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The 2011 Good Shop Thread...

7K views 76 replies 63 participants last post by  scubadude68 
#1 ·
Here is a few of our Top Shops. All the below shops have impressed us either for their displays, their species selection, their staff or all three. Please feel free to add your favourite shops and why they are so good or your thoughts on the shops already mentioned or share what you think makes a reptile shop a good one :)

In no particular order:

Pilbara Reptiles (glocestershire)... serious wow. We travelled there to pick up our giant malagasy hognose and will certainly be travelling there again. All vivs are nicely set out and clean and tidy. The shop is large and spacious and the people working there friendly.
The selection of animals available was very good ranging from basic to black mambas... I do like a shop with a few venomous snakes to gawp at and dream about... Those little eyelash vipers were the teeniest, cutest angry balls of death I have ever seen! The mainstay of the shop is clearly their morelia section. I drooled lots.


Aquasplash (Nr Reading on the A4)... Recently done up and looking lovely, we popped in there for a brief visit and left over an hour later. The guys up there are always lovely to chat to and are genuinely knowledgeable which is a breath of fresh air. The selection of animals there is eclectic which is fab. Current stock includes the usual suspects of corns and kings etc but also serious keepers species like scrub and black headed pythons. The albino bull snake they currently have in is gorgeous! And If that white lip python is still there once I've got round to robbing the local bank then it's mine... mwahahah!
The set ups are mostly quite simple but still pleasing and very clean and tidy and there are a couple of very nicely planted displays too. The new vivs look top and the shop has come on leaps and bounds in the last year or so. This is one of those shops that particularly shines when you start to get chatting to the staff. These guys are 'proper' keepers with plenty of years experience under their belts.


New World Exotics (Nottingham)... One of my favourite shops, just a crying shame it's so damn far from us. This shop is run by Jon and Lucy who are both serious keepers and clearly vastly experienced. It was pleasing to see a shop with a good selection of healthy looking mammals as well as the herps. The reptile selection was good with some lovely examples of some less seen morphs on show. The displays and clean and pretty and the staff were very welcoming when we went in.


Cold Blooded (Rainham, Essex)... Every time I go in here I come out going 'Ooooooh!' The guys in there are enthusiastic and experienced keepers and always happy to spend time with you. It's often extremely busy in here so expect queues and noisy sprogs but it's well worth the visit. Vivs range from elaborate set ups to simplistic and functional which in my eyes is a good thing and shows the many, many different ways in which one can go about keeping reptiles.
Whilst there, make sure you go and visit the reptile reserve. I don't need to describe that... just go!


Reptile Zone (Bristol)... Not the biggest of shops from the front but well worth the visit regardless. Pete has an immense amount of knowledge and despite what I've occasionally heard said about him was extremely welcoming and chatty. We popped in for a look and left three hours later full of coffee and new info... The vivs are lovely and the set ups varied again showing the various different methods of keeping very nicely. The species selection when we went was good ranging from the usual corns and beardies to sub adult clastolepis scrubs (If I'd had the money I'd have had these guys as they are pretty much top of my 'wants it' list). The venomous room is worth looking at too. The king cobra is... well, words fail me. He's huge. He's gorgeous, he's astute, he's waaaaay out of my league!
The venomous set ups were attractive and the animals on display were in obvious good health.


Emsworth Reptiles (nr Portsmouth)... I love this shop. The staff are always very busy but still make time to say hi and will chat away happily if they get a moment. The vivs are almost all laid out beautifully and many of them are bloody massive! This is the shop to go to if you like looking at a large variety of species in set ups that inspire you.
When we last went in they had a nice selection of the basic species as well as a rough neck monitor, various locales of panther chameleon, PURE Indian pythons (which I must say are growing on me), rhino iguanas, fiji iguanas and a lovely venomous section with what has to be the nicest copperhead I've ever seen (not that I've seen that many to be fair...)


Just a few of the many, many shops we've visited recently.


Kat and Matt.
 
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#2 ·
although there is 4 dedicated reptile shops within a 45 minute drive from me i would only class 1 as being decent that would be.....

serpentus exotics
town hill
near dunfermline

staff are knowledgable welcoming and there's always a cup of tea and a chat on offer.if they don't have what your after they will do their best to source it for you or at least point you in the right direction.they also will discourage you from buying equiptment etc that you don't really need so they're not money orientated like some shops

cheers shaun
 
#3 ·
I done a tour of about 18 diff rep shops on the way own to London and back to pick up some snakes, some were so-so with no need to go back , but the following are defo worth a re-visit:

Crystal Palace Reptiles, really great array of animals, most are behind the scenes though, so if you are after spending some money then give them a call and see what they have, the staff are really nice and are happy to show you their rare animals. They can also source animals for you and have really great delivery prices. My fave because they went the extra mile for me and i would always go to these guys first for anything as prices are really good and service was second to none :)

Cold Blooded, all tanks full, which means plenty of choice, they appear to spend lots of time with first timers with questions and they have the bonus of having some big display stuff, they could benefit from a bigger premises though tbh :)

Wharf Aquatics, if like me you also like fish, you could spend ages in here, they have huge rooms for diff types, i.e. marine, coldwater, tropical and reps. They were up for a chat and had lots of drygoods, a few unusual bits and bobs however price wasn't as competitive as it could have been, i was very impressed with their camel spider he was scary lol

L & D, small space for reptile livestock, but they had tons, all really well priced and plenty for all, they had the added bonus of an exotic mammals dept which was cool to see. I was after something specific which they didnt have, however they didnt stop there they actually phoned other stores to try find me what i was after, ive not been to a shop which put the customer before themselves, this was really great. i have to say they had the most of my wishlist in stock, so this was he most tempting store.

Leaping Lizards, very big, clean and well organised shop, didnt have much to personally tempt me with but a good solid must visit store.

Wow i wrote more than i thought i was going to, there were a few other average stores but either boring stock or prices let them down :)
 
#4 ·
Here is a few of our Top Shops. All the below shops have impressed us either for their displays, their species selection, their staff or all three. Please feel free to add your favourite shops and why they are so good or your thoughts on the shops already mentioned or share what you think makes a reptile shop a good one :)

In no particular order:

Pilbara Reptiles (glocestershire)... serious wow. We travelled there to pick up our giant malagasy hognose and will certainly be travelling there again. All vivs are nicely set out and clean and tidy. The shop is large and spacious and the people working there friendly.
The selection of animals available was very good ranging from basic to black mambas... I do like a shop with a few venomous snakes to gawp at and dream about... Those little eyelash vipers were the teeniest, cutest angry balls of death I have ever seen! The mainstay of the shop is clearly their morelia section. I drooled lots.


Aquasplash (Nr Reading on the A4)... Recently done up and looking lovely, we popped in there for a brief visit and left over an hour later. The guys up there are always lovely to chat to and are genuinely knowledgeable which is a breath of fresh air. The selection of animals there is eclectic which is fab. Current stock includes the usual suspects of corns and kings etc but also serious keepers species like scrub and black headed pythons. The albino bull snake they currently have in is gorgeous! And If that white lip python is still there once I've got round to robbing the local bank then it's mine... mwahahah!
The set ups are mostly quite simple but still pleasing and very clean and tidy and there are a couple of very nicely planted displays too. The new vivs look top and the shop has come on leaps and bounds in the last year or so. This is one of those shops that particularly shines when you start to get chatting to the staff. These guys are 'proper' keepers with plenty of years experience under their belts.


New World Exotics (Nottingham)... One of my favourite shops, just a crying shame it's so damn far from us. This shop is run by Jon and Lucy who are both serious keepers and clearly vastly experienced. It was pleasing to see a shop with a good selection of healthy looking mammals as well as the herps. The reptile selection was good with some lovely examples of some less seen morphs on show. The displays and clean and pretty and the staff were very welcoming when we went in.


Cold Blooded (Rainham, Essex)... Every time I go in here I come out going 'Ooooooh!' The guys in there are enthusiastic and experienced keepers and always happy to spend time with you. It's often extremely busy in here so expect queues and noisy sprogs but it's well worth the visit. Vivs range from elaborate set ups to simplistic and functional which in my eyes is a good thing and shows the many, many different ways in which one can go about keeping reptiles.
Whilst there, make sure you go and visit the reptile reserve. I don't need to describe that... just go!


Reptile Zone (Bristol)... Not the biggest of shops from the front but well worth the visit regardless. Pete has an immense amount of knowledge and despite what I've occasionally heard said about him was extremely welcoming and chatty. We popped in for a look and left three hours later full of coffee and new info... The vivs are lovely and the set ups varied again showing the various different methods of keeping very nicely. The species selection when we went was good ranging from the usual corns and beardies to sub adult clastolepis scrubs (If I'd had the money I'd have had these guys as they are pretty much top of my 'wants it' list). The venomous room is worth looking at too. The king cobra is... well, words fail me. He's huge. He's gorgeous, he's astute, he's waaaaay out of my league!
The venomous set ups were attractive and the animals on display were in obvious good health.


Emsworth Reptiles (nr Portsmouth)... I love this shop. The staff are always very busy but still make time to say hi and will chat away happily if they get a moment. The vivs are almost all laid out beautifully and many of them are bloody massive! This is the shop to go to if you like looking at a large variety of species in set ups that inspire you.
When we last went in they had a nice selection of the basic species as well as a rough neck monitor, various locales of panther chameleon, PURE Indian pythons (which I must say are growing on me), rhino iguanas, fiji iguanas and a lovely venomous section with what has to be the nicest copperhead I've ever seen (not that I've seen that many to be fair...)


Just a few of the many, many shops we've visited recently.


Kat and Matt.
I have been to 2 of those and I certainly agree with Pilbara :no1:
 
#7 ·
Second that great shop great staff:no1:
 
#8 ·
In the South of England ive been to ALOT of reptile shops...

The best are in my area are....


SPIRE RIDGE in thatcham,:Na_Na_Na_Na: really sound manager : victory:, you know who you are! and they get in proper ' keepers' animals. They have bread and butter aswell, but they've got a cracking venomous section, loads of boids, large monitors, just a wicked selection, of the sort of stuff that i like to buy at a good price.

next up is GLOBAL GECKOS in Windlesham, its a newbie but a goodie:thumb:! If you like obscure small species, these guys are class! Will an Charlie are doin a really good job over there. They've got lots of standard stuff aswell, but they have a gecko breeding facility on site for leaf tails, knob tails etc, wicked if you like geckos.:thumb:

Both of these are about equal distance away from me (within half hour, but opposite directions)

Ive been to cold blooded, emmsworth, grange etc, which are all great, but these guys are my locals.......an they're great:no1:!
 
#9 ·
Been to a few in my time, but recently the best i have visited are,
MPA manchester, large clean shop with knowledgable staff and a good selection of animals.
Predetors in Shipley,Small shop with decent staff and a good selection, including DWA, plus a gator on show
 
#10 ·
There are a few good ones near me, the ones I use most frequently are

LnD Exotics: Friendly staff, always diffrerent stock in, very competitive prices especially on livefood!! I've had a few snakes from them including a dumerils, grey banded king, dwarf salmon boa, green anaconda and all are pounding food and in tip top condition

Blue Lizard Reptiles: Fairly new shop but nice set-up friendly staff and do have some cracking T's in of which I've had a few and all are doing great. They do have some great offers on aswell

When I get over to Sheffield I try and go to Snakes and Adders: Small but perfectly formed is the best way to describe this, has to be the cleanest shop I've ever been in and have some great snakes in and the staff are great with advice etc.

All cracking shops and can highly recommend any of them to anyone:2thumb:

Also went to Medusa exotics in Nottingham a few weeks ago and thought it was a great little shop friendly staff and some less common stuff such as indigo snakes and a banded water snake (which I bought): victory:

These are only the ones in my area would also say MPA and viper and vine in Mancheste and JC Exotics in Lincoln were great when I went to them last year!
 
#11 ·
Wings & Tails at Shanklin on the IOW. Very friendly, helpful and knowledgable staff and also do free islandwide delivery of pet food and equipment - invaluable for me as I'm agoraphobic.
 
#12 ·
Wings & Tails at Shanklin on the IOW. Very friendly, helpful and knowledgable staff and also do free islandwide delivery of pet food and equipment - invaluable for me as I'm agoraphobic.

What a great service , thats something i'd like to see more shops offer . There is a mobile pet food van that comes around but he's a MUPPET and his prices would make your hair curl
 
#16 ·
I only ever need to go to one shop,, that's coast to coast exotics In Darlington which I am very fortunate to live a five minute drive from, the staff are great, very knowledgable and very friendly, and feel fortunate to call them friends rather than just someone who works in a shop....:2thumb:
 
#17 ·
i agree that aquasplash is coming on really well now! popped in there a little while back...i like Ameyzoo in bovingdon as well, the Jungle in Iver heath isn`t a bad little place either, and is coming along well slowly but surely (to what it was like with the previous owner!) and they seem to get a few nice little oddballs in now and then too which is always good to see!
 
#21 ·
Wrigglies in Dunstable is great. Some fantastic display animals, as well as good quality and varied stock. The welcome is always good and so is the advice.

Northampton Reptile Centre is also very good, but not the cheapest place I've been to.
 
#23 ·
Best Shop

Hi all, it's got to be Exeter Exotics, Market Street, Exeter, Devon, for me. They have a wide variety of well kept animals and they will source it for you if they haven't got it. The girls who own it are friendly, informative and a pleasure to deal with. It's the only shop I deal with and would recommend to others living in and around the Exeter, Devon area.
Cheers Deb :2thumb:
 
#24 ·
The best shops I have been to and certainly the only ones that stand out from the crowd (and I have been to a lot of shops, 30-40 in the last 3 months or so alone...)

In order of best shop first;


PILBARA REPTILES in Gloucestershire.
I went to Pilbara last month to collect my V. gilleni pair and despite not getting the chance to chat with the owner as he was away at Hamm I still found it probably the best shop I have ever been into. The shop is huge, definately the biggest of the reptile shops I've ever visited except perhaps Wrigglies in Bedfordshire. There was a huge selection of livestock, most of the walls of the shop was vivs and there was isle of enclosures down the middle as well. Being into australian reptiles the theme and selection of livestock in store really appealed to me as well. And they're not really that expensive for a pet shop either.


GRANGE REPTILES in Southampton.
I visited this shop without knowing what to expect about 3 months back and was blown away by how brilliant the place is. It's not one of those big names you hear all over the forum so I was expecting it to just be another little garden center pet shop, but it is close to being the best shop I ever visited. The shop was small but packed wall to wall, floor to ceiling with animal enclosures. Everything was for sale, I'm not fond of shops with loads of enclosures that house animals you can't actually buy. The black vivariums look really good and professional too. There was a side room with a great V. resingeri setup, one of their many enclosures which had a build in filtered pool. The livestock selection was great too as were the prices. They had green tree pythons and similarly sought after stuff at online prices rather than the high 'reptile shop prices.'


COLD BLOODED in Essex.
Where to start, the shop or the reserve. Even without the reserve the shop is fantastic, there was a huge variety of livestock and a couple of great display setups for crocodiles and monitors. I didnt really get a chance to speak to the staff as the shop was heaving when I went in, but it was the middle of the day on a saturday so that was to be expected. I seem to remember the prices being pretty good but the selection being unbeleivable, they had animals you would struggle to find on here let alone in other pet shops, for example radiated tortoises and fiji banded iguanas. The only downside to the shop itself in my eyes was that it was a bit of a confusing shape, with narrow alleys going off in different directions with vivs on either side. This made it hard to move when the shop was busy and easy to overlook a certain animal that may have otherwise caught your eye.

The reserve made up for this though. The place was pretty big and I got there when it was quiet, meaning I had a good chat with some of the guys that work there and got to go in and some handling with the big crocodile monitor and even held one of the mexican beaded lizards. There were quite a few nice snakes, but the number of good lizard species there blew me away. They have chameleons, monitors, iguanas and more of all the rare species and a couple I had never seen before. There are loads of aldabra tortoises and rhino iguanas, and the crocodile and alligator enclosures were very impressive. Each was easily bigger than most reptile shops and both only contained a subadult pair of Nile crocs and Missisipi gators, meaning they had loads of room to move and show off. I will definately be returning to the place, as they told me they are moving to somewhere almost FIFTY times the size in 6 months.


LOST WORLD in Kent.
I visited this place only last weekend and again I was pleasently suprised, I had read good reviews already but nothing like the hype surrounding cold blooded and CPR (which you may notice I have not included in my top 5, as I have yet to brave Londons traffic to visit it). Lost World looked small from the outside, but the moment I stepped through the door I was surrounded by vivariums, wall to wall on three sides, with a corridor leading my down through more and more enclosures to the main shop floor. There were rare and exciting animals everywhere, I had to walk extra slow to make sure I didnt miss any, and I still noticed things on the way out I hadnt seen on the way in. The best livestock for me that comes to mind was their Carpondro, green tree pythons and the large selection of rarely seen monitors. But there was something for everybody. The prices were not too bad and the staff seemed friendly and knowledgable, definately a shop I will be visiting again.



TROPICAL TEAM REPTILES in Newcastle
It's been over two years since I visited this shop, I was back up that way at Christmas but I got there just after they had closed for the day unfortunately. From what I remember this shop had a great layout and a lot of good animals on display. Compared to most pet shops the prices were not overly bad, although I do remember some of the animals I was looking into being a lot cheaper online. I paid less than one third of their asking price for a male V. tristis orientalis for one I found on here. But there was still animals in that no other shop has yet to impress me with, and since most of their prices were average or good I would definately put it up here amongst the current top 5.



That's it for now as I'm bored of typing. Sorry to the other 30+ shops I have been to recently on Rep-runs but to be fair almost every shop had something eye catching or different, other shops that spring to mind that were smaller and less 'awesome' but still made for an interesting visit were Pythons Lair in Oxford, Northampton Reptile Center, Southampton Reptile Center, Scales n Fangs, Japanese Koi & Wrigglies...
 
#27 ·
COLD BLOODED in Essex.
Where to start, the shop or the reserve. Even without the reserve the shop is fantastic, there was a huge variety of livestock and a couple of great display setups for crocodiles and monitors. I didnt really get a chance to speak to the staff as the shop was heaving when I went in, but it was the middle of the day on a saturday so that was to be expected. I seem to remember the prices being pretty good but the selection being unbeleivable, they had animals you would struggle to find on here let alone in other pet shops, for example radiated tortoises and fiji banded iguanas. The only downside to the shop itself in my eyes was that it was a bit of a confusing shape, with narrow alleys going off in different directions with vivs on either side. This made it hard to move when the shop was busy and easy to overlook a certain animal that may have otherwise caught your eye.

The reserve made up for this though. The place was pretty big and I got there when it was quiet, meaning I had a good chat with some of the guys that work there and got to go in and some handling with the big crocodile monitor and even held one of the mexican beaded lizards. There were quite a few nice snakes, but the number of good lizard species there blew me away. They have chameleons, monitors, iguanas and more of all the rare species and a couple I had never seen before. There are loads of aldabra tortoises and rhino iguanas, and the crocodile and alligator enclosures were very impressive. Each was easily bigger than most reptile shops and both only contained a subadult pair of Nile crocs and Missisipi gators, meaning they had loads of room to move and show off. I will definately be returning to the place, as they told me they are moving to somewhere almost FIFTY times the size in 6 months.

...
Its always good to here people views, and the shop will be ripped out and redone at some point which will make things bigger and easier to move about when its busy, but the other place is taking priority to be worked on. Also theres 1.2 nile crocs lol. Saturdays are the busiest days in the shop itself, so is always tricky to get to speak to people, so sorry about that, best time to get down when its quiet is generally mondays.
 
#25 ·
Leaping Lizards in York. Clean well set up shop, great vivs, variety of stock, knowledgeable staff. What more could you ask for?
 
#26 ·
Repti-licious in rockferry,wirral is a fab lil shop with allsorts in it. Run by a young couple who can seem to answer anything u throw at em.
 
#37 ·
Best reptile shop


I will second this, there are a few reptile stockists on the Wirral but Dave and Nat are so much more than just a shop. They have an excellent knowledge of most reptiles and they have recently improved on the DWA side of things, with a rattle snake and a gator now in stock.:notworthy::2thumb::notworthy::2thumb::notworthy::2thumb:
 
#31 · (Edited)
Going to have to visit Cold Blooded and Lost World soon, they both sound amazing. :mf_dribble:

I've only just started investigating rep shops and have seen a couple of rubbish ones tacked onto garden centres with very little to see in terms of livestock, I've also seen some nice small shops, Living Reef Aquatics in Dartford had some lovely animals but nothing stunningly exotic. Bexley Aquatics and Reptiles has a wide variety of good starter animals and a few more advanced ones, the owner was very keen on Royals and had quite a few. The last good one I've been to so far was Ark Pet and Reptile center in Gillingham, they have a dedicated reptile room with some lovely species I hadn't seen anywhere else like Rainbow boas, a sand boa and a rough green tree snake.
 
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