3 comments about Live Foods for Aquarium Fishes (Practical Fishkeeping).

1. I felt that this book was ,altogether, too basic. It discussed only the most coomon food sources for a hobbyist. I was left wanting for more. It is a very small, very limited resource. It does discuss how to culture a few types of live foods, but I have found the same information in several other aquarium books, in their fish food sections. Your better off buying an aquarium encyclopedia, with a section on live foods.



2. This small book was full of information for tropical fish keepers that desire to know more about feeding live foods.



3. This is the better of my two Practical Fishkeeping books. This book is also 64 pages, but doesn't need anymore. It discusses ways of gathering and/or culturing all the various live foods, including white worms, grindal worms, microworms, brine shrimp, infusoria, daphnia, bloodworms, gnat larvae, gammarus, and earthworms. It has very specific recipes for culturing some of these live foods, and it also helps you to plan a "menu" for your particular fish based on its needs by explaining the nutritional pros and cons of each of the live foods. For example, it states that you shouldn't feed adult fish microworms too heavily because they are very fatty, instead, you want to feed them to your young fry or your pregnant mother fish which require the additional fat.

5 comments about How to Be Your Own Veterinarian (Sometimes): A Do-It-Yourself Guide for the Horseman.

1. The book will tell ya how to diagnose and treat a multiplicity of conditions in all sorts of categories from back problems to toxins and poisonous plants to respirations difficulties and digestive stuff, wood-chewing , parasites: I truly believe, if this book don't help, you really need to spend the bucks and call the doc! I doubt there's much you could do for yerself that ain't in it.



2. Hi my name is Lisa. My e-mail address is patslisa@aol.com. I have a brand new book for sale, it still has a plastic cover on it to protect it. Please contact me if you know anyone who could us a copy for a good price.



3. Why is it so difficult to get a copy of this book?



4. I have searched many places and can not find this book. It seens, who ever owns it now, will never give it up! Can't blame them, for as much as I have searched for this book. I wouldn't either.



5. I have had this book almost from the time it came out. It tells you how to see confirmation flaws, what they are, and how they can affect your horse. It gives common illnesses, what they are, how they are caused, symptoms, treatment, and sometimes long term care for the particular problem. It explains in great detail the structure of the foot, general guidelines on feeding, and most of the things that new or old horse people either need to know, or need to remember. An outstanding choice. I know that this book is sometimes offered through mail order tack catologs such as Jeffers or Stateline. I would never give mine up!

No comments about The Beagle (Terra Nova Series).

No comments about Carrots and Sticks: Principles of Animal Training.

4 comments about Collie Concept.

1. I have owned this book since it came out new....wish I'd bought two - one to read...one to save. My copy is so beaten up that it is a shame...but I actually have read it cover to cover thirty or more times. I read and re-read this one again and again. It is a great reference book, too. If you need to know it....it is here.



2. I bought this book under the advise of other collie breeders some time ago. It was told to me that it was the bible of the Collie World. I have found that not only was that true but more.
   Not only did it help with breeding but raising as well. This is a must for anyone getting into Collies for any reason. I give this 10X more stars then whats offered. You'll love it.



3. It took me close to 3 years to track down this book. I finally got it, read it and by the way, enjoyed it. It contains basics (to me anyway) about colour inheritance, structure, history, health, and a little on grooming and showing. This book will stay in my kennel's bookshelf for a long time. (And no, I'm not a year old.)



4. This is a wonderful and informative book. It is chock full of pictures of collies as early as the first known collie in the USA right through some of the more recent and important collies we know today. You will find advice on how to pick a collie puppy,and how to get it registered with AKC. There is information about common collie health problems as well as advice on how to train your collie. It really is the collie owners handbook.

2 comments about Beef Cattle: Keeping a Small-Scale Herd for Pleasure and Profit (Hobby Farms Series).

1. I find Ann Hansen's book very helpful and different from other books. Her attitude towards cattle and how to handle them has worked very well for me.
   Her description of fencing, setting up a "hay corral" for winter hay bale feeding, things to look for in purchasing cattle and many other small points have been very useful. The idea that you don't need to chase cattle all over a pasture but get them to come to you is a subtle but important part of enjoying raising cattle. It is probably not for long-time cattle owners but Hansen's book is in my opinion just right for someone getting a few cattle for the first time. I have a very different opinion of the boook from the other reviewer and that's why I am writing this. I have read quite a few other cattle books before starting and this offerred the best beginners advice. A good book to go with it is "Salad Bar Beef" but Salatin's book is much more philosophical where Hansens is practical. They go well together, in my opinion.



2. Hello, all, I have bought a bunch of books from Amazon but this is my first review. I am writing it to give people a better idea of what this book offers.
   My recommendation? If you are thinking of raising beef and want to get a very broad overview of what is involved, it may be OK. If you are already down that slippery slope, there are much better books (as well as the extension divisions of most Ag Colleges).
   A little about my situation: I luckily have a real job, but bought 35 acres north of town last year, always wanted to be a rancher, so am feeding 3 steers on very meager non-irrigated pasture, with hay and grain supplementation mandantory.
   I'm sure the author didn't intend this book to be a comprehensive tome, but it is VERY superficial in many areas.
   Examples:
   FEEDING: I now know how many turnips Thomas Jefferson recommends that I feed my cattle, but wish there had been more on how much grain to plan on feeding rather than pretty cursory treatment of the subject.
   WHEN ARE THEY READY TO BUTCHER?: It's...."When you can see the fat around his cod, over his pinbones, and on the rear flank. If a steer has fat around the tailhead, he's close to grading prime; If he has a fat brisket, he's too fat." HUH?? Perhaps a diagram of some of these terms? If you're writing a book for us novices, don't throw these terms at us!
   BIRTHING: I'm not dumb enough to try breeding for now, but if you are interested and have a cow get into trouble, just..."Gently look and feel until you have an idea what the problem is, then give the appropriate assistance" (!!!!!!!) Or, as she goes on, "or call your vet or neighbor to help." I should add that this text is accompanied by a photo of a farmer with his hand somewhere up into the south end of a northbound cow. (This is an interesting combination of not enough/too much information in one photo!)
   I don't mean to be too harsh, the book is well made and the photos are lovely, and 2-3 years ago before I knew what I was getting into it probably would have been fun reading. Just understand that it won't answer many questions.
   Jim

5 comments about The Hamster Handbook (Barron's Pet Handbooks).

1. This is a great book full of useful information including hamster health facts, care and photos. A good addition to any animal library.



2. I care for 10 Roborovsky dwarf hamsters, the world's smallest and fastest hamsters. So naturally I look for information that will help me care for this specific species of hamster. Although much of the information in this book is good, there is some info in here that is just plain wrong. For instance, it lists the Roborovsky as a "large" hamster reaching 4 inches in length, when it is actually the world's smallest hamster, reaching a maximum of 4-5 CENTIMETERS (2 inches). So I have to rate this book as just OK, since it contains some erroneous information. I also rate it lower because the author makes few distinctions between large/standard and dwarf hamster care. But there are key differences that should be noted in any hamster care guide. For example, dwarf hamsters, especially Campbell's, are prone to contract diabetes. So any source of sugar, including fresh fruit, should be very limited or avoided entirely. But the book makes no mention of this, showing the same list of recommended foods for all types of hamsters. Therefore, I would not recommend this book as a good guide for dwarf hamster care (or use it only as a supplemental guide to something better written by a vet, like "Dwarf Hamsters" by Sharon Vanderlip DVM). Since I have no experience with standard hamsters, I would use other people's reviews as a guide for how well this book covers care of standard hamsters.



3. This is by far the best book if you are looking to buy a hamster. My parents made me read it before I could get a hamster and I learned soo much. Not to mention there are adorible pictures on every page! You will learn more about hamsters with this book than with an other book and the internet combined!



4. I had pet hamsters as a child, but now that I'm an adult, I've fallen in love with them all over again. "The Hamster Handbook" is an excellent all-around guide to the history, physiology, and care of hamsters. I appreciated the many anecdotes about the author's personal experience with hamsters that can be found throughout the book. I also enjoyed reading about the hamster's humble beginnings and how it made its way to becoming a popular pet. And the chapter on feeding hamsters has been incredibly helpful...I hadn't realized that there were so many different things hamsters eat (they are omnivores, like humans). If you think hamsters are just a disposable pet for kids, you are very wrong. Pick up "The Hamster Handbook" and learn about the amazing and wonderful little creature that is the hamster.



5. I was so lucky to come across this book! It's deceptively small and thin because in fact, it is chock full of information on every single subject pertaining to hamsters! It takes the basic tenets of any hamster care guide and expands on it tremendously. You get a FULL history of hamsters, a FULL guide to nutrition and health, exercise, hamster language, breeding . . . it even has information on showing your hamster and on hamster clubs and organizations. This book has absolutely everything you will need to know! You are mistaken if you think you can get through it in one sitting!

   A very attractive factor also, is that the author has had tons of experience with making lots of tools/habitats/toys/wheels/breeding shelves herself, and gives you all the information you need to make your own! She does not endorse any product or suggest you buy certain things the way other books do - she will tell you what your hamster needs, and more often than not, she will tell you how to make them! For example, you can make a hamster litterbox out of a juice box (instead of buying an expensive one like I did).

   MOST IMPORTANTLY - it is very evident that the author LOVES hamsters. She writes with affection, care and passion. It was as though the book was written out of love! She talks fondly and sweetly of her own hamsters (she owns and breeds over 70 with her husband) and really makes you feel "okay" for being hopelessly in love with your own hamster :).

   Oh, and, it's got the most adorable, beautiful hamster photographs you've ever seen.

   Buy this book, and you will never need another, or if you insist on buying more than one, this is a *must* for your collection!

4 comments about Caring for Your Aging Cat: A Quality-of-Life Guide for Your Cat's Senior Years.

1. I found this book very useful in finding ways to take proper care of my cat ERNIE in his senior years. Their needs such as possible change in diet and exercise and what to look for in spoting changes in their health(things you can do)and when to see the vet, are clearly explained. I highly recommend this book.



2. This is a wonderful book! I have already recommended it to several friends and our vet. Easy to read- well organized. Some sad stories though. But as sad as they are, they are meant to "light a fire" under the reader, so that they don't fall into the same situations with their beloved feline. The writer is definitely passionate about her cats. Good to use as a reference book as well. Easy to look up symptoms, treatments, etc. A must read for all cat lovers.



3. This wonderful book strikes the perfect balance between really useful information and deeply touching stories about the feline companions in our lives. The author has created a rhythmic dance that offers very smart, insightful ways to deal with all the circumstances of an aging cat, while keeping us delightfully entertained with pictures and true stories. The advice and information will arm you for just about anything, and help to make you a pro-active partner in your pet's aging process. Each story will touch your heart, bringing a smile, or maybe even a few tears as you remember the pets you've known. And now you'll be better able to make sure that the dear kitties in your life today won't suffer needlessly, due to things you might not have realized before. This is a delight to read!



4. I received this book as gift and it is amazing. As the person of an older cat I have found it, even in just a few days, to be of extreme benefit. It is a comprehensive, well written, accessible guide to helping your best friend age. It makes getting older less scary and details how you can maximize your older pet's quality of life. There is medical advice from veternarians as well as pet owners on how to deal with the medical issues that inevitably come up. The book gives you the knowledge, guidelines, and options to confidently deal with and enjoy your future with your older cat.

3 comments about Cathedral Cats.

1. For starters, if you are accustomed to the type of beautiful photography that one sees in Hans Sylvester's work, this book is going to be a disappointment, because the shots aren't all particularly stunning. the balance between the background and the cat is often but not consistently achieved. The captioning is sort of confusing and off, requiring yyuo to read the text to figure out what the author was referring to in the caption. His sense of humour, too, as far as the captioning goes isn't completely explained by the text so you're left wondering which blanks you were supposed to fill in to get to that conclusion so the caption makes sense. It might just be that you'll appreciate it more if you've got a British sense of humour, since other people clearly enjoyed the book much more than I did. On a couple of pages the cats are even labeled incorrectly as the same cat cannot logically-speaking be completely ginger-colored and then completely black on the same side. Possibly it was ginger-colored on one side and black on the other and the photograph was reversed in the printing and editing. A proofreader or editor clearly missed something.
   
   The background on the cathedrals is okay, but not extensive, sort of like having a 30 second tour of Britain's cathedrals. If you like that stuff, this is for you. If you want more detail, don't go for this book. Not all of the stories are given enough detail to be satisfying. In a few cases about two sentences are devoted to a cat, which makes it just a teaser, but doesn't flesh out the cat's quirks or cuteness. I could just be the wrong kind of person for this sort of book, but I didn't like how little story there was to the cats and how little there was to the cathedrals, neither are addressed all that well. The book is a bit of a wash on both topics.
   
   Me, I'd be happier to sell you my copy, recoup my money for the book, and get some other cat book.
   To boot, my cat didn't approve of it either.



2. I bought this book for a friend who wasn't able to go cathedral hopping with me last summer in Great Britain and Ireland. When I returned home, I tried to explain to her that cathedral cats are more purposeful than our 'ordinary' lap cats--they have serious matters to contemplate such as fifteenth century pulpitums and the cathedral gardener's pet snake. I gave her this book to prove my point.
   
   The writing style is heavily British tongue-in-cheek, which keeps the book from mawkishness. Here is an example concerning Olsen, a Siamese chocolate point newcomer at Chester Cathedral: "After introducing himself around the cathedral close, getting locked in the free-standing 1970s bell tower, and having had his application for the position of food taster in the retreat house kitchen turned down, Olsen was tempted to dismiss the religious life."
   
   You may be wondering why a Siamese chocolate point would be named 'Olsen.' It is because of the cathedral's history: "Olsen and Hansen [an oriental red] are not the first Danes to make their presence felt in Chester. Vikings from Denmark and Norway swept through large areas of England in the ninth and tenth centuries..."
   
   So this book feeds you a bit of English history through the eyes of its cathedral cats. The photographs are also a mix of cat and cathedral, mostly in color.
   
   "Cathedral Cats" is definitely for ailurophiles only, especially if they also happen to be anglophiles.



3. The British journalist Richard Surman has worked 27 years long as a professional photographer world-wide for advertising clients and airlines - now he retreated to Spain with his South American wife to rest - however he is still nostalgic remembering back to his ancient Old England lifestyle-roots, its old-venerable church walls, canons, organists - and their cats. So he not only lists some of the most beautiful cathedrals in the U.K., but also adds the life-history of the cats living there beneath people working behind old church-walls. "Cats don't belong to people, they belong to places ..." once Wright Morris said - Richard Surman now delivers the photographies desrcibing this axiom. For example the story of the cat TOMKINS, who is designated after a composer: when cats-"owner" Peter Nardone, organist and Director of Music at Chelmsford Cathedral begins to mistreat the organ practising J.S. Bach, "Tomkins makes his way hastily upstairs to the guest bedroom, clambers onto the bed and sticks his head under a pillow." But Tomkins on the other hand takes pains to be helpful: "He always calls when the newspapers come through the letter box - though this may have more to do with his habit of sleeping on the doormat than a deliberate policy of helpfulness." A second example for the authors humoristic writing-style: Olsen, the cat of the Bishop of Chester, the Rt Rev. Dr Peter Foster, and his Danish wife Elizabeth, - Olsen "was tempted to dismiss the religious life. He turned instead to the lure of nights in the city,..." ignored "warnings about 'drunks, vagabonds, ladies of the night and the worst elements of society". Olson every night "found the ideal surroundings for his inscrutable and laid-back style": the nearby Alexander's Jazz Theatre. Richard Surman opens our heart not only for cats, but also for the cosy country and church-lives - not poisened by big-urban-areas hectic, brings us near to a perception of a world, in which the time seems to stopp. This tiny book inexpensive and affectionately replaces an England vacation, if the purse is empty...

5 comments about Before You Get Your Puppy.

1. I bought this book before getting our puppy. It seemed okay, but after getting our little dog, I realized that I could easily turn our darling, smart little dog into a neurotic mess if I followed the advice in this book. Why would you want to confine your brand new friend to a crate almost non-stop except for small intervals of extremely controlled interaction with you? And the point that he repeats incessantly about one housetraining mistake being a catastrophe is ridiculous. Our dog did have accidents when I wasn't as vigilant as I should have been, but now she is completely housetrained. It just takes time for the dog to physically mature and learn how to signal that she needs to go out. I would not reccomend this book at all. If you want to connect with your pup, go for clicker training.



2. I bought this book because my puppy obedience class uses the sequel "After You Get Your Puppy." I wanted more details on how to "crate train" and this book has that. I wish I had actually gotten this book before we bought our puppy because it describes good things to look for in the puppy you choose, which would habe been helpful.



3. What a difference this book makes! When we got our first dog, we suffered through accidents on the floor, chewed shoes, coats, cushions -- you name it -- because we didn't know what to do. I read this book before we got our second dog (a companion to our first), and it was amazing! With the Errorless Training system Dr. Dunbar recommends, the new dog didn't chew a single bad item (he loves his chewtoys and chews only them) and didn't have a single accident in the house. And the errorless system was incredibly simple to set up. I recommend this easy, owner-and-dog-friendly book to everyone I know. Although it says "Before you get your puppy," this book is completely relevant for adopters of adult dogs.



4. If you are even thinking of ever getting a puppy or adopting a dog, please buy this book first. It covers everything you will need to know to raise a happy, well manered dog. If more people read this book , there is no doubt in my mind we would have fewer dogs in shelters. This book is part of the solution to animal over population. All breeders should send this book home with their puppies. On top of all of the great information this book provides, it is also easy to read with lots of entertaining pictures. A joy to read!



5. Will all the "fanfare" about Ian Dunbar I was expecting great things from this book but instead was disappointed. It is a good book for the "working outside of the home couple/family" but not for someone looking to devote their days to raising an intelligent, loving companion.

   This book to me, did not read easily and I didn't not agree with many suggestions in it. If you are looking for an easy-to-read, wonderful, funny, well-written, detailed puppy training book, get Mother Knows Best by Carol Lea Benjamin.