Backwater Reptiles

Go somewhere else!!! I ordered a Brazilian Rainbow Boa. When I received it, it was alive but went down hill from there. I tried to nurture it back to health, but in 10 days, it died. Customer service made me jump through hoops to prove everything and after all of that and some 20 emails later... My response was... Sorry for your loss, do you want to try again? As if it was my fault. I understand shipping can be hard on these creatures, but really??? Stand behind what you sell and better yet, take care of them. There are plenty of quality places out there, unfortunately this is not one of them. $250 gone...

No real communication. I ordered Sunday , it's now Tuesday and my order isnt anywhere near ready to ship since no one seems to want to answer my emails and they wont answer at all anywhere else. Bad customer service and business ethic. Confirm they have your item in stock otherwise you'll never get anything else in the order either, without an upcharge any way.

I ordered a Frog Eyed Gecko from Backwater. I made sure to order so that it would be delivered on a Tuesday, as that is the only day I would for certain be able to receive it. The preceding Friday I received an email from them, saying that the gecko was out of stock, despite it being listed as in stock on their website. They gave me a few other gecko options, and I responded in 10 minutes with a couple of questions about them. I received an automated response saying NOT to email ***@***s.com, as the inbox is not monitored. This despite their email coming from ***@***s.com and requesting me to respond, and ***@***s.com being listed as the contact email on their site.

Now this is the Monday that the gecko should have shipped and I still haven't heard a word from them. I really need it to either ship today or cancel the order, so I've tried calling them about 10 times already (yes, within their business hours). Every single time the call has gone straight to voicemail, telling me to email ***@***s.com. This isn't even so much a review of their site not being accurate about stock, or about it taking longer than expected to get a response. Those things happen. But at this point I feel like I'm just shouting into a void.

I work with a science education program and use insects and reptiles for lessons and to provide students with interactive experiences. It's our most popular module. I've purchased critters a number of times from Backwater Reptiles (some very hard to find) and have been very happy with my purchases. Only once was there an issue and Backwater Reptiles responded quickly and resolved the problem. I will continue to buy from them.

Highly recommend! I got my leopard gecko today and I'm already in love! ?

Ordered for turtles were shipped cross-country from California to Florida all four arrived happy and healthy good customer service product delivered as shown on website cute little turtles

Amazing customer service. Very fast shipping. Overall great. And we love our 2 new additions. Thanks to Backwater reptiles I had one real happy kid on his birthday. He wanted a baby turtle and it seemed almost impossible to find a small one with such short time. Although shipping is a bit steep considering the price of the turtles and there size. But I would certainly order from them again and plan to in the near future

On Saturday, February 15th, I contacted Backwater Reptiles via email to inquire about purchasing a Salmon Birdeater. I was unable to add the item to my cart, despite saying they were in stock. Knowing they were likely out of the office for the weekend, and the tarantula was likely OUT of stock, I opted for ordering a different species. So that evening of the 15th, I ordered a Skeleton tarantula. My order went through for the cost of the tarantula (32.99) and shipping (44.99) for a total of 77.98. Monday afternoon rolls around and I get an email stating that the Skeleton leg is actually out of stock (despite their horrible website not being updated), but they could send me a Stripe Knee tarantula instead as they are quite similar. I said sure, why not. On their website, the Stripe Knee is listed as 24.99 on the general tarantulas page. I had no reason to click on it as I did not have to place another order to get her.
I let them know on Tuesday the 18th around 9am that I would take the Stripe Knee, and that I'd like if she was shipped out that day. They stated technical difficulties on their website, despite my order already being processed, and informed me it would be another day until the tarantula was shipped. She then was shipped Wednesday the 19th from Florida in the evening. In the mean time, I asked for a refund on the gap in price between the original tarantula I purchased and was charged for and the less expensive one arriving (keep in mind, their page listed the Stripe Knee as 24.99). That would be a small refund of 8 dollars. Later on, one of their staff was seemingly confused (I've seen her say that word a lot in reviews and photos from other people) that I was asking for a refund. Turns out they have two different prices for the Stripe Knee. 24.99 and 34.99 once you actually click on the tarantula's profile-- once again, I had no reason to do so as I wasn't placing another order on their website. It was through email. I had to actually send her a screenshot of the 24.99 price because clearly the staff are incompetent when it comes to their website.
Thursday comes, my tarantula arrives at my door step, signature required, at 10am. I promptly opened her box and found her dead on arrival. I understand this happens at time, even for a company that guarantees "ironclad live arrivals." However, this tarantula was not packaged properly. When you are shipping a delicate creature such as a tarantula, you always pack the container full of paper towels to ensure the animal cannot move significantly. Otherwise they will roll around in that plastic container causing damage and even death. This is well known in the trade/hobby. My tarantula from Backwater was packaged with the smallest ball of paper-towel that was quite obviously ripped from a larger sheet. It was the size of my palm, rolled into a ball, and she was next to it, dead. It was obvious that she had died during shipping from being rattled around and not protected like she should have been. This was absolutely cruel.
Like I said, I understand you can't 100% guarantee live arrival (they do), however her death was solely the product of Backwater's negligence when packing her. It's cruelty and absolutely disgusting. I promptly emailed Backwater, they refused to take responsibility for a massive error on their end, and decided to tell me not to lay blame or point fingers when upset. This was after telling them how absolutely ashamed they should be for letting this slip. This tarantula spent the last hours of it's life in complete distress because she had no protection during her commute. Backwater refused a full refund based on their terms and conditions you sign, however I will be disputing it. They did not hold up their end of the contract by safely shipping an innocent creature. Instead, they threw the smallest bit of tissue in there and sent her off to die. This was neither my fault, nor UPS.
I have contacted and sent proof including photos, emails, proper packing tutorials, etc. to many tarantula communities, YouTubers, and other people in the hobby. I'm glad I'm not the only one livid about what happened. One of the most famous in the hobby will be making a review on his Youtube about my experience, and I cannot wait for others to see it and think twice about purchasing from Backwater Reptiles. It seems most in the community already know about their horrible reputation, but this is for the others who start with doing their research. DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM! And a message to Backwater when they see this, you can argue this all you want as it's clear on all the other reviews, however YOU are the ones that messed up and I'm not the only one angry about it.

I bought a pair of baby Gecko's for my grand daughter's 18th birthday. They arrived in good shape, but one of the baby's died. They offered my money back, but we waited for more babies to be born. I contacted them after 3 weeks and they told me more babies had hatched. Our new one arrived today and my granddaughter is so happy. Zy and Troy are playing together now and Troy is settling in his new home!
The service was good. I would purchase again.

I recently ordered a fire skink from backwater reptiles, although it being January I figured the temperatures were decent enough to ship (50-60F) because the critter would be shipped with a heat pack. I paid 25+45 shipping for the little guy, small price to pay for a beautiful pet. Upon receiving the box, I noticed that it had a few holes poked into each side of it, but upon opening it, I noticed that they didn't pierce through the Styrofoam insulation. At this point, I'm a bit worried about my skink, as the lack of oxygen coming into the box, and having a plane ride from it's origin to it's destination, I assumed it was gonna be D.O.A. After opening the sack it was put in, I realize I was correct. It was D.O.A. I contacted their customer service, and although the lady speaking to me was very helpful, she wasn't helpful in my case. This poor skink was dead, lifeless, and cold to the touch. Her assistance?

"Please keep in mind that your little one just came out of the shipping process and will need some time to acclimate. I strongly recommend to place him in a warm bath (after adjusting to room temp of course) to help rehydrate him and then under his basking spot for the rest of the day. High heat along with the UVB light and some fresh water should help perk him right up!"

If I was inexperienced with reptiles, this may have helped me, but in my case, the poor little guy was gone. However, I decided not to give up hope. I tried this, although not directly in the basking light as I knew putting him in it directly all day would effectively slow roast him, I waited all day. I got him at 11:45 AM, by 5:30 PM, I started smelling an odor, and you guessed it, it was the skink. I ran to grab an airtight container, and put the poor little guy in it. Now today, I'm driving 90 minutes to take him to the closest landfill that accepts dead animals.

After viewing many reviews of Backwater Reptiles, I realize that by buying this poor skink, I'm just helping them supply people with dying and diseased reptiles. I plan on getting a refund from Backwater if possible, or another skink. I will be updating this as that conversation occurs.

As others have said if I could give less than one star I would. I ordered a male and female Jackson's chameleon. I received two males. This, not the worst part. They both showed up dead. The way that they were shipped, in my opinion, was animal cruelty. Both were in small paper bags that were stapled shut with no source of moisture for them. Also, no air can get in or out of these very small paper bags. The heat pack that they put in was under a huge wad of packing paper which did not allow for any of the heat to get to them. When I opened the box I could smell the nasty smell of death. I am very sure that they died very shortly after leaving their facility. I asked for a refund and they told me that because the temperature was below 40F my "arrive alive guarantee" was void. I checked the time that they arrived at the shipping facility in my town and the time that they were delivered and it was less than an hour. They would not die and start to smell in this very short period of time. If they would have been packaged properly and with care and not tossed in a small paper bag like a kid's school lunch they would have arrived very much alive. Nobody should ever order from this company and the way they treat their animals they should be investigated and shut down.

I have had to continually fight to get them to make things right. I ordered a tarantula from them. It was sent by fedex but somehow kept for 2 weeks at UPS Of course she died. Meg at backwater is telling me I am surely confused and doubting my veracity. This is not the first time I have had to fight to get what is right from them snd I am sick of this mess
Joyce W

1 star is too generous!!
We ordered an adult Jackson’s chameleon from them. The shipping time was as described, he arrived the following morning. However, he arrived dead. The packaging was horrible. The poor Cham was in a brown paper bag, which was wet and freezing cold. The heating pad was under 4 inches of balled up paper and not warm at all to the touch. All of this was inside of a tiny styrofoam cooler, packaged inside of a cardboard box. There was an attempt to poke holes in the walls of the styrofoam but none were open to air. This poor creature died of cold and suffocation.
My child used his own money to buy the Cham and all of the enclosure items. He is old enough to understand that he died a tortured and completely unnecessary death. That thought has left him nearly inconsolable.
Their website reports a love and passion for these creatures, yet absolutely no care is taken once they receive your money. I would not recommend this company, under any circumstance.
This experience has been completely disappointing and sickening.

As most of you know when you receive a new baby caiman the first thing you want to see is the little critter trying to chomp your finger off when I received my camian from backwater it did not disappoint very active perfect in every way very well pact I can't say enough good things thank you very much backwater

Everyone there was nice and very helpful, and my second-choice, a salamander, arrived healthy and on time. But I would have appreciated a bit more notice, and an explanation, for the sudden unavailability of my first choice, a southern toad. I'd already bought its food and cancelled an appointment for the morning it was supposed to arrive so that I could accept delivery. Still, I would order from Backwater Reptiles again.

I ordered a baby colored Amazon tree boa and I was emailed a day later being told they don't have any in stock and that they would send me a juvenile but I had turned it down and instead requested another snake with the same price range but was told they only have a morph that would be 170$ more so I turned that down and requested some snake options and was emailed a list of snakes none which caught my interest so I requested a refund since I've requested a refund I've gotten no responses and feel like I'm being scammed

I received an incredibly healthy Kenyan Sand Boa! He's much healthier and brighter than the one I got from a local breeder, and he was the gender I asked for as well!

Once again I’d like to thank the staff at Backwater Reptiles for there rapid response & friendly staff. I just received my 2nd Southern Painted Hatchling. Arrived in excellent condition & very energetic. I’m very confident that I will be doing more business with Backwater Reptiles. Thank you very much.

Would give 0 stars if I could. Absolutely horrific experience. My curly hair T was DOA, it was heart breaking. My other T that was shipped was in a container WAY too small for her, and it looked like she had spit up and excreted a few different things. My only guess is that considering how sy they were packed, they both were being tossed around like hell and got sick from it. The curly hair was DOA, and the container he was in was filthy. As for the other one, the pink toe, her container was filled with her own excrement and she arrived on her back and smelling like death. Surprisingly she lived and is doing well now. I feel terrible for not checking reviews before I bought from here.
They definitely trick you with good customer service, because once you receive your animals you're going to be heart broken.

Zero complaints. They did everything in their power to deliver my live animals. Will definitely do business with them again.