Osteonecrosis is a common disease, mainly affecting femoral head. Good animal models are helpful in research on the pathologic mechanism of osteonecrosis and the exploration of effective treatment. Although it is relatively easy to establish animal models of early osteonecrosis of femoral head using various approaches, it is difficult to develop an animal model that mimics the full range of osteonecrosis of femoral head. In this paper, we reviewed the current researches on experimental animal models of osteonecrosis, with an attempt to provide evidences for choosing the appropriate animal models and find the way of future development.