Reptile Specialists

Drove all the way to this business only to find out they aren’t here. Phone isn’t in service either.

I had gone to Reptile Specialists twice a week for years until recently. I think the store was sold and the new owners know nothing about running a business. Before the acquisition, I could go there and ask a question and get an answer. Now, I ask a question and get the Power Puff Girls trying to sell me on some crap I don’t need or want. The new owners clearly fired the only people that knew what they were doing and replaced them with their friends, and that makes for a bad business formula.
They have also systematically decorated the place like it’s a sorority house with curtains and butterfly wall decals. Really, I’m supposed to take you seriously to buy the necessities for my pets? Just do what you really want and start selling Hello Kitty stuffed animals.
The signage in this place is a joke. Nothing is professional, and it all looks like a Middle School girl’s science fair project. Not exactly confidence inspiring…
And lastly, for God’s sake, stop cleaning the tanks with industrial glass cleaner. You will kill the animals. The one’s you do manage to sell to some poor sucker prior to them dying will have terrible, irreversible respiratory problems. This amounts to neglect.
In all, I avoid this place like the plague. Oh, and Billie has the worst case of RBF I have ever seen.

used to b awesome had this cool lady that knew evrything and was super freindly and always taught me something had some negitive situations with the people there now went from awesome to kinda ok. have cool stuff but not always consistent and the help is kinda a downer sometimes. have lost some reptiles from there and alot of my enthusiasm. still a cool place but kinda a buzzkill.

Ok so thankfully I got an email from the owner (not management) today about my experience with his store and the crabby emails we received. He was very kind and after some review of what occurred we have come to the conclusion that there was some serious miscommunication.
The flies are going to be exterminated by Truly Nolen very soon, and he told me that they sell other bulbs at their location. See I wish I knew that. I purchased A UVB and a separate UVA bulb from Petsmart because I was never informed by the staff that they carry the same for ($ 15 each). That’s a big difference. Hence I thought Petsmart had more option. Well, I guess we will just have to conclude that any problems are now settled.
However, we were very shocked by the negative response we received by one of their staff. My husband was very upset (and still is) about how I was treated. I don’t want to run into that problem again. We were thinking about giving the Reptile Specialists a second try but I am on the fence about returning to the store.

It’s kind of hard to review this store fairly since they had one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen at a pet store. They had a Schneider’s Skink that looked like something crushed its back. The back had a dent in it deeper than 75% of the rest of the body width. They had this animal for sale at full price when it probably should have just been euthanized when it happened.
The rest of the store was pretty nice, although extremely small. They had a few rare species of reptile and some other non-​reptile cold blooded animals like salamanders and crustaceans. I love store pets, especially ones that are just allowed to walk around and they had two at Reptile Specialists, a huge B&W Tegu and a large Green Iguana. They also had a few reptile products I hadn’t seen before.
They offer a couple good deals herpers should know about as well. 10% off mice on Tuesdays and 10% off crickets on Monday. The injured skink is the only thing keeping this store from higher rating.
*Edit: I’ve heard that Reptile Specialists has moved to a different building and changed management, so my review is outdated. I’ll update this fall when I go back to Tucson.

This is a wonderful, family-​owned business that caters to all things (surprise!) reptile. I got my female bearded dragon from the old location on Broadway about 10 years ago. I also got everything I needed for her setup there. Since then, they have, of course, moved. But they are just as helpful and friendly as before. Sadly, the one thing lost in the move was the kind of crazed employee who would talk to me about space aliens – kinda freaky, but he really knew his lizards and snakes!
Selection for animals is quite vast. And everything appears to be on the healthy side – a plus when dealing with reptile stores. This just doesn’t seem to always be the case at some other stores.
They always had the fluorescent bulbs that I used, also unlike some other stores. And mealworms, crickets, whatever feed you wanted is always there – another HUGE plus that isn’t always found elsewhere.
The store is quite small in size, so it can be a little cramped when there’s a number of other customers. Also, it can sometimes take a little while to get help from employees. But once you have their attention, they are great.
Next lizard I get will certainly be from here, just like the first.

The shop is really small. There is a good selection of reptiles and tortoise’s, also spiders. They focus on small items and enclosures for reptiles and snakes, but if you want it bigger go online, you’ll always save. The kids that worked their weren’t really pros on pet ownership or care, but they are okay.
The store did NOT smell gross as a previous post had deduced. Maybe they were right then, but not now. Their prices were better than Tropical Kingdom, and the store was laid out effectively for the small area. I liked the bearded dragons and goanna’s.
They had some snake handling rods available as well.

I used to love this store back when it was on Broadway but the last time I was in this store the smell was unbearably disgusting. I had to leave and I can usually tolerate strong animal smells. The animal cages where dirty and the staff totally unhelpful. It wasn’t the place it used to be in the other location.