Bill's Wonderland of Pets — Local services in Magnolia

This is in no way intended to bash Bill’s, just a warning as they seem to have sold wild caught jumping spiders. I got a jumping spider from them a little over a month ago. I didn’t know they sold them so this was an impulse buy while buying feeders for my other jumpers.

The employee that helped was super sweet! When asked, she didn’t know what breeder or age/instar of the specific spider, she only had a guess of the state it came from, which was fine. I figured I could ask a manager. I couldn’t tell in that lighting whether the spider was fully mature.

When I got her home I realized she was a mature female; she couldn’t stick to the sides of the new enclosure I made her without falling and almost injuring herself. She seemed fine in store which was because she had past webbing to cling to (also meaning she’d been in the enclosure for a long time!) and she had the sign of reproductive organs.

I went back another day and (very politely!) asked the manager what breeder the spider was from. Many pet shops in NJ and PA buy baby spiders (slings) from local breeders so I didn’t think that was so weird. The manager didn’t give me an answer though and abruptly walked away. She seemed very annoyed.

Well… one thing to know about jumping spiders is that if you buy an adult female that was caught in the wild, she is 99.9% going to be gravid (pregnant). This is important as females can mate once and produce sacs of eggs multiple times in the future, with each sac containing hundreds of tiny baby spiders.

I’ve currently got a pretty spider guarding her fertile egg sac.

Another concern for Bill to consider is the price; jumping spiders have very short lifespans, usually 6 months to a year - up to two years if perfect husbandry. For adult male jumping spiders their lifespan is considerably less. Can’t remember the price on her but I think it was around $60-75. That is a LOT for an adult spider who may only live a couple months longer. I can only imagine a customer who spends this much having their spider die in a month being VERY upset.

Similarly, their enclosures weren’t set up for an arboreal species that mostly spends time at the top, and I was concerned that there wasn’t a care sheet for customers.

Again, Bill’s is great, but I think they need to be more open about where they’re sourcing their animals from. I worry about parents who buy the cute spider for their kids and end up with hundreds of baby spiders in their house. The breed they’re selling (regals) aren’t native to NJ, so you can’t just let them out. I’m glad I ended up with her instead of a kiddo who wouldn’t know what to do! To Bill, you guys are awesome, please just consider where you’re sourcing from or let people know what to expect in terms of chance of being fertile...

If I could give ZERO stars I would! My family and I purchased a bearded dragon from Bills in June and we immediately made a vet appointment for a well check. Turns out he had Coccidia and really high count of Pinworms, I went in and spoke with Jen the store manager I told her what was going on and said they may wanna get the other dragons from that clutch checked as well. She asked me for proof from my vet in an email. I sent the email to her immediately and no response for 2 months! I send a follow up email a few days ago and finally get a response apparently she was out sick for the past 2 months. She then calls me and tells me she’s confused because it’s been two months and they haven’t heard from me!? You don’t respond to my email you asked for, for two months and you haven’t heard from me? She then tells me the other dragons were checked and they came back fine. She argued with me for a while constantly trying to shift any fault onto me or the vet. I send them all the vet bills in an email which are now close to $1,000! She tells me she’s gonna call Mr. Bill and call me back. When I spoke to her today she told me again she’s confused because the other dragons were treated and better within a month, now they were treated the last conversation she told me they were never sick! She then tells me she’s gonna send me the breeders info because if you buy a car from a dealership the manufacturer is responsible not the dealership! Apparently she thinks they are selling cars not living things that will become a member of the family! After that she told me she believes the vet isn’t treating him properly! PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE! They never once apologized or seemed to feel bad in any way just nonstop blaming Me the breeder...

Fish accessory selection is decent but a little dated, fish seem to be really healthy and reptiles given great care, but for your own sanity do not step towards the back right corner of the store. That’s where they keep the feeder mice/rats. I understand snakes and the such need to eat, but the state of these rodents is actually horrifying. I witnessed several very sick rats, swaying on their hind legs. Their water bottle holders have a small gap between the bottle and the holder which the mice fall into and suffocate- I witnessed two dead mice wedged in them in one tank alone.

On this alone I likely won’t return except unless I need something very specialty- As I said they clearly do take great care of the animals that are to be sold as pets, and I was happy to see they had a few Betta in displays for plants (although they also do have some in small bowls, but that’s kind of a standard due to their nature so I won’t fault them for it), however that alone ruined the experience. Their staff was very friendly and knowledgeable, so they get points there as well.

If you’re like me and you don’t like live feeding over frozen, or don’t like carnivorous reptiles in general…I’d say just go somewhere else. Nothing here is likely much different than industry standard for feeder care (although two other local stores I have been to had less feeders per tank and they didn’t APPEAR as sick), so I’m not trashing this store altogether when they do take a lot of care for their (pet) animals. This is really just an opinion, so I won’t hit the review so hard, but the bottle thing is the main reason why I’m dropping two stars.

If you’re shopping for a cat/dog you’ll likely never see this corner, so...