About Hayfold

Why Hayfold exists

Small pets are quiet, easily-stressed prey animals. They hide illness, they act strangely for perfectly normal reasons, and a lot of what pet shops still sell — cages too small, the wrong diet, “this one's happy alone” — is simply wrong. So it's easy to lie awake at 2am wondering“is this normal, or should I worry?” — and easy to feel silly for asking.

We built Hayfold to answer that question kindly and accurately: to tell normal from a genuine red flag, to correct the old myths gently, and to make keepers feel welcome and capable, not judged. It's a sister brand to Bognook (our amphibian home), and it runs on the same principle — a cozy shelter for the people who love these animals.

What we promise

The rules we hold ourselves to on every page:

• Current husbandry, not folklore. Small-pet care has moved on fast. We teach the up-to-date, evidence-based standard — and we correct pet-store myths kindly, never making you feel bad for having believed them.
• The honest minimum. We never publish a care number — a cage size, a diet, a lifespan — until it's been checked against an authoritative source. Right now23 of 23 species are fully sourced.
• We triage; we don't diagnose. We help you spot what's normal and what needs attention — but we're not a substitute for a vet, and we'll always tell you when to see one.
• No shaming, no fear-selling. We meet worried or under-prepared keepers with “here's the fix,” never judgment — and we never manufacture urgency to sell you something.
• We're honest about what we don't know. Our health articles say plainly when they haven't been vet-reviewed, and we'd rather be conservative and honest than impressive.

The full detail is on our editorial standards page.

Who writes this

Hayfold's guides are written by The Hayfold Team — keepers who research each topic carefully and compile it from the best husbandry and veterinary sources available, written to a consistent writing and fact-checking standard. We are enthusiasts and researchers, not a veterinary practice. Where a topic needs a vet, we say so and send you to one.

We're working toward named expert and veterinary review of our health content — when a qualified exotics vet has reviewed an article, you'll see a “✔ Reviewed by” line on it. Until then, we're upfront that our articles are team-written and fact-checked, not vet-reviewed.

Talk to us — and tell us when we're wrong

Good care information should be accurate, and we take mistakes seriously. If you spot an error, or you think something's out of date, please tell us — we'll check it against our sources and fix it fast, and a correction only makes the guide better.

📧 hello@hayfold.com

Browse the care guides

Or read exactly how we research & fact-check.