mind when you leave them for any amount of time.  Dogs, cats and birds can become very attached and suffer from separation anxiety which means they don’t like when you leave