Keeping And Breeding Snakes [Hardcover]

Chris Mattison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1999

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Sterling; 2nd edition (June 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0713727098
• ISBN-13: 978-0713727098
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,251,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid, if patchy, general guide to snake keeping, July 20, 2001

By 

Jonathan Crowe (Shawville, QC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Keeping And Breeding Snakes (Hardcover)

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.

1.0 out of 5 stars outdated, November 4, 2011

By 

Thom Noble - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Keeping and Breeding Snakes (Paperback)

I got this book to read up on breeding snakes, I have a few projects started. Well this book was written in 1988 so it need updating..... save your money

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keeping and Breeding Snakes, November 16, 2000

By 

Eric Schmitt (Baton Rouge, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Keeping And Breeding Snakes (Hardcover)

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.