Tails & Scales Pet Shop — Local services in Riverside Township

I'm honestly shocked that this place has gotten so many good reviews. The conditions they keep these animals in is very sad, and they all look so stressed and miserable.

You have bearded dragons being cohabbed with tortoises, which is not good. Bearded Dragons are strictly solitary animals, they get aggressive with their tank mates, and it's not uncommon for them to rip off limbs.. and if they aren't being aggressive, they're submissive. The submissive Beardies get bullied and dominated (nipped at, laid on top of, etc) which stresses them out.

The times I've asked why they cohab them, I got told silly things like:

"Oh, theres not enough tanks"

Or

"We put them in with the tortoises if they get too mean with the other Beardies."

Beardies need their own tanks, period... and not a small tank either, because some of the tanks they have their animals crammed into here are way too small.

By the way, although these critters don't show stress and unhappiness in the same way dogs do, the signs are still there... they're just different. Beardies, for example: Develop black beards, dark stripes on their bellies, they act skittish or aggressive, they gulp (looks like they're swallowing), and they glass surf.. which looks like they're trying to break out of the tank. All signs of an unhappy Beardie.

A few weeks ago, I came here and I saw one of the Beardies repeatedly and aggressively bobbing its head at the tortoises (it was being cohabbed with them), which is a sign of territorial behavior. Not good. The ones that weren't being aggressive were still stressed, I could see stress marks (dark stripes) on their bellies.

One of the other beardies was extremely aggressive if you got too close to its tank. Aggression is typically not normal for these guys, they're usually very docile if in good living conditions and are treated nicely. No telling what that poor thing has been through.

I also saw a bunch of baby Beardies in a tiny cramped tank and a lot of the more submissive babies were being smothered by the more dominant ones when they were basking, and that means the submissive ones were getting less heat and other vital things from the bulbs above.

There was also a worker here and he was too rough when handling the poor animals.

I visit this place every now and then in hopes that they'll do things differently, but it's the same thing every time. I feel so bad for these animals.

I highly recommend buying these kinds of pets from a reputable breeder instead. Most pet stores treat their animals poorly, and this store is...

I don't know if this place used to be decent, but it is definitely not anymore. I was in the store for less than 5 minutes, looking around the store was heartbreaking. Everything is at the lowest possible legal care standard. Their fish wall had some tanks that were over crowded. They had extremely large koi fish swimming in a trash can, and one was dead. They feed live adult mice to snakes that visibly look too thin/young to take them, and there were some mice still actively alive and grooming themselves in the shallow tub-rack full of snakes. The snakes they keep in deli cups in their glass case blew me away, ball pythons were actively curling into their shot glass sized "water dishes". I can understand using circular deli bowls to exhibit animals for a few hours, but not their entire lives within their time at this store waiting to be sold. The two green anacondas they housed together have no space to be around one another, I don't know if they're making attempts at breeding them, but it won't happen if that's the case. The assumed female is significantly larger, and they had no sitting tub and no water in their dish, despite being SEMI-AQUATIC snakes. The largest one was being scalded by it's lamp while the other hid under butcher paper. They had large rabbits in small cages stacked on top of one another. The only thing I can do is sincerely hope that the larger snakes and especially the anacondas are given the proper space to stretch out so they can at least digest their meals. I have never seen an anaconda without a water tub or even water in a bowl, in my life. It seems like this place runs and exhibits their store like someone runs a table at a pop-up...

The prices are okay and there's a decent size selection. But the biggest reason I'm down grading the rating is because of the behavior I witnessed. I asked the guy behind the counter if they had any normal ball pythons, since where he showed me they were there wasn't any. He said they were in the back and proceeded to go get one. When he came back out and handled the animal to me, the poor terrified thing stuck at me. I was surprised by the suddenness of it but not by it trying to defend itself. The guy said I can fix that and then took her from my hand and began tossing this poor thing between his hands. She's already scared to death and this guys going to inflict more trauma by using her like a baseball. Anyone who has spent any time properly caring for these animals never would have done that and it makes me worry about how else they treat their animals there. Now, I have her at home and I'm hoping to destroy the abuse already been done and create a sweet and gentle girl. The management needs to think about training their staff better for the betterment for...