Nature's Reef & Reptile — Local services in New York

TL, DR: this store sold me a sick snake that died within a week despite following all their guidelines and would offer no exchanges and instead blamed me. DO NOT SUPPORT THIS BUSINESS

In preparation for my first snake I came in to this store after having read the rave reviews. After doing much research I showed staff the photos of my enclosure and purchased a few items. After ensuring my enclosure was the right temperatures and humidity, I returned to the store to purchase a corn snake hatchling I had viewed the week prior. I was enormously excited to bring home my first corn snake. The staff there even dissuaded me from buying unnecessary things so I felt they were trustworthy.

I purchased a lavender corn snake from them and noticed when I brought her home that she had a dark spot on her underbelly. Considering I live in Brooklyn, I figured I would keep an eye on it as perhaps it was feces or a recent meal. I sparsely handled her or bothered the enclosure, except to change her filtered water to allow her to adjust. I gave her her first feeding of the thawed out mice i had purchased at the store on their Sunday schedule. I fed her midday to insure she would have enough heat left to digest. She regurgitated the mouse about 12 hours later. I cleaned it up and disposed of it and figured she must still be adjusting to her new space. She was not underweight decided to continue to leave her alone for the next few days and attempted to feed her again on Thursday.

When I went to feed her Thursday she was dead. In shock and despair, I immediately reached out to the store for some reprieve - thinking of course they would apologize and tell me to come in to exchange her. Instead, the staff member on the phone relayed between me and the owner who asked detailed questions about every aspect of my set up. He stopped to question the type of bulb I had, which was sold to me by their employee and recommended by them for my enclosure. In addition, he said it was because I did not have a heat mat the snake was unable to digest the food properly. I did have one, even though I was actually dissuaded by their employees from purchasing one! (My friend had given me one.) I explained this was a splurge gift from a friend, as I have wanted a snake my whole life and am currently undergoing treatment for brain cancer. I even explained the dark spot on the underbelly of the snake that postmortem looks like it has eaten her from the inside out. He told me this is how dead snakes always look.

The reality is snakes can go much longer than a week without eating and considering how quickly she died she was definitely ill when I got her a week prior, its just hard to tell in snakes as they do a lot of laying about.

The owner blamed me despite having been under their guidance and her enclosures being in optimal conditions, I check the temperature on both sides of the enclosure and the humidity multiple times a day. The owner said the best he could do was offer a FIFTEEN percent discount on another snake (HA!) as if I would give them any more money - after buying all my supplies from them and spending over $200 on a snake!!! Management trying to shirk accountability and blame me when I'm already devastated is nothing other than cruel and reckless. DO NOT SUPPORT THIS CORRUPT...

A few months ago my family made a good but impulsive decision to adopt a crested gecko. We have never had a pet reptile before and knew nothing about how to care for it. My son did some research online to sort of have an idea of what to do. I googled local reptile shops and Nature's Reef and Reptile was one of the stores near us. I went to the shop and explained our situation and I could not believe how incredibly helpful they were. They were able to order me the perfect high quality tank that we needed for the new addition to our family. They also gave me so much helpful advice, answered so many questions for us and were just absolutely wonderful. They are not pushy with their sales pitches, in fact they actually recommended to buy certain things for the tank online at other stores. I have been going every week to get fresh crickets for our little guy, and they offer so many other live food options. I don't know what we would have done these past few months if it wasn't for this store. We will be using them for supplies for our little guy Greg for years to come. They are amazing and I highly recommend...

Before today this was my go to store for all my reptiles needs. But sadly today will be my very last time very giving this store any of my business. I called two hours before I came in to give them time because I understand there is a lot of customers who come in. I turnt around and called 20 mins away alerting them I am 20 mins away in a Uber. I get there no crickets is ready and I get into a big argument with the owner. Hey let’s not forget my Uber leaves me now because it’s pasted the wait time. I called the store for 500 crickets ended up leaving with 200 and the employees omg his response was Bro I told you we was busy you can either take the 200 or not. Yes excellent customer service if I was you I’d go to the other location cause this one will never hear...