Snapping Turtle Pet Owners Guide. The Captive Care of Snapping Turtles. Including Snapping Turtles Biology, Behavior and Ecology.

This is a good book, but it really should be called. "The basic snapping turtle pet owners guide."While it soundly introduces the basic requirements to snapping turtle care it distinctly leaves out some of the problems faced by those who own mature snapping turtles, like how to make a basking site that can support a 60 pound turtle, or how to aquascape the cage in such a way that the turtle does not reduce everything you've done to floating piles of sticks and plants.Also worth pointing out there is only one, ONE, picture of a snapping turtle in captivity, all the rest being animals in the wild. For a book dedicated to keeping these amazing animals in captivity it really is sadly lacking in this department. And really how are supposed to show case the hobby when 99% of your photographs are of wild animals? And speaking of wild animals, only ONE habitat photo of the areas snapping turtles like to in inhabit.No photographic examples of various enclosures, nor even how to properly handle a turtle. No pictures of proper enclosures, nor drawing and diagrams of a basic setup that a keeper could use. Certainly no information (pictorial or otherwise)on how to secure filter nozzles to prevent your turtle from shoving it out of the enclosure and spilling hundreds of gallons of water everywhere. (Something my turtle seems to get a perverse amusement from doing)Not even pictures of the symptoms of the various ailments a turtle can get, I've seen many concerned people post pictures of their turtles shell thinking they have shell rot when it's really just benign hardwater spots that turtles can get if they are kept in hard water.I feel this book is good for supplemental information and purposes, yet it is not an authoritative guide and the reader is STRONGLY encouraged to continue their research and look for more data. I certainly expect more from a guide, I personally was hoping it would be a long the lines like the format of "The Tarantula Keepers Guide" by Marguerite J. Schultz and Stanley A. Schultz ,which covers almost everything and is well documented visually with photos and diagrams.It should be noted that I'm doing something the book recommends against hand feeding your turtle, but also mentioned in the book is to learn your turtles personality, and this type of interaction is something​ we've been doing for over 8 years.I added the photo as proof that I'm not some troll who likes to review bomb and criticize I have a vested interest in a good book with the proper information, and detailed information. And books dedicated to the care of these amazing animals are sadly lacking, along with other large turtles.And in all honesty this looks like to me like the author does not keep snapping turtles personally, but rather did a decent job of gathering and organizing information into a basic book, not that it's a bad thing, since as I mentioned earlier such material is lacking for large turtles, but again I expect more, and there needs to be more, as keeping large active turtles poses unique challenges unrelated to their temperament.In conclusion this book offers sound basic information, enough to help someone starting out, or a new owner who rescued a snapper, it deserves it's place on your shelf, however it lacks advanced information and detailed photographic examples when you get to dealing with the ins and outs of keeping mature turtles.

This is a simple and well put together book with valuable information. It does have some typos but one can still figure out what is meant to be said. I don't have a snapper as a pet, but I do have some living in my large pond. I came across a hatchling and then a 5 inch one several weeks later, and in the past 2 years, I've come across 2 nests. This raised my interest about this species. I took out all the books available including inter library loan about turtles from our local library, and this small book left everything else in the dust.

I have a snapping turtle that I rescued because someone stepped on it to kill when it had just hatched. Now healthy and bigger this great guid book has helped me understand him better. I appreciate my turtle so much better. Need more of these books.

Good book

just what i needed

Some minor errors in wording and phrases but overall very educational book!

5 Stars. THANKS!!!!!!!!

Simple to read