What is your local reptile store like ????

I was wondering what kind of places everybody gets their reptiles and equipment at..I am blessed that I live a couple of miles away from my hangout "Reptile Finders" it is a totally bizarre store - from the front it is a small squarish red building on the boulevard with a big American flag flying on top and a giant T-Rex dinosaur made out of fiberglass sitting on the sidewalk near the driveway that leads to the entrance to the store. I think the store used to be a automotive repair place at one time in the past.

Inside the store there is a big enclosure that you see first thing and it has two big full grown reticulated pythons in it. There is a sign that tells everybody entering the store that snakes eat live prey and if you cannot take it not to bother entering any further !!! the whole store is lined with tanks with every kind of herp you could imagine. Chuck, the owner is a 20 year old dude that is into surfing and herps...he is a good guy. Sort of young and crazy but I remember being that way myself a long time ago.


There is always a lot of people in the store looking at all the snakes and lizards and a lot of conversations going on about herps. There is a big backyard that used to have pigs and goats wandering around. It is a truly unique and one of a kind store...I have been a customer since it opened five years ago....the darn place has gotten a lot of my money over the years since it is way too easy for me to wander in to kill some time and end up leaving with another snake....Chuck knows I am an addict when it comes to new and unusual snakes so he is always waiting for me to drop in and cough up some $$$$$$$$ ha ha ha

EyeLashViper

The ones here aren't anything special, actually a bit bad. There is one that usually has quite a few boa babies, BP babies, a sub adult or adult boa here and there, quite a few beardies, a few iggys, and usually some baby corns. All of the animals are together by range of size and species(baby boas with babies, beardies with beardies...). They usually have at least one hide in the snake tanks and an impressive setup for the beardies and iggys. They also on occasion get in other monitors, and currently have an albino red tegu(i think). The other is more of a garden/feed store and have a few kings, some baby balls, and some baby corns.

Petco...Neeed I say more.

We have all the normal chain stores, and a few mom and pop shops that usually just have baby bp's, baby corns, and baby boas...

We also have a place called "Reptile Specialists"... and from what I've been able to tell over the past year... being in the place three times only, they're horrible. They have wall to wall enclosures with everything from adult green condas to leos... every enclosure is filthy and there's no hides in any enclosure. They don't sell any thermostats, and the only enclosures they sell are glass vivs.

Needless to say, I do all of my shopping online. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ddbjdealer

We have all the normal chain stores, and a few mom and pop shops that usually just have baby bp's, baby corns, and baby boas...

We also have a place called "Reptile Specialists"... and from what I've been able to tell over the past year... being in the place three times only, they're horrible. They have wall to wall enclosures with everything from adult green condas to leos... every enclosure is filthy and there's no hides in any enclosure. They don't sell any thermostats, and the only enclosures they sell are glass vivs.

Needless to say, I do all of my shopping online. :)

---

I can't find a single store that sells thermostats

One word sums up ALL of the reptile stores around me.











CRAP

We have PETCO around here that trys to sell Fuzzys for $2.14 for one. Thank God we have a few large scale breeder in the area I get all my supplies from them and fuzzys for $0.25. LG mice for $0.75 PETCO price for a LG mouse $1.99 each. It is unreal. I am also only 40 min. from Hamburg show so when it comes around I fight the crowd a get what I need there as well.

Out in the IE, there are a couple good stores that specialize in Herps only like Amazon Reptile Center and Prehistoric Pets Inc. I'm really glad I'm in SoCal, since there are a ton of great herpers around me.


I've met a great group just from hanging out there. :)

All good here!! There is one that is local to me that needs some bigger enclosures and an all over bigger shop. They even say they need bigger enclosures. I may offer to tell them about vision cages.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LadyOhh

Out in the IE, there are a couple good stores that specialize in Herps only like Amazon Reptile Center and Prehistoric Pets Inc. I'm really glad I'm in SoCal, since there are a ton of great herpers around me.


I've met a great group just from hanging out there. :)

---

Hey Heather, where do you live? I'm in Redlands...=)

Amazon Reptile gets a big thumbs up from me, but Prehistoric Pets includes free mites with every purchase. =P

Another decent reptile store is Strickly Reptiles in Riverside (Tyler exit on the 91). Redlands has decent store as well, Tribal Reptile or Reptile Republic (I'm not sure which name they are using these days)...

But I make the trip to Amazon Reptile - clean, properly cared for animals by folks who love herps. And great feeders. =)

I wrote this for another thread...

Quote:

---

On a side note, I just stopped by the local pet-o-rama in mansfield and was surprised at well everything was cared for. They had a staff member on site who was solely in charge of herps. While talking to him for 30 minutes, he was applying balm to a tortosie shell, separating out larger bearded dragons, ensuring cages were clean. He said he handles the retic. python daily to ensure it was use to people. He was in charge of the inventrory and made sure they had a variety of animals. He even owned several snakes himself. So the point of all this is.....not all pet stores are bad.:sunny:

---

Twin Cities Reptiles.... On University Ave in St. Paul, Bruce has been in business for around 30 years. I don't know of any reptile specialty store that has been around longer.

Twin City Reptiles is the :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::rockon: :rockon: bought my baby BP there in august had some trouble and Bruce was quick to help and explain how he took care of his babies. excellent store, excellent variety and the people working there are very cool.

East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley California. great place, but rude people, or atleast person that i spoke with.

at our petstore the owner is a very nice lady and trys her best to take care of all there animals but she has had some bad expierences with reptiles and doesnt have them in her store but she raises feeder mice and rats and charges $2 for her mice and suprisingly only $2.50 for her premature rats. but sometimes she has some friends that come in and take over when she cant be there and not to be rude but they are ......... you get what im saying like today i go in to buy rat pup for my ball python and the ladys all like o no we charge 5 bucks for our rats and im like, not the feeder ones so she said they didnt have any (lies i saw some in theyer breeding room) so i wound up buying a mouse and while she's catching it she's all saying how rude and gross i am for feeding my snake cute and fuzzy mice and that i should kill the slimy creatures( snakes). i was very dissapointed with the help the petstore has... (sorry about my spelling my keyboard is acting up the letters keep sticking.) but when the owner is there i like the store

The local stores here are just Petland, Petco and Petsmart. Not the greatest of places, but not too horrible either.

However, I occasionally make the 2 hour drive down to the Chicago Reptile House in Orland Park, IL. When I go down there it's typically a saturday, so the place is usually busy. I also usually wander into the other two stores associated with the reptile house (they're all owned by the same people, one specializes in birds, and the other is saltwater fish).

I've seen both the owners in the store at times either manning the counter or running around helping people. Of course, Brian Potter helps organize the NARBC shows, and the store has bp morphs under the counter :)

I've picked up inverts from the CRH as well, and while the guys in the store at the time aren't always the best with the invert knowledge, the inverts are very well taken care off. (Apparently one guy works with all the inverts).

Anyway, the CRH is where I picked up my first ball and all the stuff I needed to go with it, other than a thermostat :) Heck, the CRH has sold feeder roaches before :)

Cassandra,

I live in Chino. :)

We met, remember! Cheryl's???

Petco- Nothing I need to say about them that already is not known:P
Pet Supplies Plus- Horrible! Lethargic animals, Improper husbandry, Insane prices!
Pets (kinda corny)- Worse shop around, PERIOD! Animals look incredibly terrible. Mixed species tanks etc. All the snakes are kept on pine shavings. The feeders have flea's! The Birds have mite's, and flea's and who know's what else. To boot, the guy is a huge jerk, and refused a sale to me because I'm a kid........ummmm...I recently just got out of the ARMY before that, even after trying to tell him I wasn't a kid, he refused service to me!

Dave's Tropical Fish- Stay AWAY! lol. C grade animals. Alot of the animals are crowded into small cages, with improper heating and humidity. Cornsnakes, Bull Snakes, Ball Pythons, Burms, and Boa's mixed together. Different lizard species mixed together. Personally I just avoid all petstore's here.....

I know of 3 stores around here (Chicago area) that sell reptiles.

This place called Rainbow Pets keep their reptiles seperate, and in decent enclosures. I've bought a healthy ball python from them. But the staff seem to be afraid of most of the snakes.. and not very knowledgable. One girl even told me that a python I asked to see was hissing at her because he was hungry. :rolleyes:

Glen Ellyn Pet Center is a decent place. They occasionally keep two ball pythons in one cage, but everything there looks healthy and well cared for. The staff (even the younger kids) all have herp experience.

Chicago Reptile House isn't that great. It's a nice big store, but they have multiple tiny rubbermaids all with 5-10 baby burms, balls or boas in each. They also have a giant boa, two boas about 1/3 the size of the giant, and a 5' burm all together in one large cage. One staff member suggested I power feed a baby burmese so that he gets huge quick. I don't agree with that method at all. Because of that and their housing, I decided not to purchase the burm.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndrewH

Petco- Nothing I need to say about them that already is not known:P
Pet Supplies Plus- Horrible! Lethargic animals, Improper husbandry, Insane prices!
Pets (kinda corny)- Worse shop around, PERIOD! Animals look incredibly terrible. Mixed species tanks etc. All the snakes are kept on pine shavings. The feeders have flea's! The Birds have mite's, and flea's and who know's what else. To boot, the guy is a huge jerk, and refused a sale to me because I'm a kid........ummmm...I recently just got out of the ARMY before that, even after trying to tell him I wasn't a kid, he refused service to me!

Dave's Tropical Fish- Stay AWAY! lol. C grade animals. Alot of the animals are crowded into small cages, with improper heating and humidity. Cornsnakes, Bull Snakes, Ball Pythons, Burms, and Boa's mixed together. Different lizard species mixed together. Personally I just avoid all petstore's here.....

---

I'm in Toledo too and totally agree with what Andrew posted having been in these stores before I knew better. Pets and Dave's are disgusting and I may be out of line for saying it but I'd put money on the fact that their supposed AKC pure-bred puppies came out of puppy mills (sorry but decent breeders do NOT dump their puppies in gross overcrowded pet stores!

Pets opens whenever the owner feels like it...blech. Dave's thinks girls are afraid of snakes and they can't sex mice (sold me two preggie females...ummm...nope...just fat males...thanks guys...geesh!)

Toledo needs a decent family run pet store because we have nothing I can find other than horrible small pet stores or the typical chain ones. Though PetCo up near the Franklin Park Mall is very tidy and their reptile ladies actually let me teach them to pop and do keep the tanks very tidy. Both of them seem very interested in doing right by the cold blooded creatures they are in charge of so points to them for that.

there is a local reptile store in my area?????, lol just kidding there is 2 "pet" shops other than the big names. one is ok, i have spoke to the owner and she really does try to be proper with her animals, the other well he had a little selection, but after he tried passing small hoppers off to me as adults i was done with there.