Practical Reptile Keeping – March 2026

Summary

Practical Reptile Keeping March 2026 leads with Will Gratton's case that keepers should stop feeding Mediterranean tortoises daily supermarket greens and start matching seasonal wild fibre, while Mechanics and Views logs 239 newly named reptiles and a Vietnamese crocodile newt found 1,800-2,300m up.

Three husbandry features carry the issue. Will Gratton rewrites Mediterranean tortoise feeding for the post-hibernation weeks, arguing that calcium-to-phosphorus ratios near 2:1 and coarse seasonal weeds matter more than daily portions. John Courteney-Smith, writing from Arcadia Reptile, documents what he believes is the first genuine captive breeding of Madagascan plated lizards (Zonosaurus madagascariensis), and Dr James Brereton explains why gut microbes keep most herbivorous reptiles inside the tropics.

Regulars are unusually strong. Timothy Zedi ranks five kingsnakes – California, Florida, grey-banded, Arizona mountain and Mexican – with adult cage sizes, 25-30C basking zones and a vinegar tip for snakes that latch on. Reptile Focus runs a close-up on the western spiny-tailed gecko (Diplodactylus spinigerus), while Paul Donovan's Out of Africa column covers puff adder strike speed of 6m per second and the species' caterpillar-like locomotion.

Mechanics and Views, compiled by G. Valentine, opens with 239 reptiles named in a single year and a total of 12,568 living reptile species since Linnaeus. It reports five new eyelash vipers from the Khamai Foundation, a spotted softshell turtle now critically endangered, Wallace's giant bee rediscovered in Indonesia, and Tylototriton ngoclinhensis, a crocodile newt from Vietnam's Central Highlands at 1,800-2,300m.

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Content Guide

▸ Cover Story

p.26 · Why many pet tortoises are fed incorrectly

Gratton argues the standard UK routine of daily supermarket greens is the root of pyramiding, loose droppings and metabolic bone disease. He supplies the numbers: dandelion runs a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio near 3:1, iceberg lettuce only 0.8:1, and Mediterranean tortoises need 2:1 or higher. Spinach binds calcium with oxalates and kale carries goitrogens, so both stay occasional, never staples. Spring-to-winter weed lists follow, plus air-drying summer growth for winter and calcium or cuttlefish bone. Feeds roughly the surface area of the shell, not a daily bowl.

p.46 · Why herbivorous reptiles are rare

Brereton explains why plants are poor fuel for cold blood: gut microbes keep the glucose and release only volatile fatty acids, so herbivores must eat constantly and hold a stable body temperature or the colony dies. Reptiles are contrasted with cows and rabbits, small lizards are shown to warm up faster than giant tortoises, and the monkey-tailed skink (Corucia zebrata) is used as an example. Research the day and night temperatures where your species lives – roughly 30C by day, 23C at night for that skink – and hold them rather than one hot spot.

p.20 · Breeding Madagascan plated lizards

Courteney-Smith of Arcadia Reptile bought a trio, acclimatised them for over a year, then housed them in a 1.5×0.9×0.6m bioactive vivarium: Earth Mix at 5-7.5cm, live moss, a 75W halogen on a HabiStat stat, a 39W T5 12% UVB ZooBar, and a Solarmeter 6.5 showing a UVI gradient from zero to 8 at the top branch. Humidity runs 60-80% with two spray-downs daily. Eggs hatched in situ after roughly 40-50 days in early November. Pull hatchlings out at once – his two juveniles fought despite dense planting.

▸ Husbandry & Health

p.58 · New thoughts on planted vivariums

Randall's build series concludes with substrate and planting. His mix is 40% organic compost, 40% Zoo Med Eco Earth, 10% leaf litter and 10% twigs crushed to about 2.5cm; the twigs stop the soil waterlogging, and he avoids pine for its resin and any sprayed fruit-tree branches. Leaf litter gets a sieve-wash but the small invertebrates stay in. For bioactivity he lists tropical woodlice (Trichorhina tomentosa), European Porcellio scaber, springtails Folsomia candida, earthworms and dubia roaches. Buy a mixed custodian crew, not one species, and check compost labels for fertiliser residues.

p.64 · Avoid cross-contamination at all costs!

Hawkins, who lost a bearded dragon to atadenovirus about ten years ago, shows how easily pathogens travel on shared tongs, uneaten livefood and shared baths. He wipes or sprays metal and plastic tongs with F10 SC or ProtectUs Ultimate before and after every animal, labels each set to one collection, steam-cleans once a month, and runs faecal parasite tests once or twice a year. His hardest line: never tip uneaten bugs back into the livefood tub. Bathe reptiles one at a time and disinfect the tub between them.

p.32 · Q&A

Alderton answers a reader choosing a first lizard for a daughter, and the detail is dense. Bearded dragons reach 45cm with a 31C hot spot dropping to 24C at night under an Arcadia 14% Dragonlamp. Leopard geckos want arid setups and gut-loaded crickets plus powder, and he advises against the enigma morph because of neurological problems. Crested geckos need 22-26C, a 2.0-rated UV source and daily spraying, with a hygrometer rising to 80% then falling back to 50%. Skip the enigma leopard gecko and never hold a crested gecko by the tail.

▸ Regulars: Species Profiles

p.36 · My top five kingsnakes

Zedi has kept some of these snakes for over 20 years and gives each species its own figures. California kingsnakes (Lampropeltis californiae) run 90-120cm and want a 25-30C warm side, 22-24C cool side, 40-60% humidity, dry aspen or bark and a humid hide. Florida, grey-banded, Arizona mountain and Mexican kingsnakes follow, the last a 75-100cm snake from San Luis Potosi showing sexual dichromatism. A squirt of vinegar in the mouth makes a latched-on kingsnake let go, and no two kingsnakes should ever share an enclosure.

p.34 · Reptile Focus: Western spiny-tailed gecko

A close-up on Diplodactylus (= Strophurus) spinigerus, the northwestern Australian gecko reaching about 14cm, with orange eye-rings, spiny eyebrows and two protective rows of tail spikes. It is arboreal, favours bushes over trees, and carries a UV shield in its inner body wall, a legacy of a high-UV homeland. Poorly represented outside Australia, it nonetheless breeds prolifically: females lay up to eight eggs every three to five weeks in damp sphagnum moss, hatching in 55-60 days. Offer a damp moss lay-box and expect a steady trickle of eggs, not one clutch.

p.53 · Out of Africa: Encounters with puff adders

Donovan traces his interest to C.J.P. Ionides, the hunter-turned-snake-catcher who ate dinner with a puff adder round his neck and died in 1968 aged 67 after repeated bites. Then the biology: adults average 60-100cm yet Kenyan specimens exceed 180cm, girth passes 30cm, strike speed reaches about 6m per second, and the snake travels by caterpillar-like rectilinear locomotion. Colour runs from Kalahari yellow-orange to Gambian pinkish-brown, and the first warning is often a loud hiss. In puff adder country, step away – it will not move for you.

▸ Mechanics and Views

p.4 · Mechanics and Views

The round-up opens with hard numbers: 239 reptiles named in the past year, a record, and 12,568 living reptile species recognised, up 44% from 8,728 in 2008. Reports follow on two crocodile species split from the American crocodile at Cozumel and Banco Chinchorro off Yucatan, and on five eyelash vipers described by the Khamai Foundation – Bothriechis rahimi and B. hussaini honour Prince Rahim and Prince Hussain Aga Khan – from Colombia and Ecuador. Treat locally familiar species as candidates for splitting, because conservation status can worsen the moment a taxon is divided.

p.16 · New stunning dragon-like lizard discovered

Seven years of night surveys along Peru's Huallaga River, a 1,138km tributary of the Maranon, produced Enyalioides feiruzae, a wood lizard that sleeps on bushes 20-150cm above ground and varies wildly between males: brownish-turquoise, grey or greenish-brown with pale lines. The genus now holds 16 species, over half described in the last two decades, and the valley was closed to biologists until the late 1990s because of civil conflict and coca plantations. Only one population sits inside Tingo Maria National Park, so back habitat protection over collection.

p.17 · A new crocodile newt

Sitting directly after the wood lizard report, a Vietnamese-German team backed by the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology and Cologne Zoo described Tylototriton ngoclinhensis from the Central Highlands – the southernmost and highest record for the genus in Vietnam, at 1,800-2,300m against a previous ceiling of 1,740m. Discoverer Trung My Phung calls it one of the most colourful species in the genus, and captive breeding is already planned under the One Plan Approach. The blueprint exists: Cologne Zoo has bred more than 350 Vietnamese crocodile newts.

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Editor's Take

The strongest material here is the tortoise feeding feature and Courteney-Smith's plated lizard breeding account – both hand over temperatures, UVI readings, calcium ratios and cage sizes you can act on tonight, which is what a keeper magazine is for. The weakest part is the back third: no equipment tests, no product reviews, just subscription pages, a HabiStat lamp advertisement and bookazine plugs, so the page count flatters the editorial. Brereton's herbivore piece is good science writing that delays its husbandry payoff until the closing pages. Buy this if you keep Mediterranean tortoises, kingsnakes or planted tropical vivariums; skip it if you want new gear tested.

Strengths
• Tortoise feature gives calcium-to-phosphorus ratios, weed lists and portion rules
• Plated lizard account documents a claimed first, with exact lighting and UVI figures
• Kingsnake round-up carries species-level cage sizes, temperatures and a bite-release fix

Weaknesses
• No gear tests or product reviews; the final third is subscriptions and bookazine adverts
• Herbivore science feature delays its practical husbandry advice until the closing pages

Verdict: Recommended — Husbandry-first issue with hard numbers for tortoise, kingsnake and planted vivarium keepers, but no product testing.