Sign In
Free Newsletter
First Impressions Matter: Have Your Store Looking its Best
One of the first things that I look for when visiting pet stores across the country is how a store goes about putting together its displays. As a first-time visitor to a given store, you immediately start forming that all-too-critical first impression that determines whether you’ll be returning to that store or whether it will […]
Frogs, Snakes and Lizards are Exciting Options
Color is an immensely powerful driver in so many of our lives. Setting aside the stereotypical examples of stoplights and paint swatches, color has an ability to alter our mood and shape our mindset in ways that modern neuroscience is still learning to process. According to Dr. Stephen Westland, chair of Color Science and Technology […]
Brands Break New Ground with Natural Reptile Enclosures
Last fall, I spent some time discussing the importance of reptile enclosures to your store and how carrying a given animal means offering all of the subsidiary materials necessary to care for that animal. This included consideration of the various factors necessary for optimal reptile health, such as humidity needs, sizing and the animals’ preferred […]
Health, Well-Being of Reptiles Must Remain Top Priority
When selling live animals, our singular focus must always be on one thing: the health and well-being of the pets we provide. While we in the reptile business tend to focus on new and interesting morphs, advancements in supply and food technology, and on finding ways to keep reptiles moving into the hands of our […]
Choosing the Right Substrate for Reptiles
A few months back, we took a deep look at substrates: the material placed in the bottom of a reptile’s enclosure, which serves as both flooring and bedding for your reptiles. And while we covered a number of the varieties of substrate, as well as the benefits and drawbacks thereof, we received a great deal […]
Retailers are Offering Feeder Insects Beyond the ‘Normal’ Mealworms or Crickets
In my article in the April issue of Pet Age, I discussed the merits of stocking live food as opposed to frozen or otherwise preserved packaged food. And while both options have their advantages and drawbacks, the fact remains that a pet store should absolutely be stocking some form of reptile food to not only […]
The Advantages to Offering Live Food In-store
Animals have to eat. There’s no way around it, no way to avoid it, no denying it. The only way to have a pet is to feed it, which means that any savvy pet retailer knows well enough to carry several varieties of food for the various animals carried within their store. I’ve mentioned in […]
A Whole New World with Exotic Reptile Livestock and Supplies
Exotic is something of a relative term. For many people, the very idea of keeping a lizard, a snake or a frog as a pet is a strange, unorthodox pet choice that is well outside their comfort zone. For those people, a bearded dragon or a leopard gecko is as ‘exotic’ as they might possibly […]
Tarantulas, Scorpions Gain Popularity
Mankind has a strange relationship with fear. Biologically, fear is part of our primal reactions, meant purely for survival. And yet, we have made an industry out of attempting to scare each other: horror movies have their own cable network, Stephen King is one of the world’s most read authors of all time and Halloween […]
The Best Beginner Reptiles
As part of my ongoing “Back to Basics” articles, it’s high time that I discuss what will likely become the most important (and possibly the most frequent) question facing reptile retailers: the enigma of the first-time reptile owner. While repeat customers are always the end goal for any retailer, helping customers choose the correct reptile […]
Reptile Habitats are the Key to Long-term Success
One of the major points that I’ve tried to hammer home throughout my past articles has been the concept that your relationship with a customer does not, and should not, end with the sale of a given animal. In fact, the vast majority of your profit actually lies with subsidiary purchases, such as food and […]
Replicating Natural Habitats
When examining what goes into a cage or enclosure, a major aspect is the substrate and caging material that comes with keeping a reptile. Substrate, as a general term, refers to the surface upon which a given organism lives. For our context, this refers to a material placed in the bottom of an enclosure, serving […]
