Tails and Scales Pet Boutique — Attraction in Toronto

I've been ordering online monthly from PC Pets for years ever since they closed down their physical shop that was across the street from me. I've honestly been missing walking into a physical reptile store to buy my stuff...plus their online selection is super limited at best. A friend of mine from work told me about Tails & Scales a few months ago and I was surprised at how big their online catalogue was when I looked them up. I ordered an UVB light fixture kit for my ball python's new setup (not pictured directly in this picture, but is the light source in the cage) and to my utter surprise, it was delivered in under 12 hours. Crazy fast and seamless service.

Because I was so impressed, I decided to make a trip out to the Junction from Mississauga...I needed a few more decorations for the cage and wanted to see everything in person to gauge sizing. Their selection of bark and driftwood is pretty crazy and I was able to find pieces that worked perfectly with my setup. Also got all of the fake plants pictured during this visit as well. The person that helped me was super lovely, and they took the time to show me a bunch of their baby snakes when I asked to see their collection.

Overall I had a really nice experience here, super impressed by this store's insane stock (haven't even looked at the live plant section yet lol) and although it's over an hour for me to get here, I'm happy to continue to make regular trips here whenever I need feeders...

Sad to be leaving this review as I was very excited about the large variety of carnivorous plants available at this shop.

So, I spent over $160 on four nepenthes and two other plants in late November. All but one nepenthes were in horrible condition upon arrival--two of the nepenthes have since died, and one is on its way out. The leaves on these plants were yellow and black upon arrival, and while replanting, noticed them all having parasites. I have experience with these plants and have had no issues before, but what a shame throwing this money and plants into the trash.

I've had other shops deny sending me plants in the past as they claimed they were in bad condition, and I am not sure why this didn't happen with Tails and Scales. I never would have sent these out at this price, if it all. MAYBE the condition of these plants was related to frost damage, as they were held somewhere else overnight with shipping (even though they were only shipped to the tri-cities from the GTA), but who knows?

On top of this, I had one nepenthes from my order replaced, as the one that I originally selected was sold out. I was aware of this, but I was not aware that the price difference would not be accounted for, as the replacement plant was cheaper than the original selection.

Maybe it's better to shop in person at the store, but I absolutely advise against ordering online...

I chose this store to buy my first reptile because they aren't a franchised giant pet store and were specialized in reptiles. I'm a little disappointed that they've expanded to fish, but hopefully that doesn't mean their specialized knowledge and treatment of reptiles decreases.

I bought my Leopard Gecko there yesterday and the woman helping me was extremely patient as she kept going to the back to grab and show me different morphs, since I was quite indecisive. I suggested that she could take pictures of all of them on her phone and show me so she didn't have to keep going back and forth, which she did.

I don't know if this is the norm, but they didn't have any Leopard Geckos on display; they were only stored in the back, which is why the woman helping me kept needing to leave and come back to show me Leopard Geckos one at a time. This seems somewhat understandable to me, since they probably want to display reptiles that aren't as high in demand so that they're get bought. Slightly inconvenient, but understandable.

Any inconvenience was overshadowed by how helpful the employee was. She answered every question with patience and a smile, and I never felt stupid for asking even the most basic of questions. There was no coercion to spend more money on a more expensive morph or feed.

I'm overall very happy with my experience at...