Snakes: Beginning Vivarium Systems

The perfect beginner's guide to snakes!

Thinking about keeping a snake as a pet? This fun, beginner-friendly guide shows you how to set up a snake terrarium and build a safe, cozy habitat where your snake can feel comfortable and healthy. You will learn what your snake needs to stay happy, from the right space and warmth to places to hide and rest.

• The best snake species for young herpetoculturists, beginners, and reptile enthusiasts
• How to find snakes in the wild, at pet stores, and at reptile expos, and ensure your new pet is healthy
• Escape-proof enclosures and how to set them up in a way that's comfortable for your snake
• Snake food details, from fresh to frozen to sausages, feeding frequency, and meal size
• Myths and misconceptions about snakes, from Quetzalcoatl to hoop snakes

This fun and easy to understand guide to snakes is excellent for curious kids — or for adults who just want a good easy-to-read overview!

A Beginning Vivarium Systems series guide, Snakes is an entertaining and educational introduction to the world of snakes of all sizes, colors, and personalities. Beginner snake keepers of all ages will find useful and intriguing information about common and unusual snakes in this colorful guide by herp expert and reptile enthusiast Russ Case, editor-in-chief of REPTILES magazine and Reptiles USA.

This 120-page book offers anyone looking to adopt a snake the right guidance for purchasing a healthy specimen and for creating a safe, comfortable home where your new pet can thrive — plus how to make sure they don't escape! Beginners will learn about the anatomy of snakes and their behavior in the wild and in captivity. The chapter "Snake Food" is a lesson in how and what to feed snakes so you meet all the special needs of your pets. The chapter "Great Beginner Snakes" presents the most common species for newcomers to keeping snakes as pets, including such favorites as the colorful corn snake, gentle California king snake, ball python, and the rosy boa, each illustrated with color photos and explained in clear everyday language.

Additional examples of "Other Amazing Snakes" are included, such as the boa constrictor, Burmese python, reticulated python, king cobra, and rattlesnake, which are fascinating to read about, though not recommended for beginners. A chapter on potential health problems gives a basic overview of how to care for and maintain captive snakes in the best of health. Sidebars throughout the text provide great advice on "dos and don'ts" to avoid common mistakes keepers make with these pet reptiles.

You'll explore myths, misconceptions, and facts about snakes and discover they really are misunderstood creatures. Despite what you might think, snakes aren't slippery or slimy — and plenty of snakes make great pets for kids! Get the complete scoop on snakes and discover how they can open their jaws so wide to eat, why they flick out their forked tongues, how to find the "legs" of a python, and more!

Take a trip through the world of snakes, with Snakes, a Beginning Vivarium Systems guide!

Russ Case is the group editor of the monthly magazines Reptiles, Aquarium Fish International, and Freshwater and Marine Aquarium, as well as the annual magazines Reptiles USA, Aquarium USA, and Marine Fish and Reef USA. He lives in Southern California and has been a reptile and amphibian enthusiast since he was a small child exploring the wilds of suburban New Jersey in the 1960s. Lizards are his favorite herps, but he's also very fond of snakes, turtles, and amphibians, and he has kept many different types over the years.