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The Guide to Owning a Red-Eared Slider
used book, butin good condition
- GenresNonfictionAnimals
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 22, 2025
This thin 1994 book should be avoided by people wanting to adopt slider turtles or suddenly have one foisted in them. You're much better off going to YouTube and getting information from the most popular herpatologist channels. Some of this book is inaccurate, and most is just no use.
This states that you can keep turtles in much smaller tanks than what they actually do need. The author also states that you need to use "a little" bleach to clean a tank out, but how little does he mean? There's no clarification.
He advocates hunting any old insect in your home or yard and feeding them to turtles. This is now known to be dangerous, since most insects have traces of dangerous chemicals like pesticides, commercial fertilizers or auto fluids on them.
The bulk of this book is spent on breeding turtles, which no ethical pet keeper would do. Leave it zoos and professional breeders. There already is a massive pet overpopulation problem, with pet surrenders and abandonment at recored levels. Breeding just ads to it.
There's also a large amount on forcing your turtles to hibernate before breeding them. How sick can you get?
This is a typical TFH book in that many photos can be found in other TFH books on turtles, fish or reptiles. Many just show whatever particular product TFH wanted to push. Many of these products are no longer available.
I had a young red-eared slider as a child, which was a horrible experience since my parents couldn't be bothered to find a pet sitter willing to care for Charlie ... and didn't tell me. I came back from vacation to find Charlie dead. There's no mention in this book about pet sitters.
This states that you can keep turtles in much smaller tanks than what they actually do need. The author also states that you need to use "a little" bleach to clean a tank out, but how little does he mean? There's no clarification.
He advocates hunting any old insect in your home or yard and feeding them to turtles. This is now known to be dangerous, since most insects have traces of dangerous chemicals like pesticides, commercial fertilizers or auto fluids on them.
The bulk of this book is spent on breeding turtles, which no ethical pet keeper would do. Leave it zoos and professional breeders. There already is a massive pet overpopulation problem, with pet surrenders and abandonment at recored levels. Breeding just ads to it.
There's also a large amount on forcing your turtles to hibernate before breeding them. How sick can you get?
This is a typical TFH book in that many photos can be found in other TFH books on turtles, fish or reptiles. Many just show whatever particular product TFH wanted to push. Many of these products are no longer available.
I had a young red-eared slider as a child, which was a horrible experience since my parents couldn't be bothered to find a pet sitter willing to care for Charlie ... and didn't tell me. I came back from vacation to find Charlie dead. There's no mention in this book about pet sitters.
May 2, 2009
The Guide to Owning a Red-eared Slider is exactly what it says it is. It's well-laid out, and provides simple, yet good, information. I feel that I can not only make an informed choice of turtle but that we'll be able to take care of it. I would have liked a little less information on breeding and a little more information on tank set-up.
January 6, 2011
very informative
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews