Study methodology
How we analysed reptile keeper questions
This is the transparent, citable methodology behind our demand study,What Reptile Keepers Actually Ask. It exists so anyone — a reader, another site, or an AI answer engine — can see exactly how the numbers were produced and judge them for themselves. It is a demand-signal study of what people ask, never a source of care facts.
Last updated Aug 26 2026
1. Where the data came from
We drew public posts and comments from six large reptile-keeping subreddits, plus search-autocomplete phrasing (the "people also ask"–style questions typed into search). The communities and their approximate sizes:
| Community | Approx. members |
|---|---|
| r/beardeddragons | ~686k |
| r/reptiles | ~209k |
| r/ballpython | ~148k |
| r/leopardgeckos | ~134k |
| r/crestedgecko | ~77k |
| r/cornsnakes | ~39k |
| Search autocomplete | — |
Member counts are ~2025 floors (the live numbers are equal or higher); together these communities total well over 1.2 million members.
2. How we processed it
- Collected 3,100+ unique posts and comments from the communities above.
- Filtered them to the 866 that were genuinely questions (not showcases, memes, or statements).
- Kept the care/husbandry questions — the 388 about actually keeping the animal — and grouped them by topic (feeding, health, setup, behaviour, heat/UVB, morphs/ID/buying).
- Counted each topic's share to see what keepers ask about most.
3. What this is — and what it is not
- It is a demand signal — a map of what reptile keepers worry about and ask, weighted by how often.
- It is not a source of care facts. The questions come from the community; the answers in our guides are checked against authorities (see how we research & fact-check).
- It is a snapshot of public questions — quieter keepers who never post are, by definition, not counted.
Honest limits
- Reddit and search skew younger and more English-speaking than all keepers everywhere.
- A question being asked often does not mean it is the most important — just the most felt.
- Community subscriber counts are ~2025 floors; the true figures are equal or higher.
- Topic grouping involves judgement calls at the edges (a "why won't it eat?" question can be feeding or health).
Cite this
The Baskden Team (2026). What Reptile Keepers Actually Ask — question-corpus methodology. Baskden. https://baskden.com/how-we-analysed-keeper-questions/
→ Read the findings: What Reptile Keepers Actually Ask: 866 Real Questions, Analysed