Customer Reviews

Turtles (Barron's Complete Pet Owner's Manuals)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great book if you are a beginner turtle owner. Covers almost ever aspect of turtle care, from intial care to "training" your turtle. Could have been a bit more in-depth and detailed on cerain topics (e.g. the species guide) though. Also some of the ideas put forward seem to be a little out-dated or "incorrect" depending on what website you visit (e.g. hibertation in a fridge). One should supplement this book with reseach from other sources, especially the Internet.

All in all a great beginner's book.

This book is a very good reference for any pet owner interested in turtles. It gives an overview of turtles as a species through time. Then there's a profile of about 12 turtles - i.e. size, aquatic or semi-aquatic, water preference, solitary or no, food preference, etc. A detail description of how to compile a terrarium and an aquarium as well as outdoor homes and how the size of these structures should be calculated. The book also gives a recipe for turtle food; the need for weighing turtles regularly; what to look for for healthy vs sick turtle; turtle behaviour and what it means. I was shocked by the fact that too much water or too little water can cause a semi-aquatic or aquatic turtle respectively to drown if flipped on its back.

I've owned turtles in the past - very emotional story - and after reading this book I feel as if I had been cruel to my past pets because of the necessary care described in this book. Thinking of getting a red-ear slider for my daughter, but I will definitely have to prep some more.

I rated it a 4 and not 5 because I asked the publisher some questions and I'm awaiting a response. One area I felt was not dealt with is how to clean the habitat. The book said that depending on the size and number of turtles water would have to change daily or weekly and the sand monthly or so. But essentially this becomes tedious if you have to rebuild your habitat each time. So I felt the book should have explained how this could be done easily, recommend chemicals for use (and what should not be used), etc

THIS BOOK WAS NICE BUT IT DID NOT ANSWER MOST OF MY QUESTIONS THAT I NEEDED ABOUT MY WILD TURTLE.

My girlfriend loves turtles and wants one as a pet real bad. I've never had a turtle before and I wanted to do my research up front for the turtle's sake. This book gave me exactly the information I was looking for without having to do a lot of unnecessary reading. The chapters are separated into very small sections so you can always find answers to your questions quickly. I can't vouch for the accuracy obviously, but the manual is very user friendly. There are plenty nice pictures as well, and detailed instructions for a pet turtle's habitat.