What do you look for?

Hi everybody,

I was wondering what everyone looks for in a good reptile petstore. I know for me it needs to be clean, knowledgeable staff and all that. But you think a good petstore should have huge selections of common pets along with very rare to find in the trade animals? What do you guys think???

~mike

Clean, fairly knowlegable staff, a real passion for what they do, and one that really cares about the species or animal and not just the money.

What about variety of animals? like only the basics (basic boas, balls, beardies and leo's?) or the more hard to comeby stuff?


~mike

I think you would do well to stick to the basics. Then have three or four rotating rare, but commonly known, show animals. Rotate them every couple of months to keep the interest. I used to showcase a flashy lizard, large species of snake, giant turtle and colorful frog. These where always favorites and kept people returning.

The BEST thing I ever did was develope a good feeder program. Start a "feeder club", sell them a carrier with your sticker at a cost price then offer a discount on feeders. This will keep em coming back and expanding their collections.

I think you will do a great job Mike, you have what counts the most...heart :gj:

I look for a place that doesn't smell so bad that you gag and can't stay in the store more than 10 seconds. Slither and Swim in West Haven CT is like that. They REALLY need to do something about the foul stench in there.


Other than that, I look for clean cages, healthy animals, and knowledgeable people.

the best one i have ever seen was lllreptile.com. i have been to there store and WOW they know everything about the animals they have and if they dont they are quick to throw in a book on them. i was 100% happy with them.

and the other thing to me is as many others have said it has to be to my standards of clean. and LLL is the only one that has been.

Great thanks everyone. now what about captive bred animals both by the store and by other breeders and wild caught. Would someone ( i imagine they would) prefer animals bred in the store over wild caught, and probably reputable breeders over instore bred? I always thought that animals bred by the store would say something about the quality of the store.

SPJ how far do you think you would travel to visit/buy from a reptile specific store??

~mike

I have driven to Regal in Rhode Island so I thinks it's safe to say I would drive a good distance to get something I was looking for that was not commonly found in the Petlands/Petcos/etc around here.