Idaho Reptile Zoo — Attraction in Garden City

The smell when you enter is musty and offensive. I went one time to see if the quality of care and husbandry had changed since his Nampa location, it has not. If you are a true reptile keeper, and provide proper husbandry (housing/substrate/lighting/size of enclosures/uvb etc) for your own animals... you know that 90%+ of the animals at the "zoo" are in a very sad situations. The dark colors of the iguana, Hulk, means he is stressed and unkept. Iguanas need lots of things to climb and Uvb... his enclosure offers none of that. UVB is lacking in most enclosures and there are no dimmers or thermostats to determine what the basking spot is for the animals. The pool of turtles is especially saddening, since knowledgeable keepers know each turtle needs 10 gallons of water per inch of shell and that they thrive better when solo... most of the turtles are at least 7", meaning EACH turtle need 70 gallons of water. When you have 20+ turtles in a stock tank, they simply cannot be living a good quality of life... there is no way, in that set-up, to offer proper basking spots for that many animals. And no matter how cool it seems to watch your kid feed them pellets, they are living in a stressful situation. Most animals don't even have a 'hide' to retreat or relax in to feel secure in their home. Screws are sticking out every where inside of enclosures, which is a huge concern for injuries. The snapping turtles tank, Koopa, is so small he can barely turn around, and there isn't a land area for him to get out of the water at all. The young volunteers are not very knowledgeable and have quick movements while holding large snakes near passerbys, which is worrisome for how the snake will interact with the customers it is being passed off to. With as many volunteers as he has, he can take a couple days off to get these enclosures up to par for the sake of the ANIMALS,...

This place is amazing. When you walk in they have a small gift shop to the left and immediately in the front is the desk. You have to sign a disclosure if it’s your first time. They have snapping turtles that you can feed. They gave you some long tweezers and food so you can feed the snapping turtles. There’s plenty of them for tons of family to feed them. Then to the and on the far right are some huge tortoises, and they have lettuce that you can feed them! They have a free rocking little guy that will allow you to pet him, he’s an iguana. They have plenty of snakes to hold AND other smaller turtles to pet. This place is is low price and fun for the whole family. I would highly recommend. Their bathrooms are nice and clean, and they have several areas around where you can use hand sanitizer. The place is pretty clean, as long as the kids don’t mind the smell off he enclosures!! The staff was not only done on the most nicest people I met but they were VERY knowledgeable about the animals they showed us. They were always there when we had questions and were...

We had our son’s 3rd birthday party there and couldn’t have asked for a better experience!! All the staff were super nice and friendly and even set up an area for us to have cake and pizza!! (They even offered colored table runners birthday candles and plastic silverware’s) super awesome of them!! Tyler I do believe his name was , he was in charge of giving us the big show and letting all the kiddos learn and experience the reptiles wich he did an amazing job at , he let the birthday boy help bring out all the reptiles to make him feel even that much more special while also involving the rest of the kids and even the parents ( poking some fun in the process )and letting them hold and touch the reptiles as well! Overall was a 10/10 experience and I would recommend anyone who’s looking for a cool out of the ordinary birthday party to give them a try !! Super affordable as well , again thank you guys for the experience you were all...