Publication Identification

Field	Information
Country	United Kingdom
Publisher	Mulberry Publications Ltd. (2004–2006); Reptile Care UK Ltd. (Volume 4, Issue 1, 2007)
Publisher address	Mulberry Publications Ltd.: Suite 209, 2nd Floor, Wellington House, Butt Road, Colchester, Essex CO3 3DA. Reptile Care UK Ltd.: 126–128 Gloucester Road North, Filton, Bristol BS34 7BQ, United Kingdom.
Magazine title	Reptile Care
Publication status	Out of print, according to a later herpetological bibliography.  Exact final issue and cessation date: Pending research update
Publication run	Introduced in late 2003; represented issues extend through Volume 4, Issue 1 (2007). Exact final issue: Pending research update.
Editor	Chris Brock (2004); Mark O’Sullivan (2006); Angela Nelson (Volume 4, Issue 1, 2007).
Printer	Pending research update
ISSN	Pending research update
Language	English
Publication type	Reptile husbandry and herpetoculture magazine
Publication frequency	Bimonthly, approximately six issues per year.  Contemporary advertising described it as bimonthly, and the represented issue sequence supports that schedule.

Preservation Significance

Reptile Care is significant within the collection because it preserves a short lived British herpetoculture magazine from the early 2000s, a period when specialist print magazines still played an important role in distributing husbandry information to reptile keepers.  The represented issues document enclosure design, feeding, breeding, lighting, behavioral enrichment, species profiles, veterinary and welfare topics, captive breeding and field oriented natural history.

The collection also preserves a publication transition that is not well documented online.  Issues from 2004 and 2005 identify Mulberry Publications Ltd. as publisher, while Volume 4, Issue 1 in 2007 identifies Reptile Care UK Ltd. in Bristol.  Despite the publisher change, the title and volume sequence continue without a restart.  Independent evidence also links expert participation across Volumes 3 and 4.  Taken together, the evidence supports treating the 2006 material as a continuation of the same magazine under new publishing control rather than as a separate magazine using the same name.

Snake related material is especially strong in the represented holdings.  The covers and interior pages address royal pythons, common boas, blood pythons, diamond pythons, Honduran milk snakes, python husbandry, snake feeding, and behavioral enrichment.  The interior article Snakes on the couch is particularly useful as a historical record of changing ideas about reptile welfare because it explicitly considers boredom, environmental complexity, exercise, hunting behavior and mental stimulation in captive snakes.

Two articles in the represented issues offer particularly valuable evidence of the publication’s editorial range.  Chris Jones’s “Activating appetites” in Volume 3, Issue 5 documents contemporary approaches to feeding refusal, enclosure conditions, seasonal behavior, and keeper intervention.  Volume 3, Issue 6 includes Pete Blake’s tribute to Steve Irwin following his death in 2006, illustrating how the magazine also preserved the reptile community’s response to the loss of a prominent conservation communicator.

The 2007 editorial “A new beginning” announces that the magazine has new owners and staff, accompanied by changes in its advisory panel, contributors, photography, and visual presentation. Comparison of mastheads identifies changes in the publishing company, publisher, and editor. At the same time, certain people and commercial contacts continued across the transition, documenting both institutional change and continuity.

The surviving issues also reveal inconsistent bibliographic practices. The earlier 2003–2005 sequence uses cumulative issue numbers without reliably stating volumes; the 2006 sequence uses Volume 3 with Issues 1–6; and the subsequent issue is labeled Volume 4, Issue 1. A competition notice printed in Volume 4, Issue 1 nevertheless refers to “Prize for Volume 3 Issue 8.” These inconsistencies make the original physical copies valuable evidence of the complexities of reconstructing this short-lived serial.