Publication Identification

Field	Information
Country	United Kingdom
Publisher	Kelsey Publishing Group / Kelsey Publishing Limited, United Kingdom
Publisher address	Kelsey Publishing Group, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG
Magazine title	Practical Reptile Keeping
Publication status	Continuing publication documented through 2026
Publication run	Launched July 2009; continuing publication documented through 2026
Editor	David Alderton
Printer	William Gibbons & Sons Ltd., Willenhall, West Midlands
ISSN	2040-0675.  The represented cover barcodes encode the serial identifier in standard EAN form.
Language	English
Publication type	Monthly herpetoculture and reptile husbandry magazine
Publication frequency	Monthly.  The represented covers use monthly dates, with occasional seasonal wording such as “Summer.”
Collection coverage	56 physical copies were reviewed.  Four are duplicate issues, leaving 52 unique represented issues.
Earliest issue represented	July 2009
Latest issue represented	November 2017
Country	United Kingdom
Magazine title	Practical Reptile Keeping
Language	English
Publication type	Monthly herpetoculture and reptile husbandry magazine
Launch	July 2009.  The earliest represented cover is explicitly marked “NEW,” and independent contemporary and current publication records identify the title as having launched in 2009.
Publication frequency	Monthly.  The represented covers use monthly dates, with occasional seasonal wording such as “Summer.”

Preservation Significance

Practical Reptile Keeping is significant within the preservation project because the represented set begins with the July 2009 launch issue and then follows the magazine across much of its early development.  The surviving covers document changes in reptile husbandry, breeding, veterinary care, behavior, enclosure design, lighting, nutrition, conservation and popular species over more than eight years.  Because the magazine was written for keepers rather than for a strictly academic audience, it preserves a detailed record of what practical reptile care information was being presented to hobbyists at specific points in time.

The set is also unusually useful for studying the changing visual culture of herpetoculture.  Cover design consistently combines dramatic animal photography with short statements about husbandry, behavior, health and breeding.  Subjects include safe snake handling, reptile recognition and communication, snake mating, maternal incubation, reptile training, bioactive enclosures, lighting, ultraviolet exposure, obesity, veterinary advances, conservation, captive breeding and species selection.  These covers preserve not only which animals were popular, but also which questions and care concerns publishers believed were important enough to place before a general reptile keeping audience.

A complete cover review of the 56 physical copies produced a notable result: every single cover contains at least one photograph of a snake.  This remains true even when the principal cover animal is a tortoise, turtle, frog, gecko, chameleon, monitor or other reptile.  In those cases a snake frequently appears in a smaller photograph, inset or secondary feature.  The pattern provides direct visual evidence of how central snakes remained to the magazine’s identity and marketing throughout the represented run.

The July 2009 launch issue adds particular preservation value because it documents the title at the moment of introduction.  Later represented issues show the magazine becoming an established monthly publication, with numbered issues visible on many later covers, including No. 54 in October 2013, No. 70 in January 2015, No. 82 in December 2015, No. 89 in July 2016 and No. 105 in November 2017.  Together, these physical issues preserve a substantial early cross section of a British reptile periodical that continues to circulate years after the represented collection ends.