Reptile World Serpentarium — Attraction in Saint Cloud

The good, bad, and the ugly.

The good: Reptile World Serpentarium features multiple snakes both venomous and not from all over the world. They host a good venom show where they showcase the importance and process of extracting venom from snakes in order to help produce antivenin. The owner seems to be extremely passionate about what he does and deeply cares about conservation and uses his venom shows as a platform to help convey this. There was one employee/volunteer that I spoke with who is a chemist from Czech Republic, he was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly when I spoke with him.

The bad: A lot of the animals are being improperly kept currently. Anyone who understands more than the basic steps of reptile husbandry can take one look and get a bad taste in their mouth from their visit. Featuring multiple animals that require UVB without providing it, not mitigating the high Florida humidity for their more arid species risking respiratory infections. Another thing is the owner while passionate doesn’t really keep the audience during his shows. The beginning of his show is speaking of conservative efforts and the politics surrounding it. While it’s important to encourage younger people to vote for their interest, most of the crowd is children under the age of 15 so they got lost pretty quickly. He went on a bit of a political tangent which ended up causing a few people to leave, and from past reviews this wasn’t a first. He has a good message just seems to go about it the wrong way.

The ugly: When concerns were brought up regarding some of the animals care, we were immediately chastised without asking for background information or taking constructive criticism by one of the employees. Citing “he(the owner) has been doing this for 60 years I’m sure he knows a lot more than you do!” Which experience and age≠correct. Additionally he cited that they are not a big zoo that receives public funding, while understandable that is not an excuse to neglect the needs of the animals. If you cannot afford to house and care for the animals properly then look into outside funding, business loans, grants or simply do not take animals you can’t provide for. Instead of hearing us out the gentleman argued and questioned our intelligence while trying to create a discussion surrounding a bearded dragon that had a pretty severe case of MBD. And another that was on its way to developing it. It wasn’t until we were connected with the chemist who heard us out and seemed to understand and actually care about our concerns.

Overall: The Serpentarium has something wonderful started, but just needs to make some changes and modernize their care practices to ensure they’re providing the best care possible for their animals. I would love to come back and change my review to a 5-star and recommend this to fellow reptile keepers. But as it currently stands, they will continue to lose business and miss out on a demographic that would be fellow keepers! They have a great message and great project going but they need a severe facelift in multiple areas if they want to be a 5-star facility. I sent an email in hopes to create a discussion and I really hope that they take advice from outside entities to make their own decisions for the betterment of the animals and the business. But only time will be...

Animals: Absolutely beautiful specimens showcasing incredible species from across the world and native species you may find in the backyard. Many examples of venomous and non-venomous snakes, including a black mamba, yellow anaconda, king cobra, rat snakes, ball python, and many others, including some albino variations. Loved seeing the turtles and alligators up close. 10/10

Enclosures: small, neat, tidy. I didn't notice an extremely strong scent sometimes found in reptile exhibits. There is a smell, but I mean that it isn't a bad one. Just like at the zoo. You can tell the animals are cared for, and the people there are passionate about what they do. The fence containing the alligators is studier than it may seem at first glance. The gators themselves seem very content. The turtles will swim up to you for you to feed them, very cute.

Scenery: lush plants, simple building. You can tell the facility has been there a while. But it's well kept and clean. The native plants are beautiful. One note though, there was a wheelbarrow of packaged dead rats by the bathrooms, I assume for feeding the snakes. Not exactly what we wanted to see in the middle of the walkway at the beginning of our experience.

Venom show: this was the turn-off for us. The actual show is very cool!! Seeing how the snakes are handled is an experience, especially since the lecture before the show explains the reasoning behind why snake venom is important to harvest. The problem came during the lecture as well, however, because the topic tended to deviate from just educational, to politically opinionated and motivated. I don't mind that so much, but when it lasts half of the lecture, then it made us uncomfortable. Especially since there were only 4 of us at the show. Another thing, the language used wasn't entirely rated pg, but more like low level pg-13. The worst of it was one use of "shit". The show did start late but we were warned that happens often so that fine. It started a little after 3 and the lecture lasted 40-50 minutes. At that point we were expecting someone else to be showing the snakes while the man there was talking. No. He finally went back and then we got to see the snakes and watch them be milked for their venom.

It's definitely educational and I'd say seeing the species on display is a great experience. Just be aware of slightly less child friendly elements in the lecture and be prepared to sit for a good 45 minutes listening before seeing any snakes on the show. Oh, and after the show he will let you hold a non venomous snake, very fun! Wish I could have held it longer, the scales were such a...

I hate leaving reviews like this, but our trip here was upsetting. The place is really run down and they don't have enough resources to take care of their animals properly. The snakes and lizards have no soaking pans, some of them are having terrible shedding issues and the bigger enclosures all have broken lights so no UV is being used. There are no hiding places available for the snakes when they're stressed. The Chinese Cobra was so scared it struck at us repeatedly through the glass and I was worried about it injuring it's nose. We watched as several more people went up and were struck at, until the poor thing tried to slither under a stick 4 sizes too small to get away after string the glass 17x.

There was a dead turtle rotting in the grass behind the pond, the alligator pen had PLASTIC wiring covering a potentially dangerous gap, and the yellow-headed Amazon's were stacked two to a cage that was barely suited for 1 conure and had no tail feathers.

Worse still, the "venom" show started 30 mins late with no explanation and then there was an HOUR long political speech bashing all things republican and curse words were used in front of young children. Not to mention the guy said at one point we need to use violence to change things and said we should burn things down!!! We tried to leave at one point but he just kept going! An hour later he starts the actual show and brings out an angry cottonmouth he has NO control over. He threw it on the table mat and then had no handles on it when it launched itself off the table and missed biting his assistant by inches!!!! They struggled to get it into the milking box and almost got but twice more. It was unprofessional and downright scary. I'd be sad we paid for this, but they obviously need help with their animals. Do not bring children here and if you're a republican stay the hell away unless you want to be yelled at by an angry stranger for an hour when you came...