looking for a good reptile store

[studentsam]

Dear New Friends,
I just got a wonderful baby ball at a pet store here in Irvine CA called Prehistoric Pets. The snake is fantastic, eats fine, loves human attention, but the cage they helped me set up has some problems, which I can now identify thanks to the great posts on this site, things like pine chips for the bottom of the cage, pointless UV light, heating pad that is too hot to the touch even underneath the cage, etc. I would love to know the name of a fantastic store in Southern California, and near Irvine would be great. I would like to go and talk with someone who really knows there stuff and can also sell it to me!
Thank you so much in advance for the help.
Yours,
Sam

[LadyOhh]

I am in your area, but the only store I trust is in Montclair. Amazon Reptile Center.

PM me for more info.

[cassandra]

It's a bit of a hike from Irvine, but then it's a bit of a hike for me too as I live in Moreno Valley...

My favorite reptile store is in Montclair, off of Central Ave, called Amazon Reptile. Good folks who take really good care of their animals, no BS, best quality mice and rats I've seen in SoCal.

There are two Prehistoric Pets; did you go to the one in Fountain Valley or the other one?

[cassandra]

I am in your area, but the only store I trust is in Montclair. Amazon Reptile Center.

PM me for more info.

See? Hehe...here's their website: http://www.amazonreptilecenter.com/

I have two snakes from them, healthy, happy and always hungry!

[studentsam]

I went to the one in Fountain Valley- they were nice, but it is clear to me now that they weren't exactly experts!

[studentsam]

off to Amazon! awesome.

[cassandra]

Yeah, the Fountain Valley Prehistoric Pets is cool to visit, but I saw lots of mites and wasn't impressed by the staff.

When you get to Amazon Reptile, tell'em Heather and Cassandra sent you! Hopefully they won't kick you out, hehe!

[Gloryhound]

You really have to be careful with pet shops. We have one here that is really good with their water dragons, bearded dragons, and all sorts of other 4 legged "Reptiles", so they are classified as the local "Reptile Specialists". They really do not know snakes and had recommended a basking area for our first ball.

Lucky for us we got it home and did a lot of research online and got everything straightened out except finding an accurate Hygrometer. I think I finally found one, but it will have to be used to check the accuracy of the cheap ones as I can't afford a $100.00 Hygrometer for each enclosure, but it comes with a NIST certification.

Now I would not classify us as experts, but I think we have made the amature level at least! Still probably making some small mistakes, but we are still learning.

[LadyOhh]

When you get to Amazon Reptile, tell'em Heather and Cassandra sent you! Hopefully they won't kick you out, hehe!

They'll just probably laugh and say "Crazy Heather??? Where has she been???"

[studentsam]

Thanks Gloryhound. Yeah, same thing for me- as Cassandra said, the store is nice to visit but they have SO many types of reptiles that must be difficult for them to be an expert on everything...thanks for your reply, and you are more than an amature in my eyes!
-Sam