This page explains how every guide on scaly.pet is put together, so you can judge how much weight to give it.
Where the care advice comes from
Anything about an animal's welfare (temperatures, humidity, UVB, enclosure size, diet, supplements) comes from veterinary and herpetological sources: veterinary schools and reptile vets, zoo and welfare organization care sheets, and published lighting research. Every guide lists the sources it relies on at the end, with links, so you can read the original. Where good sources disagree, we say so rather than picking one.
How we choose products
- We have not tested the products we write about. We do not claim to, and we never describe a product as if we had used it.
- Specifications come from the manufacturer's own published listing, and we present them as the manufacturer's figures.
- A product must be well rated by buyers to be recommended: at least 4.2 out of 5 on Amazon, from at least 100 ratings in the US or 50 in the UK (or 4.0 from 1,000 or more).
- We never recommend gear that keepers and vets widely regard as unsafe, such as heat rocks, unregulated heat sources or coil UVB bulbs, however well it sells.
- US and UK readers see products listed in their own Amazon store. A product sold in only one country is shown only to readers there.
- When buyers report a recurring problem, we summarize it in our own words and say that buyer feedback is the source.
Affiliate links
Links to Amazon are affiliate links. If you buy through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Commission rates play no part in which products we include or how we rank them.
How we write
Guides are drafted with the help of AI writing tools and then checked against the sources listed on the page. Every care figure should be traceable to one of those sources. Some images on the site are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs of real animals or products. If you find an error, or anything out of date, please tell us and we will correct it.
Not veterinary advice
Our guides are general husbandry information. They are not a diagnosis and not a substitute for a qualified reptile vet.
Keeping guides current
Care guidance, ratings and availability change. We recheck products periodically and remove any that fall below our bar or disappear from sale.