Bay Area Exotic Pets — Attraction in La Porte

The more I go there the more disappointed with their business I become. The staff is always kind and helpful, however I do not feel they are as knowledgeable about the handling and care of all the animals in their shop. I feel like their employees could be much more educated than they are. We have purchased feeder rats to feed our snakes with and have had 15+ die upon bringing them home before we can feed them to our babies. (This isn't a personal care issue, we currently own 2 rats from a different store that have lived a long time in our care with no issues the only difference is where we purchased them). We purchased another animal from them, asking many questions when we did and we thought we were receiving quality Info. However upon bringing the animal home and doing more research we found that their info was incorrect, leading to a pregnant animal (and more) also as a snake lover it makes me upset to see snakes regurgitate their food (when there should be no reason other than improper handling and extra stress) this isn't a one time occurance when I go. I see it often. Again, the staff is kind, but I feel there is a lack of education that can lead to poor keeping of the living beings they work with and sell. I continue to buy here because they meet my short term needs and there isn't any good options close to me otherwise. I hope that they can learn more about the animals they keep and (this is so important to me) learn why their snakes are regurgitating their food...

We went in last Friday, August 21st, to get supplies for the hedgehog we want to get. We can't pick up the hedgehog until this Friday, August 28th, but we still wanted to go ahead and get supplies so that everything was ready for our little buddy. When we went in we were immediately greeted and they were ready to assist us right away! Very friendly! My boyfriend had a hedgehog in the past but I had never had one or even held one. But since I knew we couldn't bring our hedgie home for a week I didn't want to get too attached to one and then the same one not be there when we returned. Then the nice young lady helping us said we can put a deposit down on one and they'll hold that one for us for up to a month! So she took us over to meet all the hedgies they had and we absolutely fell in love with one so they put him aside for us! I am so excited to pick him up in a couple days and I am so happy we chose Bay Area Exotic Pets! They were all so friendly and were able to answer the questions I had! They also had a lot of other really cool animals, we're planning on getting a bearded dragon next and I can't think of anywhere I would rather go than here! The prices were great and the service...

I came here cause I am going to be living in the area and needs to find a pet store that sells live feeders. I really like the store cause they have lots of things to look at and lots of things us reptile people really need. As far as the staff, I wasn't greeted at all and they were busy helping what seem to be there regular customers other than newcomers such as myself. I'm split on providing my service for them or go to my usual pet store which will be 1 hour away from my new living environment. Only time can tell.

Update 7/6/2018

So I came here cause my snake was in need of a feeder and this was the closest exotic place in my area. I walk in to be greeted by a different person other than the original staff. She welcome us and was ready to assist what we needed. She even let me pick the right size rat for my snake. She had excellent customer service where it made me feel like coming back here for...