6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid information to get you started, October 21, 2005
This review is from: Reptiles & Amphibians for Dummies (Paperback)
We have a California kingsnake and two leopard geckos. We've gotten some other books on these reptiles, but for basic advice the "Dummies" book is the best so far. Very good at explaining what each species is like so you can get an idea of how the animal would work out for you.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
very good, about 4.5 stars, April 11, 2006
This review is from: Reptiles & Amphibians for Dummies (Paperback)
very thorough and also humorous. one small disadvantage, species specific information is very limited(though snake selection is acceptable). this, and a species specific book will give you a perfect referance with a new pet.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good general guide for pet herps, July 31, 2007
This review is from: Reptiles & Amphibians for Dummies (Paperback)
This book does quite a good job at covering a lot of great information about herps (turtles, tortoises, snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, caecilians, and even the non-pet herps crocodilians, amphisbaenians, and Rhynchocephalia) and things that ever herper needs to know to have a happy healthy pet. Topics include keeping your herps in an outdoor cage, tank, or pool, what kinds of plants to put inside of an indoor terrarium, who eats what (or, more likely, who eats whom), breeding, how to determine a herp's sex, zoos with great herp collections, how to get involved in one's local community, common health problems, how to transport one's herps, and what to do if you need to get rid of your herp. In the middle of the book is a section of nice color photos of some of the more popular varieties of pet herps, such as the painted turtle, corn snake, water dragon, veiled chameleon, horned frog, and fire-bellied newt. It finishes with an appendix running down the basics (diet, behavior, origins, etc.) of some of the more popular herps, such as the kingsnake, Greek tortoise, fire salamander, leopard gecko, bumblebee poison dart frog, and aquatic caecilian. The only shortcomings I noticed in the book were that there isn't a huge amount of species-specific information (though this book is only meant as a general guide, not something covering every single thing about all of the herps in the pet market; that's what species-specific books are for!) and that it recommended the pet store as the place to get frozen/thawed prekilled rodents for one's snake. It would have been better had they talked about some of the businesses who breed rodents and then euthanise them before freezing them and selling them in bulk, such as RodentPro, Mice on Ice, and Mice Direct. Unless I knew that a pet store had gotten their prekilled prey from such a reputable company, I wouldn't exactly trust their prekilled rodents, given how a lot of pet stores aren't known for top-notch treatment of their animals! It also would've been nice had they mentioned some of the companies that breed and sell insects for lizards and amphibians, like Cricket Ranch and Timberline Live Pet Foods. But overall, this is a really good guide to get the first-time herper started, and as one reads more literature on the subject and interacts with fellow herpers, one will learn about the things that this book overlooked or didn't go into a lot of detail about.
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