Reptile Pets Direct — Local services in Live Oak

Okay. This is easily to tidiest, prettiest reptile retail shop I've been to. I was very impressed by their setups, and the food that was present in each cage was appropriate to the species. It was also unbelievably refreshing to be treated as though I knew what I was talking about. See, as an overweight, pleasantly smiling housewife, I tend to be treated as the housemom who is getting a corn snake at great personal cost to make the kid happy. Couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, I keep and breed a significant number of reptiles. It was so refreshing not to have to defend my knowledge and explain that I knew exactly what I was doing. I mean, seriously, when a customer can list latin names you'd thing the clerk would get the idea you know what you're doing.

All said though, I was immensely disappointed when I arrived home and realized....the in store costs were significantly higher than the online shipped prices. I bought an Argentine tegu and an Australian blue tongued skink. Both animals were, and remain, two months later, very healthy. However, I paid nearly $25 PER ANIMAL higher than online shipping costs. I attempted to negotiate but was informed that they make significant profit on shipping and need to make it up on in store sales. Okay, that seemed...shady but I could deal with it. It wasn't until I was home and realized that I had paid significantly higher than online prices than I had realized that I got a bit miffed. As it turns out, I paid $45 higher for the animals IN STORE...after driving nearly thirty minutes each direction...than I would have online. I could have had both shipped to my doorstep for $30 flat, and not had to drive at all. So basically, I spent $15 more than shipping plus the gas and time to drive in to choose between three tegu's and get the only Northern Australian BTS they had in stock anyway (who is very healthy, but also quite obese). I honestly have never met a brick and mortar store that wouldn't meet their online price. If they had, I would probably pop in monthly to pick up the odd critter and some supplies, but as it is, I can't imagine I will be a customer again.

In short, check the online prices before you shop here, and decide from there. Were I to go in again (which is unlikely), I would plan what I wanted ahead of time and provide a tally sheet of the costs of shipping vs. buying in person, and see what they...

Horrible. This guy is clearly in it for the money, not for love of animals. Having never had a chance to buy Rankin's dragons before, I purchased all 3 he had at NARBC. My first clue should have been when he flatly refused to tell me where they came from, alluding only that they came from a "french breeder". One of them looked a little unthrifty, but I figured they were tired from being in those horrible deli cups all weekend.. I was offered a discount, it was the last hour of the show. I get them home, and one of them is walking on his front hands weird (I'm later told by a vet this is a sign of MBD) and the unthrifty one (again as I'm told by a vet) has literally 0 fat stores on her body. These were not conditions that develop overnight. After a little over a week of careful vet-guided care and supplement feedings with reptaboost, the girl died. I contact this sorry excuse for an animal caretaker, to request a refund for this animal that died less than two weeks after I got her. I will paste their verbatim response for you: "We literally gave you that one for free. We told you in advance. As it stands you paid $250 for 3 animals that normally sell for $160-200 each." So apparently I was "told in advance" to expect this one to die (I wasn't) and I should just be happy I was able to purchase poorly cared for animals at less than top dollar. I received no response to my next message (saying that regardless of price I expected him to refund an unhealthy animal) for five days, until I gave a 48 hour warning before considering this his final response. I then am asked "what I want from them"- they'd be happy to take the animals back for a refund and they'll pay for shipping. On what earth would I put these poor creatures BACK in your clearly inadequate care?? I told him a reasonable settlement was a PARTIAL refund for the dead animal and coverage of her medical costs (something I have seen offered by SEVERAL other reptile sellers). I did not receive any further response. Please, please please do not buy from this jerk. Keep digging until you find a reputable source that actually cares about you getting a great pet- not a scumbag that only cares about your money. (For those curious the other two are blessedly still with us, though the smaller boy still walks...

I will probably not be going back to Reptile pets Direct here in Live Oak Texas,don't get me wrong they have a good selection of reptiles, but because of the incapability of not only their knowledge but also being negligent,they charge me 400$ for a "female" banana ball python on the very first time I walked into their store,which thats what I intentionally walked in there for was a female of any banana morph in ball pythons.The only female they had left was a banana pastel ball python,they charged me 400$ just for the snake and I was well aware that it would be that price because of the morph and cause its a female, I trusted that they knew how to sex a ball python, they told me it was a female when I bought "her'' I even ask them twice if they were sure, and they told me yes, a couple months go down the road,and I was noticing signs that it would be a male based on what google said, I took the snake back to the reptile store and ask them to probe sex it and one of their employees told me it was a male, I told him the whole situation and he told me to write my info down, so he can pass it along to the owner, so while I'm waiting for his call I took it to another reptile store and they told me the same thing. Now the reason I am writing this is not all because they made a mistake, because trust me I get it that things happen. It's the fact that the owner will not call me back after a little over 2 weeks. I have called everyday since they told me its a male and they always say to me, "he just walked out of the building,"knowing that I'm waiting for his call.If I would have know that it was a male I would have never bought it for that price, i would have just bought there male they had for 150$. The mistake they have made has dropped my trust for them so I will not be shopping there again. At this point I think he is refusing to call or talk to me because when I called one of their employees she said to me, "he said for me to talk to you", you meaning me. I just want to let you know that if they ever make a mistake there they don't want to take responsibility for their actions and don't do anything to help you with...