1,840+
Peer-reviewed care articles and long-form protocols published since launch.
About the Publication
A field journal for keepers who treat husbandry like a science.
IguanaNaut has been turning peer-reviewed herpetoculture research into field-tested protocols since March 2014. This page is the editorial appendix: how the work is sourced, reviewed, and signed off before it ships to your inbox.
- FoundedMarch 2014
- Articles published1,840+
- Mailing list41,800+ keepers
- Advisory board9 members · 3 DVMs
§ 01 — Editorial Standards
Three pillars separate a husbandry publication from a hobbyist blog.
Every claim on IguanaNaut links to its underlying paper, breeder log, or veterinary reference. Every protocol has been run by at least three independent keepers for a minimum of ninety days before it goes live. We have been doing this without a paywall on core care articles for more than a decade.
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I.
Peer-keeper review, not anonymous opinion
Each protocol is field-tested by a minimum of three independent keepers across at least ninety days before publication. No other herpetoculture site publishes its peer-review pipeline; ours is on this page.
Source tier: peer-reviewed
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II.
Cited-to-source style guide
Every husbandry claim links to the paper, breeder log, or veterinary reference behind it. Husbandry folklore — the kind repeated across forums for a decade with no citation — is rejected at intake.
Source tier: breeder log
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III.
Eleven years of continuous publishing
Founded in March 2014 by two AZA-affiliated keepers and a published herpetologist. No paywall on core care articles. Editorial advisory board of nine, including three DVMs in reptile medicine and one tenured herpetologist.
Source tier: editorial
§ 02 — Origin & Network
Founded in a garage. Run from Austin. Reviewed by thirty-eight keepers worldwide.
IguanaNaut began in March 2014 as a mailing-list digest shared between two AZA-affiliated keepers and a published herpetologist who were tired of seeing the same unsourced enclosure advice reposted across every reptile forum. The first issue was fourteen pages of footnoted humidity ranges for Pogona vitticeps. The newsletter never stopped.
What began as three readers is now a network of thirty-eight contributors — keepers, exotics veterinarians, and breeders across ninety-two countries — and a core team of six full-time editors at 1411 East Cesar Chavez Street, Suite 3B, Austin. The publication ships without a paywall on core care articles and is funded by reader memberships, the species calculator, and veterinary practice subscriptions.
— Editors, IguanaNaut Media, LLC · Austin, Texas
Meet the advisory board ↓§ 03 — By the Numbers
Scale you can verify, not impressions you have to take on faith.
41,800+
Active subscribers across ninety-two countries on the weekly briefing.
11,432
Anonymized incident logs in the public Mortality & Morbidity Database.
60+
Exotics veterinary practices that recommend IguanaNaut as a reference.
Cited in the Journal of Herpetological Medicine, Vol. 31, Issue 2 (2023). Featured in BioReddit's Top 25 Herpetology Resources in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
§ 04 — Advisory Board
Oversight is structural, not decorative.
The advisory board is nine members: three Doctors of Veterinary Medicine specializing in reptile medicine, one tenured herpetologist, two AZA-affiliated curators, two senior keepers with combined forty-plus years of field experience, and one pharmacology reviewer. Veterinary members are referenced by role tier only, per their consent.
Tenured Herpetologist · Chair
Lead reviewer for taxonomy, biogeography, and field-method protocols.
Chairs the advisory board and signs off on every taxonomy, biogeography, and field-method protocol before publication. Twenty-plus years publishing on Crotaphytus, Heloderma, and captive population genetics.
Source tier: peer-reviewed
DVM Panel · Three Doctors of Veterinary Medicine
All three review every clinical-care, pharmacology, and quarantine protocol. Their role tier is named; individual identities are referenced only with written consent, in line with the publication's privacy standard.
DVM, Reptile Medicine
Clinical & triage protocols
Reviews triage flowcharts, nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism protocols, and emergency stabilization guidance. ABVP-board eligible.
DVM, Exotics Practice
Pharmacology & dosing
Signs off on every drug-dose table published in the protocol index, including analgesic, antimicrobial, and parasiticid regimens.
DVM, Pathology
Necropsy & mortality review
Reviews the Mortality & Morbidity Database intake criteria and the necropsy-photograph disclosure standard used across clinical features.
§ 05 — The Peer-Keeper Review Pipeline
One protocol, intake to publication.
Below is the actual workflow every long-form protocol moves through before it ships. The full editorial cycle averages forty-seven hours of review across the pipeline and a minimum of ninety days of field trial with three independent keepers.
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Day 0
Intake
A topic is filed against the open protocol backlog. Editorial assigns a citation tier — peer-reviewed, breeder log, or editorial — and names the three independent keepers who will field-test it. Keepers are matched by species experience and geography.
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Days 1–14
Literature scan
The lead editor pulls every primary source: peer-reviewed papers, AZA husbandry guidelines, breeder log entries, and veterinary references. Folklore — advice repeated without citation across forums — is flagged and rejected at this stage.
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Days 15–105
Three-keeper field trial · 90+ days
Three independent keepers run the protocol in their own enclosures for a minimum of ninety days. They log environmental parameters, feeding response, shedding cycles, and any morbidity events. Failed trials are revised, not published.
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Days 106–120
Editorial review & publication
The advisory board reviews the field logs, the source dossier, and the final draft. The published version carries a citation-tier marker on every claim, a disclosure of which keepers ran the trial, and a "last verified" date. Then it goes live.