Book Description
Snakes are among the most beautiful and fascinating creatures of all the vertebrates. It is no wonder there are more than fifty species of snakes regularly bred in captivity and more than one hundred species available in pet stores. But how does the keeping of snakes become art? By developing a naturalistic vivarium system that puts a snake's welfare and quality of life above all. This will enhance your enjoyment in observing these fascinating creatures.
Customer Reviews:
A true "must have" for many keepers.......2005-05-17
This book is different in it's approach than any other care book I've seen. The author argues for, and shows how to do, quasi-natural to naturalist setups for many common serpents.
The difference is that most books do not touch natural vivaria for snakes. There has been some recognition of thier benefits with lizards and amphibians, but little to no discussion of thier role in snake husbandry.
The book covers the basics of setting up different types of vivaria--i.e. desert and tropic, etc. and list some plants, and substrate mixes that are suitable. He then goes into some particular snakes he feels are well suited for this sort of display. This means the books focuses on small through midsized, diurnal snakes, as they are the best display animals in a natural set up. This excludes many common species, but includes many species equally suited to a beginner--some of which are actually more suited than many more popular species, and hey, it opens up new ideas.
These setups, in my experince (I've been doing them for several years) make keeping snakes much more rewarding. I've tried the LAM method (sterile boxes, wood shavings, and a heat source) and it's not that much fun. It has it's place, but it should emphatically not be the approach employed by the average hobbyist. Allowing snakes a fairly large cage, with structures and possibly plants, appropriate to it's size and behavior, greatly enhances thier captive behavior. A boa constrictor can just sit in a 4X2X1 foot cage all day, with little to do, and live. Or, you can put it in a 4X2X3 cage with thick branches, places to explore, ect. and have a much more interesting captive.
SOme of the book is common sense, some of it is fairly detailed, but for a novice keeper, it is a must have--and frankly, it's a good idea for many more advanced keepers.
The approach advocated does have limits; truly large snakes (big boas, burmese, etc.) are not suited for planted tanks, because they crush anything smaller than a tree. Furthermore, I wish the book dealt with quasi-natural setups more--they're my preferred approach, and more flexible. You simply use wood shavings, or a burrowable mix of sand and soil, and structure large branches and rocks in the cage. No plants, true, so not as pretty, but provides much of the same stimulus and is easier by far. I also wish he dealt more with noctural displays; he mentions some ideas (i.e. use redlights) but he doesn't deal with ways to make truly amazing noctural displays--e.g. plants that flower at night, etc.
But still, this book gives you info you will not get in any other avialable book for snakes. It also advocates an approach that makes keeping snakes truly much more pleasent. I heartily reccomend it for anyone, particularly new people, or people who use the LAM method and are burning out. It opens new ideas, better ideas.
Read this first.......2005-03-17
Before getting into keeping a snake I wanted to know exactly what I was going to let myself in for. This book not only gave me that information, but more. It shows how you can create a territory for the snake that is enjoyable and healthy for the animal, ecological, pleasant to look at and requires relatively low maintenance. I ended up dividing the purchasing process into 3 phases: Creating a pleasant vivarium, where the buying of plants and composition were at least as much fun as the anticipation of getting a snake. Then the purchasing of quarantine equipment and finally the snake and food. This book helped me all the way through. I highly recommend it and read it before you purchase any snake.
At Last!!.......2004-09-12
Keeping snakes in plastic blanket boxes has its place in the warehouses of professional breeders but for the average keeper, we wonder why, after starting with a pair of snakes, we somehow become disillusioned and unsatisfied with them and move onto a different 'more advanced' species. Suddenly we find ourselves with corn snakes, kingsnakes, boas, green tree pythons and wonder, amid all the blanket boxes, why we ever started. The daily cleaning and feeding chores are only offset by the fact that we made a little money on the side by selling offspring.
If you are thinking about owning a snake or are already drawn in the direction of purchasing more and more species - I would recommend this book above all others.
Average customer rating:
- ***Keeping Unusual Pets: Geckos***
- Best Gecko Manual for Juvenile Readers
|
Geckos (Keeping Unusual Pets)
Sonia Hernandes-divers
Manufacturer: Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
 Nonfiction
| Pets
| Animals
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Nonfiction
| Reptiles & Amphibians
| Animals
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1403402825 |
Customer Reviews:
***Keeping Unusual Pets: Geckos***.......2005-10-16
-Fast to read
-Great info for kids and adults who want to know about Geckos
-Covers a ton of need-to-know care and keeping facts
-Awsome pictures
-Easy to tote around (small and skinny)
This helped me get a ton of info to share with the director of my school. It was the only book that I used. I definitely recommend this book to all ages.
Best Gecko Manual for Juvenile Readers.......2005-05-26
This is a guide to gecko husbandry geared for children. Its large print makes it easy for youngsters to read. It is filled with interesting photographs. Best of all, it reads like a reptile husbandry lesson for elementary schoolers. It has a good introduction to geckoes in general with caveats on the more difficult to raise geckoes such as the Tokay (unusually aggressive for a gecko) and the Day (requires a tropical rain forest habitat). It then focuses on the most widely available and popular of geckoes, the Leopard Gecko. The book raises all of the key points to keeping a leopard gecko (proper diet, mineral supplements, daytime and nighttime temperature ranges, humidity and cleanliness) and discusses the consequences of failing to properly care for a gecko. The discussion is concise and easy to digest. This book isn't cluttered with arcane information and doesn't talk down to the child reader. It is the best child' gecko manual available.
Average customer rating:
|
Snakes (Keeping Unusual Pets)
Sonia Hernandes-divers
Manufacturer: Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
Nonfiction
| Pets
| Animals
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Nonfiction
| Reptiles & Amphibians
| Animals
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1403402841 |
Customer Reviews:
Mollies.......2006-03-22
I found this book to be very helpful being that I am new to keeping Mollies. Since reading this my fish seem much healthier.
GENERAL OVERVIEW.......2005-02-11
This book lacks specifity such as not giving exact parameters
for water/breeding conditions, i.e the book states "mollies in general prefer their ph on the alkaline side of the ph scale."
No exact figure is given & for the beginner in particular this could present a problem. This book appears to be old but I cannot confirm this as there is no publishing date listed.
There are also too many photos which would be wonderful if this were an aquarium picture gallery but the photo space could have been better used to supply more detailed info.
Mollies.......2002-03-16
This book has excellent photos of different types of mollies. The pictures were bold and beautiful. Some of the best I have seen of fish. The text is very large and with all of the photos this does not leave a whole lot of room for information. The information it gave was helpful but I was looking for more.
Mollies- Mollies- Mollies: All You Need To Know In One Place.......2000-04-13
For my birthday several months ago I recieved a 20 gallon aquarium. After looking at fish from several stores I decided to buy several different kinds of mollies. I would like to breed them eventually. I looked all over for a book specifically about Mollies. Most books give you general information about all kinds of fish. I read many books, but did not feel like I was getting all the information needed. Finally, I found this book! It has given me so much valuable information on these beautiful and fun fish. For Example, Mollies like a warmer tank and a bit of salt to keep them healthy and because of this it is better to keep them in a dedicated tank. Information from setting up a tank they like, disease and how to treat it naturally, breeding, raising fry, and other extremely valuable information. All on Mollies! And the pictures. OOOHHH ! ! ! They show beautiful pictures of Sailfins, Lyretails, Balloons in variations of colors. The pictures are high quality close-ups, no fuzzies ! They are absolutely beautiful. I even discovered a few new colors I want to get like the Chocolate and Red-Splash. I could go on, but let's just say if you want a book to give you the information you need on Mollies, THIS IS IT!
Customer Reviews:
Briefly overviews the care spectrum of geckos........1999-03-04
This book tries to give an overview of the care and breeding of geckos, falling short of an inclusive "how to" book. It's coverage of classification and biology are good. These areas are often overlooked by many hobbiest. Faithful to its commercial publisher, it promotes various retail products available at pet stores. Many beautiful "foto glaze" pictures of geckos. Some of these pictures are of geckos rarely seen in any general gecko books.
Customer Reviews:
Beginner Gecko handling.......2006-02-23
For someone that doesnt know much about Geckos, this book was an awesome introduction to the speices and their general care and well being. At the time of purchasing my gecko i couldnt identify the species but was educated about its rarity once reading this fully demonstrated book with lots of pics and info about my newest pet. Highly recommended for those beginners wanting to know more.
GREAT! Everything you could possibly want to know on geckos........2002-06-17
AWESOME!! Has many facts on every species of gecko imaginable. A must for the true Gecko enthusiest!
Anything & everything you could possibly want to know!.......2002-06-14
Very thorough. Tells you everything from A-Z about every breed of Gecko you can think of. Recommended VERY HIGHLY!
Awesome!.......1999-09-19
This is a great book for any gecko owner, be he/she a begginer or a professional breeder, this wil be very useful to everyone.
Average customer rating:
- A solid, if patchy, general guide to snake keeping
- Keeping and Breeding Snakes
|
Keeping and Breeding Snakes
Chris Mattison
Manufacturer: Blandford Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Reptiles & Amphibians
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Reptiles & Amphibians
| Animals
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Veterinary Medicine
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Hunting & Fishing
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
| Fishing
| General & Anthologies
| Hunting
| Shooting
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 071371865X |
Book Description
A fully revised edition of the classic book on snake care! Featuring the most up-to-date equipment, expanded facts on feeding, and newly written species accounts, along with 70 full-color photographs and updated diagrams, this guide provides all the essentials that every snake-keeper should know. * Set the correct degree of temperature, humidity, and light for your snake to thrive--it not only wants to be warm, it needs to be. * Fix up a cage in ways that make snakes feel comfortable and secure. * Keep your snake healthy with valuable advice on disease prevention, covering overhandling; the introduction of wild species into a cage; bacterial, viral, and parasite infections; and other miscellaneous problems. * Mate and breed snakes--even incubate eggs. Plus--special information on selective breeding. * Full species accounts include boas, pythons, colubrid, venomous, and small snakes. You'll turn to this handbook again and again! 224 pages, 95 color illus., 6 x 9.
Customer Reviews:
A solid, if patchy, general guide to snake keeping.......2001-07-21
The first edition of this book appeared in 1988. This second, "fully revised" edition is essentially an entirely new book. Some material has been reduced (for example, breeding tables and information on keeping venomous snakes), and the new photographs, found throughout the book, are spectacular.
As a general introduction to keeping snakes in captivity, this book is first-rate, if only because there are few such books on the market. While there are many guides to specific kinds of snakes (e.g., boas, corn snakes), few approach the subject in general. This book does so in a thorough and authoritative manner. Very little is left unsaid and, for an adult beginner, this book can serve as a useful reference. Its principal shortcoming is its patchy coverage of individual species: for some snakes it is excellent, whereas for others it leaves much to be desired. Its usefulness to the reader will depend on how well it covers the particular snakes in which the reader is interested.
Its coverage of boas and pythons is very comprehensive, and even lists species rarely available. The exception is its coverage of sand boas, which is limited to a single species.
Coverage of colubrids is more uneven; the one long chapter on this very large family of common snakes affords very good coverage to the genus Elaphe (rat snakes), New World and Old World species alike. Its coverage of kingsnakes is fine but less detailed. Those interested in other colubrids may well be disappointed; the material on pine and gopher snakes and garter snakes is underwhelming, and some species, such as the rough green snake, are omitted altogether. While no book can credibly claim to cover all species equally well, these omissions and shortcomings are surprising when you consider that there are sections for blind snakes and snakes from other families that are seldom kept.
The first edition's section on venomous snakes has been reduced to the most cursory of summaries; those with an interest in this subject must look elsewhere for information.
Keeping and Breeding Snakes.......2000-11-16
A great book for anyone. It gives details on breeding specific species of snakes. It is also good for anyone who owns or is thinking about buying a snake; or for those who just want to learn about them.
Average customer rating:
- Very Informative book
- Outstanding reference source for turtle keepers everywhere
- Practical Encyclopedia of Keeping and Breeding Tortoises and
|
Practical Encyclopedia of Keeping and Breeding Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles
A. C. Highfield
Manufacturer: Krieger Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Reptiles & Amphibians
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Veterinary
| Encyclopedias
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Nature & Ecology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Animal Husbandry
| Agricultural Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Reptiles & Amphibians
| Field Guides
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Animal Husbandry
| Agricultural Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
| Animal Production
| Bees
| Breeding
| Dairy Science
| Livestock Management
| Meat
| Nutrition
| Poultry
| Range Management
ASIN: 1873943067 |
Book Description
Comprehensive guide to all aspects of keeping and breeding tortoises and turtles. Top-rated by tortoise societies and herpetological organizations world-wide. Highly detailed coverage of feeding, breeding, diseases and incubation techniques. For hobbyist and professional keepers.
Customer Reviews:
Very Informative book.......2001-08-03
If you have any questions about any type of turtle or tortoise this book will answer them. Very informative. Worth the money.
Outstanding reference source for turtle keepers everywhere.......2000-12-14
I own many turtle books, but this one is truly outstanding and is in my "most used" category..... a cornucopia of practical information that is well-written, well-presented and well-researched. There is stuff here that you'd have to combe through an entire library to find otherwise. I commend this text to all keepers, from beginner to professional. It has been called the "bible of turtle keeping" for good reason - there is no better single volume source of accurate information available. The author is founder of the Tortoise Trust, one of the world's leading turtle conservation and education organizations, and is known for numerous contributions to our knowledge on this topic. Without doubt, this is the most useful, practical turtle book I own, and I urge other keepers not to pass it by! There are some awful books on turtles out there, and they can get your animal's killed... this one is quite the opposite, and it has certainly saved many of my own animals. Excellent.
Practical Encyclopedia of Keeping and Breeding Tortoises and.......2000-09-01
If you own a turtle or tortoise, buy this book and keep it handy. The Practical Encyclopedia of Keeping and Breeding Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles has information for everyone; yes, even for advanced keepers. This is not just another reptile book with lots of photos and little substance. It is a pet owner's manual that appeals to a wide audience. Beginners to turtlekeeping will find all they need to know (without being intimidated) about nutrition, housing, medicine and maintenance of all of the common (and some not-so-common) pet species. Highfield presents a great deal of information in a logical, readable manner. The book includes many color photographs which are helpful in species identification. The chapters on nutrition and medical care are outstanding. Many of the species presented in the book have photos to go along with the detailed descriptions of their habits, habitats and life-cycles. The Practical Encyclopedia of Keeping and Breeding Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles is loaded with information that is pertinent, concise and accurate. I highly recommend this book.
Customer Reviews:
the newer fourth edition is even better.......2005-10-29
harriet hargrave is a master, and continues to become even more amazing. if you are interested in machine quilting, get the next edition of this work--it includes her most recent tips, discoveries, etc.
As good as all the other reviewers said it was........2005-09-15
From the outset, learning why some things are done this way rather than that, I wanted to gather and destroy the five quilts I've made because they don't even approach "good" quality (forget heirloom quality). Getting past that, there was really useful information that made completing the quilt I was currently working on much easier and showed why some of my earlier ones are in the shape they are (sigh - if only I knew then...). The information on batting was comprehensive and very helpful. I still prefer polyester for its economy and fluff, but am going to try cotton and now know what the differences are (besides price). I am not a total beginner but quilts are only one part of my sewing. I consider myself a "hacker" rather than a serious quilter. I have read other machine quilting books which were very good, but I would have to say this is the best, with the most practical information. Note: there are no patterns for quilts, though there are quilt photos throughout the book. There are quilting line patterns to copy, however, with directional arrows to guide your machine quilting.
One of the bibles.......2005-01-08
This book is one of the bibles for machine quilting...Extremely well written, easy to follow and has a wealth of info...Great book!
The BEST.......2004-06-06
The first book you need on machine quilting. There is no better. The rest just supplement this one.
The Book I Have Been Waiting to Find.......2004-03-18
When I started to quilt a few months ago, I bought many "how to quilt" books. None of them really addressed what to do once you conquered piecing a top unless you wanted to hand-stitch it. This book covers what you need to know to to finish your quilt in style. The patterns are beautiful and just what I wanted. If I had found this book earlier, I would have saved myself from buying all of those useless other books!
This book is good for everyone from beginner to seasoned quilter.
Books:
- The Best Canadian Animal Stories: Classic Tales by Master Storytellers
- The Book of Ornamental Knots
- The Complete Book of Teddy-Bear Making Techniques
- The Complete Guide to Creating Heritage Scrapbooks (Memory Makers)
- The Complete Guide to Quilting Techniques: Essential Techniques and Step-by-Step Projects for Making Beautiful Quilts
- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Handguns: Pistols and Revolvers of the World, 1870 to the Present
- The Knit Hat Book: 25 Hats from Basic Shapes
- The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France (The New Middle Ages)
- The Many Blessings Cookbook: A Celebration of Harvest, Home, and Country Cooking
- The Red Wolf
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