Publication Identification

Field	Information
Country	United States
Publisher	Fancy Publications, Inc. (2000 Annual)
Publisher address	2000 corporate headquarters: 2401 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90057.  2000 editorial / production / circulation office: P.O. Box 6050, Mission Viejo, California 92690.
Magazine title	Reptiles USA
Publication status	Pending research update
Publication run	First use of the REPTILES USA name documented in 1994.  The 2009 Annual identifies itself as the fourteenth edition.  Complete publication run: Pending research update.
Editor	Phillip Samuelson (2000 Annual)
Printer	Printed in the U.S.A.  Printing company: Pending research update.
ISSN	1093-944X
Language	English
Publication type	Annual special publication / buying and care guide
Publication frequency	Annual

Preservation Significance

Reptiles USA has preservation value because it records how reptile and amphibian care was presented to a broad pet keeping audience through annual reference guides rather than through a monthly specialist magazine alone.  The annual format concentrated introductory husbandry, species selection, housing, lighting, nutrition, veterinary guidance, and species profiles into a publication intended to remain useful beyond a single month.  The four annuals represented here, from 2000 through 2009, provide a physical record of how that guidance and its presentation changed across nearly a decade.

The 2000 Annual is especially useful because its editor’s introduction describes a hobby that had changed dramatically from an earlier period when reliable information was harder to obtain and keepers often relied on limited personal experience.  The introduction emphasizes the expansion of available species, improvements in care information, increasing captive breeding, and the growing availability of animals produced in captivity.  That editorial perspective provides a direct historical snapshot of how the reptile keeping community understood its own development at the beginning of the twenty first century.

The later annuals show how the publication continued to frame reptile keeping for new and developing hobbyists.  The 2004 Annual emphasizes species care, habitat setup, quarantine, food, and husbandry.  The 2006 Annual promotes corn snakes, box turtles, vivarium habitats, veterinary guidance, frogs, geckos, skinks, and children’s pythons.  The 2009 Annual includes material aimed at families and beginners, including a feature on children and reptiles, while continuing to cover specialist species such as knob tailed geckos, piebald ball pythons, frogs, and tortoises.  Together, the issues preserve changing expectations about what responsible reptile ownership required.

The annuals are also useful as a record of commercial and editorial culture surrounding the reptile hobby.  The masthead preserves the staff structure of Fancy Publications, the people responsible for editing, production, circulation, advertising, and publishing, as well as the business addresses and circulation information associated with the publication.  The physical issues therefore preserve not only husbandry advice but also the publishing infrastructure that helped distribute reptile information nationally.