How the guides are made.

Sources

The basis is laws, ordinances and official expert reports: the expert report on minimum requirements for keeping reptiles for Germany, the 2nd Animal Keeping Ordinance for Austria, the Animal Welfare Ordinance for Switzerland and the EU Wildlife Trade Regulation. In the guides they are marked as official.

Where these sources say nothing, for example about feeders or shedding, we add specialist literature and species databases, veterinary bodies such as reptile clinics and the German Federal Chamber of Veterinarians, and animal welfare organizations. The figures carry numbers that point to their sources at the end of the guide, with publisher, version and the date they were retrieved.

Germany, Austria, Switzerland

The minimum enclosure sizes are given separately for each country, with the rule behind them. They are binding in Austria and Switzerland, where they are set out in ordinances, and are marked “Law” there. The German expert report is not a law, but it is the standard veterinary offices go by, so its values are shown as a “Guideline”.

We don’t convert the countries’ values or average them. Where a country differs on climate or setup, the guide mentions it in a note. The recommendation above the minimum sizes is a guideline for an adult animal.

The guides are written for keepers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Climate, feeding and breeding apply wherever you live. The legal notes do not: in the UK, the US or elsewhere, other rules apply, so ask your local authority.

Values and ranges

Temperature, humidity and feeding intervals are given as ranges, the way the sources state them. Feeding is broken down by stage. A figure for the size of feeders only appears where a source gives one, and then with that source. On the English pages, temperatures are given in °C and °F; the sources use °C.

The app uses the same values: in each animal’s profile next to the care status and as templates for the care profiles.

Updates

Each guide shows at the top when it was last changed; the sources give their version and the day they were retrieved. If a rule changes, we update the guides it affects. This also applies to the German expert report, which the federal ministry announced in 2025 it would revise.

A new species first appears as a draft, clearly marked and kept out of search engines.

The English guides are translations of the German ones, with the same figures and sources.

What the guides are not

The guides summarize the sources they name. They are not expert reports of their own and replace neither specialist literature nor a visit to the vet, and the legal notes are not legal advice. For questions about permits or registration, ask the responsible authority.

Report a mistake

If a value is wrong, a source is missing or a rule has changed, write to kontakt@herplabs.org, ideally with the species, the section and the source you are referring to. We check the report against the sources and change the guide if it is right; the date at the top shows the change.