Boas and Pythons
Breeding and Care

John Skillcorn

Author: Erik D. Stoops and Annette T. Wright
Publisher: TFH Publications, Inc.
ISBN: 0-86622-632-X
Price: £24.95 (1996 Edition)

About the book
This book makes a good partner for another TFH book The Living Boas.  In fact I'm starting to feel a bit guilty about all the wicked thoughts I've had about the TFH stable over the years.  This is another book well worth having if your interests lie in these constrictors.  Although not as detailed as the above-mentioned volume, it is nevertheless full of interesting things.

How to remove ticks from the body of your python springs into mind.  And how to sew up your snake after it has been ripped open by a bored prey-item is another.  Actually, I am making light of a serious aspect of animal husbandry, that of keeping your charges healthy, and I apologise.  

Unfortunately, good though it may be, this book suffers from the same problem as other TFH books - that of showing several or many photographs of similar (or even the same) animals for no apparent reason.  As if you couldn't believe it the first time you saw it.  In this book, on pages 82 and 83 for example, you are shown not two, not three but four photographs of mites.  How many pictures of mites do you have to see in order to realise that they are a problem to your animals?  But that's probably not the fault of Stoops and Wright, more like TFH milking the topic for all it's worth.  It might be called 'padding'.

The book's textual structure is as follows:

Introduction
Basic Care
Feeding and Nutrition
Health Problems
Captive Breeding Information
Popular Species
Environment Chart
Appendix
Glossary of Terms
About the Authors
Index

I think the book is worth having and would serve a useful purpose if you are keeping these animals.