Tariq Abou-Zahr graduated from the University of Bristol in 2014, having always wanted to be an exotic vet. After a year in small animal general practice, he embarked on a 4 year combined internship and residency program in zoological medicine (focusing especially on avian medicine and surgery) at Great Western Exotic Vets in Swindon, and completed this in 2019. He obtained his RCVS CertAVP(Zoological Medicine) in 2019. He works exclusively with exotic species at Valley Exotics, part of Valley Veterinary Hospital in Cardiff.