LLLreptile

[bambichik39]

So, as some of you may have read from before, I am on vacation. I've been staying in oceanside,ca and since the beach is so close i've been driving down there. Guess what I saw today just a few blocks from where i go to the beach!?!?! LLLREPTILE! i didn't even realize they had a store; being from KC i just figured it was an online only thing like petmountain. Anyways, of coarse i pulled a huge Uturn and had to go in. They had AMAZING set ups, great choices, took great care of their pets, and had great prices on everything including supplies! They were packing up for a reptile show so they had a lot of stuff out of their tanks, but you could tell they had a huge selection. They also had a huge snake there they were getting out to give meds to that had a URI, so you know they take good care of everyone. It was a GREAT place! Sadly, i could only buy some great priced cricket water because I couldn't fit much into my suitcase to take home- BUT I strongly suggest anyone living in the oceanside/san diego area to come up and check them out- it was like heaven on earth!bb

 

[riceko]

I've always heard good things about LLLreptile. The museum where I work at orders all their supplies from them (obviously online). They have pretty good customer service too.. picking up when you call and giving intelligent answers.
I found that petmountain had cheaper bulbs and shipping though, so they're my preferred choice at the moment.

 

[VEGASLIZARD]

We just bought a baby tegu from them at the NARBC show a couple weeks ago. It made me sad to see all the little guys in tupperware. They had so many animals there that the store must be huge! It looked like allot people were buying. The employees seemed to know about the animals they were selling and were supper nice. They had great prices and our new little guy has been a great addition to the family.

 

[lacy_black]

Honestly this is the 1st time i've heard anything good about them. Back when I was looking into buying a snake from them someone on here pm'd me and warned me that most of their animals tend to get sick easily and die shortly after they arrive.I've read a few other threads where people have bought animals who got sick or died so I never did buy from them just because I didn't want to risk it.

 

[VEGASLIZARD]

Hm, I've never heard anything negative before. Is there more than one store?

 

[Mistyck]

Personally I wouldn't buy animals from LLLReptile. They're a whole seller/buyer if I remember correctly. I used to buy feeders from them but changed because they couldn't get their chit together. Nice people, just pains in the butt to work with when something goes wrong. Only thing I will buy from them now is supplies.

LLLReptile has an online store and then stores in California. One in Oceanside and one in Escondido.

 

[bambichik39]

I don't think I'd use them online because petmountain does have such good prices, but the store itself was nice. There store wasn't huge, but they use those stackable vision cages, which is great because the animals had a lot of room. I'm not sure if they are a whole seller or not, they didn't have a lot of one thing so I'm not sure. it was a nice store though and everyone there looked very well cared for and healthy.

 

[Neromom39]

The store in Escondido is 10 times better than the one in Oceanside. I'm not saying that because I live in Escondido. We frequent the store quite often and I have never come across a situation that I would deem questionable.

My hubby stopped in at the O'Side store and he came out upset.

 

[beardie parents]

We bought Zoom Zoom from them one year ago at the reptile show in Tucson, AZ. We were worried about her for awhile but she still seems to be doing good. She never has had a very good appetite, she never ate more than 22 crickets in any one day and that was only once or twice before last December. She's about the same length that Redrock was at the age Zoom is now but Redrock used to eat anywhere from 20 to 60 crickets every day, Zoom ate on average 5 to 8 or 9.

This year, however, I was very disappointed in their selection of beardies. They had babies that had to be hatchlings as they were about 4 or 4.5 inches long. Deffinitely to small to be sold. I saw 2 or 3 that looked like they were not long for this earth. They weren't holding their heads up and were even skinner than any of the other babies of that size. That was in the late morning/early afternoon of last Saturday (9/19). I would never buy a beardie from them.

 

[halicouple]

I had always heard great things about them, as well. We're from Canada. I placed an order for a T-Rex bulb and received a PowerSun bulb.......I was not impressed.

 

[DragonsInKansas]

Well i agree that KC has a pretty poor selection of pet stores, so I'm sure anything seems like an improvement haha :mrgreen:

 

[bambichik39]

DragonsinKansas, you are probably right did you go to the kc herpatological show in independence today?

 

[DragonsInKansas]

Of course I did

 

[nrich]

My friend and I made a special trip down to Oceanside one weekend just to visit LLL. Their in-store selection looks much, much better than the critters the bring to shows (perhaps they just need to work on their shipping process) . Mostly, they have some of the best pricing for tanks, cages and lights around. They also carry a very wide variety of animals (even a couple of hot snakes) from tegus to skinks to tortoises. They had some pretty impressive beardies when we were there. I almost picked myself up a citrus male just for the heck of it, but wound up with a new 20gal tank for my rescue girl and about 8 branches of mopani wood and some MVB bulbs. The Oceanside store is also right next to a hydroponics store that has some of the most beautiful chameleons I have ever seen.

 

[LLLReptile]

Thanks for the (mostly) nice comments. This board is always useful, but we don't get much of a chance to see all the forums on the net obviously. Just thought I would provide a bit more information. First, we do have a few retail stores open to the public. One is in Escondido, one is in Oceanside, CA. Sometimes our employees roam between the two stores, but for the most part they are unique. Up until last year, our Oceanside store was our main shipping store for supplies. Now we have a main warehouse in between the stores where we ship the products from, making the Oceanside store much more "customer friendly", and we have re-done quite a bit of it over the last year. Anyone who knows Skillet and Kevin at that store, or Jono & crew at the Escondido store knows how much work those guys put into it. We keep almost all our animals in large vision cages, and anyone who has been in our stores will tell you how much effort we put into the care of our guys. Yes, this is a business we run, but we are all in it for the passion of the hobby - something to always keep in mind!

As for trade shows - we do about 40 (yes, 40) trade shows per year all over the US. For baby beardies, we absolutely do not buy dragons under 4 weeks of age (you would be absolutely blown away how often people bring in fresh out of the egg dragons trying to pass them as a month old). Even at 4 weeks it is young, but as most of you know, a well fed month week old dragon is no issue at all, and breeders generally don't want to sit on them for longer and pay to feed their animals. Some of you on here sell / have sold dragons to us, so you know we are rather particular and really do care how old and how long the dragons are. This year, dragons have been crazy cheap, as some of the "big breeders" have crashed the market selling to the big chain stores. I have seen normal dragons as low as $10 each RETAIL over the summer, and being given away free from people not wanting to feed them anymore. Crazy year, so I would expect next year to lighten up a bit with some getting out of it this year. Just an FYI for you breeders having any trouble selling your stock - don't give up on them just yet. It happened with Leopard Geckos a few years ago, but they bounced back as well.

The other cool thing about having a few stores is the adult dragons we get in stock. Usually, our sub adults to adults were just solo pets someone was getting rid of, and not "bred out" old dragons. We get pretty much every color morph throughout the year. Like today we just got in a few 14" female pure orange dragons from a customer. It's a great way to get breeders that are young and ready to go, and we pride ourselves on offering them at great prices.

As for products, we certainly try to keep our prices extremely low, but I have been through literally almost every major supply retailer, and I know for a fact that many of our products are quite a bit cheaper than the "mountain" store. Not everything, but a good chunk... Plus, we carry about 1,000 more reptile products Regardless - keep in mind, we have a heck of a price match guarantee. We will beat a same brand product at another website by 5% (not 5% of the difference, but 5% off the product). Somethin to keep in mind!

Anyhow - thanks for stopping in our stores when you guys are in town and seeing for yourselves how much work and effort we put into our stock. If you ever have any concerns, any questions or even suggestions, don't hesitate to contact us. Seriously, we try really hard to be customer friendly as most of you know, and really do work our rears off to keep clean stores, extremely healthy animals and a knowledgeable staff that all enjoy the hobby and the job. I realize that some have their opinions set, but if you have any specific concerns, PM me or call us toll free at 888-54-Reptile anytime. Thanks!

Scott
LLLReptile & Supply