looking for a good reptile store

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

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

PM me for more info. :D

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?

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Originally Posted by LadyOhh

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

PM me for more info. :D

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

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

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

off to Amazon! awesome.

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! :P

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. :weirdface

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, :O 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! :oops: Still probably making some small mistakes, but we are still learning.

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Originally Posted by cassandra

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

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They'll just probably laugh and say "Crazy Heather??? Where has she been???" :rolleye2:

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

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Originally Posted by 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! :P

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I'll be sure to drop your names! I will try and get there today and will let you know how it all turns out. Thanks dynamic duo!

Sounds like I can't go wrong with Heather and Cassandra!

Who did you talk to about all of this? I'm sure if you went back and talked to Jay, and explained to him the situation, he could make things right. He's a really good guy, and knows what he's doing when it comes to reptiles..

Ive always had good experience at the fontana "Prehistoric Pets"

I also must check out Amazon reptiles!

andrew h-
I think the guy who helped me was named Ben- he was very nice, but I don't think snakes were his thing exactly. I am just surprised at some of things they sold me, like a heating pad with no means of regulating the temperature (it is so hot that it burns me a bit to the touch- this can' t be a good thing). I will ask for Jay next time!

Hey, I live in Irvine as well. When I got my first ball python, I was thinking about going to Prehistoric Pets because it's so big and they have a large selection of snakes. After going there a bunch, I decided not to buy it from there for a few reasons. They had way too many balls in the same cage with only one hide. The cage hadn't been cleaned in a long time, and the temps and humidity were too low. Anyways, there is a store just about 10 mins further down the 405 called Radical Reptiles. The store is much smaller, but they take much better care of their animals. Also, they showed my proof that the first ball I bought was captive bred, and not wild caught, which is important because Prehistoric Pets has a number of snakes that are from the wild. I know this because I talk to a lot of the guys and they even talk to me about how some of the snakes haven't eaten since they got them and are probably going to die. Furthermore, Radical Reptiles is about HALF the price, for EVERYTHING. Prehistoric Pets does have a large breeding room in the back with high end morphs and they actually do have some nice ball pythons, which are taken way better care of because they are in racks that I have seen. Either way, go to Prehistoric for feeders if it's close to you, that's what I do. I'm not saying that the snake you bought isn't healthy, just telling you about my experience! Anyways, if you have ANY questions at all, please feel free to ask, either on here or through private messages. I'm always excited to help people with their snakes! Good luck with the new guy! :gj: