Practical Reptile Keeping

Practical Reptile Keeping is the only monthly herp care magazine published in English. Launched in 2009, it attracts an international readership and is packed with advice on how to look after and breed snakes, lizards, tortoises, turtles, amphibians and bugs. As well as stunning photography, each issue features technical help, product information and health care advice to keep your animals in tip-top condition, plus breeding details and the latest news relating to this group of creatures from around the world.

Welcome

How lizards are adapting to city life • Featuring stories that include new insights into the unique way in which glass frogs conceal themselves, and why this could be valuable for our health, the remarkable reassessment of a previously overlooked find in an English quarry which has altered our understanding of the early development of lizards, and more, including the recently-unravelled mysteries of crocodile blood while starting here with how the bodies of lizards can adapt remarkably quickly to the urban environment.

How glassfrogs conceal themselves

Overlooked find pushes back the age of lizards

Previously concealed secrets in the blood of crocodiles

THE HUNTING TECHNIQUES OF SOCIAL SPIDERS

The growth pattern of an ancient superpredator

NEW MUMMY DISCOVERIES

Looking for more lizards? • Many people start out keeping a leopard gecko or a bearded dragon and then decide that that they want to expand their interest, and seek out other species. But which would be most suitable, and what should you expect? Here are some thoughts from Christian Castille.

Build your own library!

JOANNA'S CASEBOOK A Troubled Tegu • Specialist veterinary surgeon Dr Joanna Hedley, BVM&S, DZooMed (Reptilian), DECZM (Herpetology), MRCVS discusses the case of Rocky, a black and white tegu.

Build your own library!

Starting with TURTLES • Few young reptiles are more appealing than hatchling turtles, but as with all reptiles, there are certain key considerations that you need to think about carefully, before taking the plunge, as David Alderton explains.

LIGHT AND SHADE

Is reptile lighting safe?

REPTILE FOCUS • The flowerback box turtle - Cuora galbinifrons

Survival lessons The learning abilities of frogs and tadpoles • The ability to learn can give enormous survival benefits to animals, but frogs and other amphibians have often been thought to possess very limited, if any learning abilities. Fortunately though, over recent years, scientific investigations have proved this is far from the truth, as Dr Julia Mueller-Paul reports. Prepare to be amazed!

Out of Africa Searching for reptiles in Namibia • Paul Donovan heads west, from his home in Botswana, and travels into neighbouring Namibia looking for reptiles and amphibians.

STAYING ON THE DRY SIDE Creating your own arid vivarium landscape • Interest in planted habitats has grown massively over recent years, and here, Dr Jason Randall MSc explains how to set up a desert-like environment, as opposed to the more common tropical-type set-up.

GREEN is the colour! WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF THE AFRICAN GREEN BUSH SNAKE • Out of all the snakes that exist in the world, it seems to be the green ones that attract most keepers. From rough green snakes to green anacondas, chondropythons to emerald tree boas, and of course, nonvenomous and venomous, green colouration occurs in pretty much every group of snakes, writes Christian Castille.

Misled by a name?

Myths and the Middle Ages A glimpse into herp history and folklore • In this exclusive interview for Practical Reptile Keeping, historian Dr Kathleen Walker-Meikle talks to Victoria Neblik about the history and bizarre folklore surrounding reptiles, from fruit-poisoning salamanders and...