The Reptile Zoo — Attraction in Fountain Valley

Rating this place is nearly impossible because I’m not sure that I agree with what’s happening here. But I’ll try to be as detailed as I can be. Judge more in the review than the rating.

I heard about Prehistoric Pets ages ago and finally got the chance to visit with my son today. It is in a plaza so there is plenty of free parking. When you go in you are greeted by a large turtle enclosure next to giant tortoises in the pet shop section. To get into the Reptile Zoo adults have to pay $10 and kids over 4 pay $8. There are additional add ones like feeding the turtles or taking s picture with a snake.

The Reptile Zoo is unbelievable! It’s huge with enclosures large and small! There are even a couple exhibits close to zoo quality. They have literally the largest snake I’ve ever seen. It just keeps going... it’s overwhelming!

There is a glass window giving you a view of their python breeding area. My imagination ran wild. Hundreds of GIANT snakes! I heard from the employees that was nothing... they had tons of snakes back there. I don’t know how I feel about all this. It’s clearly for profit and not to help the species.

There have been a lot of negative reviews about the conditions the animals on display are kept under and why I’ll not a reptile expert, I didn’t get that same feeling. While there are TONS of animals, the ones I saw had plenty of room and had water in clean cages. One bit of proof was that this place didn’t smell which is amazing. But again, I’m not an expert. All the animals in the zoo are not for sale, so I think there are a lot of rescues which I’m cool with.

The employees were nice about answering questions and there were A LOT of employees around. I could have stayed all day asking questions.

So on one hand this place gets a 5 star rating from a spectacle standpoint, the morality questions don’t allow me to give it a 6. In fact, I may even decide (as I learn more) to chance my thoughts to a 1. I just need to think more about it and maybe learn more. I WANT to say this is the coolest place ever! But honestly, my gut tells me that they’re profiting on the misfortune of these animals and that’s just not cool. I’m telling myself the zoo are rescues, in which case my rating stands... but obviously the thousands of snakes they’re breeding in the back are another thing...

All in all a crazy place. If your conscious let’s you, absolutely check it out to judge...

This place was horrific. Dead animals in tanks, too tiny tanks for individual animals and overcrowded tanks for multiples, flipped tortoises, dirty drinking water, employees dropping animals and just barely catching them. My main issue: A dead turtle was floating in the feeding pond for the 45 minutes-an hour we were there. Multiple parents asked for them to take it out or at least check on it but the employees would not remove it or do anything, they said they couldn’t remove it until everyone leaves for the day. Little kids were poking it with their chopsticks you feed the turtles worms with too. They generally don’t have anyone monitoring the turtles or animals to make sure they’re being treated right. Further, a giant tortoise flipped on its back after people were luring it to the edge trying to feed it and no employees were around to help it and took their time when we told them. An employee was grabbing one of the lizard animals out of its cage for a show and tell and nearly dropped it multiple times, it was trying to hold the animal by having it grip onto a stick that was smaller than its hands, while the employee held the stick on the opposite end- just plain stupid making the animal hold itself up in an impossible way. The alligators are in tanks barely larger than themselves. All of the animals had dirty water with poop in it and tiny cages. I used to come to this place when I was younger and I loved it, I’m not sure what happened and why the owners have it so overcrowded and dead turtles floating around but it was so unethical in every possible way. As someone willing to pay to go to a place like this, I’m not the type of person to make a big deal out of a tourist attraction but These animals NEED TO BE RESCUED....

We were so excited about our visit as our 10-year-old daughter loves snakes, and we're a family of animal lovers. The selection of animals was impressive, but we were aghast at their small enclosures. Tortoises in the back were literally crammed into tiny enclosures, way too crowded, and zero place to rest/escape from the crowd's eye, and zero enrichment, only dirty straw to crawl on. Snakes were in tiny cages, often multiple animals in each, and monitor lizards were constantly pacing and trying to escape. I am surprised that this place has not been shut down by authorities for the inhumane conditions. There's a section in the back that looked like a bunch of tiny, stacked cages/tanks with huge animals there, with hardly any place to even turn around. It almost looked like a hoarding situation, only worse because it is for profit. With $15.00 per ticket, this place should look better, and we would much rather have seen fewer animals in better living conditions. It really is a breeding facility and a pet store, rather than a "zoo." I wish I would have taken more time to look at the negative reviews here before I gave this place our money. I seriously think it might have started well, but eventually they went way over their heads with the number of animals there, and crowds of people crammed in a small place to see them in a poorly ventilated place, all paying to be there. I wish they would do better. It was a sad...