Exotic Pets of Las Vegas GOOD GUYS

Exotic Pets

Ken Foose is the best! I've known him for 12 years and he's probably forgotten more about more species of herps than most of us will ever learn! All w/out the pompous attitude! Honest and sincere, we need more guys like Ken!

Bill Hughes

Ken is awesome to deal with. I've gotten a few animals from him and they all were healthy and very good looking when they arrived. I would refer him to anybody.

You know, I've considered buying from them for years but never did because their ads are so sketchy, they don't inspire a "these guys know their animals" feeling. There have been so many animals I've been interested in, but the ads make me think maybe they're a just a big operation that moves animals in and out quickly without much care. After reading this string I will be completely comfortable working with them in the future and look forward to it because they get great stuff! (I'm heading to Kingsnake now!) How's that for good, cheap advertising! (One thing I always chuckle about is how he writes in his ads something like... "...and biting everything in sight!")

I went there

I saw a post for a speckled water monitor on kingsnake and emailed Ken about it. He responded quickly to my emails which was great! I explained to him that I was looking to pair up a water monitor I had that was about 2 feet and I was looking for one near the same size. So I mentioned I was gonna drive out there to check it out(about 4+ hours) and he said that was fine. So I went.

When I got there, one of the guys showed me where the water monitor was and seemed very nice. The monitor was in a cage that was about 6 inches by 12 inches and he was only about a foot long(still too big for a cage made for a spider). Small enough that mine could have eaten it. But I took time to consider it and slid the cage a little towards me to see him a little better and a girl yells, "don't touch my cages!" Having never even met this girl I felt that was extremely rude and wanted to give her an earfull, but I bit my tongue. A simple, "would you please not move the cages, I would be happy to help if you want to see him" would have been great. No respect. And not a way to leave a good impression on your customers.

I walked around the store looking at the cages and the animals, and many of the monitors looked sick and very underfed. It was pretty nauseating . The cages needed to be cleaned, badly. They were covered in feces and mites. And the cage with the hissing cockroaches had about a 2" layer in the bottom of dead roaches. Is this normal? If so, then I am out of line in assuming it is not.

I saw a man walk out from the back room that looked like he knew what was going on and I assumed it was Ken, so I introduced myself. Seemed like a very pleasant guy and willing to help. I mentioned that I felt the monitor was way too small and went on my way. Its a good thing I like to just randomly drive 4 hours or I might have been upset for wasting my time.

I am very picky about the places I buy reptiles from and I was disappointed in what I saw. Maybe it was just a bad day or maybe they just had more animals than they could properly care for? I'm not sure because everyone else seems to love them.

I just completed a trade with Ken, and have nothing but good to say. Good communication, excellent packaging, the snakes are absolutely stunning and much bigger than expected! Thanks Ken!!!

Hi. I'm very sorry it has taken so long for me to reply to the above posters critic of my store, but better late then never. I feel the need to respond since she posted on a public forum. First and formost, I'm not degrading the poster, I'm just going to state what facts I have. She called and asked for a water monitor about 2' long. The monitor in question measured 22" long. That's as close to 2' as I could come. Her observation skills need a bit of work, I'm sorry to say. The enclosure that the monitor is in is 30"x12" exactly. About double what she says it was in. Yes, a bit tight for a monitor of its size, but nowhere near as cramped as she makes it sound. As for the girl yelling to not mess with our cages, well that's simple. The reason I know the exact measurement of the cage is because it is a visionaruim which stack together in a somewhat locking way. The cage the monitor was in is on top of another one. If the poster had succeeded in pulling the cage a bit closer to her as she attempted to do, it would have caused the top cage to become "unlocked" from the bottom one, causing it to come crashing down onto the floor, most likely hurting her, and more then likely killing the monitor. I'm sure that Ashley sounded very rude, as she is a very plain spoken person. But at the same time, it did make you stop short of making what could be a very big mistake. The best thing for you to have done was to bend a little closer to the cage, instead of trying to bring the cage to you. This itself is not a problem. The real problem I have with the post is the cleanliness and the mites. What mites? I would challange any one to pop into our store at any time and find me some mites. Sure, all stores get them, even us. But to make it sound like we had some kind of unchecked outbreak is just silly. I'm sorry that you were not happy with the selection of monitors I had in stock, but there's no need to make up bad comments about us when they are really not true. Now granted, everyone has thier own cleanleness standards, However, we pride ourselves on our husbandry, and do our very best to maintain all our enclosures as clean and spotless as possible. I'm sorry if we did not meet your higher standards. I have two people whos only job is to clean every cage, and to check every animal in the store everyday. I mean all of them, and we do have a bunch of them. I personaly feed all the varanids myself, every three days. They are fed ground turkey, ground beaver, mealworms, crickets, roaches, hornworms, and for some, f/t mice. They are not skinny, but they are not obese, as many pet store varanids end up being. Perhaps she had never seen a monitor that was not overweight, and came to the conclusion that they were underfed. I can't really say. I will put my stocks health up against any other care giver in the trade any day. Roaches. First, they are roaches. Second, the "dead" roaches in the bottom of the cage are actually shed exoskeleton. I can't really tell what the poster was talking about here, since the roach enclosure is so full of egg crating that I can't ever see the bottom of the tank. Yes, we should clean them more then we do, but then again, they are roaches.

Once again, I have no hard feelings towards the poster at all. She seemed to be a very nice person. I feel that her reponse was first, driving all the way that she did to find something she did not really plan on, a smaller varanid then she had hoped for. I told her the size of the lizard, and it was just as I said it was. And second, she got addressed somewhat harshly for manuvering our cages without asking for assistance or permission. Granted, Ashley could have been much more diplomatic about it. However, I've found that if the customer was ask nicely, or if we just come out and plainly say keep your hands off our stuff, the reaction of the customer is usually the same. They get mad and then vent to whoever they can, which in this case was the BOI. So here I am making this long winded reply.

In conclusion, our store is clean, our cages are clean, our animals are well fed and in the right sized enclosures, and we represent our animals correctly whether over the phone, on the internet or in person. And, if you mess with our cages you're gonna get yelled at. I'm sorry for that, but sometimes it just happens to the best of us. I will smack Ashley a bit and tell her to smile more often (by the way, Ashley stands 4'10" tall, and weighs less then 100 lbs, not a big threat, but she can yell like a 6 footer). We have just moved into our new store, by the way, just down the street from the old one. This is brand shiny and new, and about twice as big. Please visit us anytime, all are welcome.
And to the poster, no hard feelings at all, and I do hope you will give us a second chance sometime if you happen to be in town again.

Ken Foose said:

Now granted, everyone has thier own cleanleness standards, However, we pride ourselves on our husbandry, and do our very best to maintain all our enclosures as clean and spotless as possible. I'm sorry if we did not meet your higher standards. I have two people whos only job is to clean every cage, and to check every animal in the store everyday. I mean all of them, and we do have a bunch of them.

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Sorry Ken, that's simply not good enough. You need to hire three employees per animal to watch it on a twenty four hour basis just in case it decides to deficate in a corner or flip over a water bowl. That twice a day specific spot cleaning combined with hitting anything else as it's seen simply isn't meeting the high standards of care and attention that's so vital to the health and well being of the animals, who, of course, die within minutes if they're kept within fifty yards of their own droppings.

I haven't been out to Ken's place in a few years now- since moving away from Colorado (Utah isn't much of a barrier) but given that he'd been in business for twelve successful years when I was last there and his attitude and approach and knowledge have been as close to retail perfection for as long as I have known him... I kind of doubt that his standards of animal care slipped to anywhere near the point where anyone could criticize them. I've personally watched the schedule he's got his employees performing animal care on and seen a lot of the specifics and nothing in what I know to be true can allow me to accept the description of the store as listed above as being valid or accurate.

Except maybe the yelling; I don't know Ashley but I do know how I'd respond if some lackwit started trying to tip over a stack of enclosures on their own fool head and yelling is probably the most reasonable option.

Hi Dennis, how are ya?

It was a very nice lady that came into the store. I don't know who Jeff is. Perhaps she's using her boy friend or husbands name to post? It doesn't matter to me. I just regret the whole thing. In fact, after sleeping on it, I'm actually sorry I even posted anything. I was just a bit miffed at her comments about the quality of our store is all. I try to please each and every customer, but sometimes there are those that you just know won't be happy no matter what you say or do. I had a customer last week that wanted to hold and perhaps buy our ablino atrox. I declined to open the cage, and would not sell it to them either. Just not the type that I thought should own such an animal. The next day I was reported to both Las Vegas animal control and the Nevada Dept of Wildlife. It happens. The animal control officer just walked through the door and said "alright Ken, who'd you piss off yesterday?" He did his inspection that is required when a complaint is called in, saw that everything was great, and off he went. The agent from NDOW just called to let me know that someone had complained about me having a rattler. I told him that selling a venomous snake to someone who is most likely going to get bit within the first week of having it is very bad for repeat business.

Anyway, I regret the whole thing with this young lady, and I do hope she gives me another chance to help her if I ever have anything she is interested in.

I just received an order from Ken last week. He even found an animal I wanted for me ( the other Children's - thanks ) and the animals came in well packed and in clean containers.
I have never been in the store but from my limmited dealings I feel comfortable buying from Ken again... When he gets some het. albino great plains in...
John "Blue" Francis

Ken

I purchased a normal female ball from Ken about a year and a half ago. The transaction went flawlessly, and Ken was truthful about every aspect of the transaction. She Was about 900 grams when I got her, and is now 2300+. She is the biggest garbage disposal I have ever seen, and has produced 2 seasons in a row (she is gravid right now).

Thanks Ken!

Reading this thread has changed my mind about Exotic Pets as well. I've seen the ads on KS and just thought they were the typical high volume wholesaler, its good to know that there is a good person behind those ads.

Question tho - why not advertise as much here as you do on KS? You must know this site is much more respectable.... and cheaper.....

Hi Jon. Just a little about me and my place. We are just a little pet store in Las Vegas, but we have lots and lots of animals. We specialize in herps, as this is my background. I have a masters in zoology from KU, and have worked in several zoos most of my life. I started with elephant poop shoveling, and worked my way to my goal of herps. We are a retail store. We don' wholesale, nor do we have animals in stock in huge numbers. I try to stock a little of everything, rather then 500 of one thing. It's more fun for me that way. We breed most of the colubrids we sell, along with several species of turtles, tortoise, and some lizards. I suck at breeding amphibians, but I plan on getting better at it down the road, when I have more time. We pride ourselves on the quality and care of the animals we keep. Our cages are clean, and our stock is well fed and maintained. Since this is my sole source of income, and my hobby also, well, this is all I do. I work in the store all day, and maintain a collection of about 1,200 herps at home at night and on my one day I take off. I don't sleep a lot lol, especially this time of year with breeding season in full swing. As I said, our animals are second to none. I won't say we are the best, but we are up there. Our prices are a bit more erratic. Since we are retail, some of our prices just suck when compared to wholesalers or home breeders that produce animals out of thier home. Being a real storefront, we have a huge overhead in rent, power, garbage, etc etc. We just can't compete with someone who's breeding snakes out of their parents basement or garage. However, you will also find that most of our prices are very good, especially for the animals we produce ourselves. We also try to find herps that are very hard to get. This being my hobby, I just love new stuff, even if I only get to keep it for a few days. I can make money doing many things, but I really love my job. Getting herps that I've never had before is a big thrill, and it's hard to keep myself from taking some of them home to keep for myself. I have a staff of 6, and I pay them as much as I can to keep the good help. Just to get an inside into our training, once we hire someone new, they are not even allowed to talk to a customer for about 2 years. They work, clean cages, learn the husbandry of the large and varied collection, and they listen. Only after the long period are they allowed to even attempt to answer questions or help customers. Then they are closely supervised to make sure the information is correct. The internet sales are a bit different of course, and there are only 3 of us that qualify to help internet customers. I answer each and every email personaly everyday, which averages about 65 emails each day. Did I mention I don't sleep much? lol. Usually it's Tiffany or Kim that actually talk to people on the phone, since no one can actually read my hand writing. We have gotten very good at shipping, guarantee live delivery, and pack things in a very save and secure manner. You will never get a box from us that is not insulated or unmarked as to what's in the box (unless you ask us to of course). Our average shipping costs are about $35,000 a year.
So anyway, that's pretty much the information about us. We have about 35 zoo accounts that we send stock to on a regular basis, most of them repeat clients. We also buy directly from some of the larger zoos in the country. Most of these require an inspection of our place before they will deal with us, and we've never had one place not do business with us once they have inspected us. If you have any other questions about us, please feel free to email me directly, or just give us a call. I don't want this post to become a commercial for Exotic Pets, since this is not what Rich had in mind when he started Fauna.

To get to your main question (finally), it's kinda complicated. We average about 400 ads on any given day. We are a bit low now, because of our move to our new store location. Anyway, I add and delete ads everyday, tryint to keep our listing on kingsnake.com as current as possible. Our website sucks, but I'm going to work on that when I have more time. It takes a lot of time to take care of all my ads on kingnake. I'd like to put my ads on more sites, but I just don't have the time to maintain them. I had to pick which site gave me the most bang for my buck and time, and kingsnake was the logical site, since they get more hits then any other herp site. I'd love to put my ads here as well. I have known Rich for many years, and have a great respect for him and what he's done here. Plus he's just a nice guy. The biggest problem with advertisng here is the speed at which I get on this site. Just as an example, just to read your post, and respond (not counting the typing now) to it has taken me almost 5 or so minutes just for the site to come up on my computer. When I submit this post, it's going to take another 5 minutes for it to show it to me. To read all the pages an this thread alone would take me close to 45 minutes, or even more. Sometimes I just get time outed, and have to start again. I used to read the BOI every singe day, but now, with the lag time, I rarely even sign onto the site anymore. If I had 400 or so ads posted on Fauna, and tried to update or look at all of them to make sure they were still current and valid, it would more then likely take me 5 hours or so to do it. I just don't have the time. I don't have this lag time problem on anyplace but Fauna, and I can't explain why it just happened one day. For years it was quick and easy, and now it is slow and just painful. I love this site, and always have. I just can't take the time needed, as I do have to sleep sometime.

I'd like to thank each and every person who has had such nice things to say about my service and my business. Like I said, I try very hard to take care of everyone the best I can. I will only send out animals that I would own myself. I'm picky that way. I learn something new every single day, whether it's about a herp or mammal (we sell wallabies, flying squirrells, and all sorts of other exotic mammals also), or just a way to help our customers better. Our stuff is well maintained, healthy, and feeding (if it don't eat, it's not worth a dime), and we get better at this everyday too. By the way, we also have a huge selection of books, most likely the largest selection of herp books in any retail store anywhere.

Well, that's it for now. If it were me, I'd have skipped most of this post and went right to the bottom. You won't hurt my feelings at all if you do the same lol. Seamus, thanks for the kind works also, nice of you as usual. To the rest of you, once again, thanks very much. If you need anything, just shoot me an email. I promise to answer asap.

Thanks for all the info! I do know what you mean about the lag time, I was having the same issue for a while, seems to be better for me now. Don't know why.....

The biggest problem with advertisng here is the speed at which I get on this site. Just as an example, just to read your post, and respond (not counting the typing now) to it has taken me almost 5 or so minutes just for the site to come up on my computer. When I submit this post, it's going to take another 5 minutes for it to show it to me. To read all the pages an this thread alone would take me close to 45 minutes, or even more. Sometimes I just get time outed, and have to start again. I used to read the BOI every singe day, but now, with the lag time, I rarely even sign onto the site anymore. If I had 400 or so ads posted on Fauna, and tried to update or look at all of them to make sure they were still current and valid, it would more then likely take me 5 hours or so to do it. I just don't have the time. I don't have this lag time problem on anyplace but Fauna, and I can't explain why it just happened one day. For years it was quick and easy, and now it is slow and just painful. I love this site, and always have. I just can't take the time needed

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I also want to add that I've purchased a few Kingsnakes from Exotic Pets at separate times, and all have been very healthy, hardy, outstanding animals. I would buy from Ken anytime. One thing I've always loved about Exotic Pets is they usually have a picture of the exact animal that's for sale. And in most cases, they have an employee holding that animal if it's an adult or sub-adult. Not only do you get to see a particular animal, but with someone holding it in their hands, you can see the animals true size.
Also, Ken's large and diverse stock comes in handy when your looking for something that's hard to find. I looked long and hard for a picture perfect Black Kingsnake (nigra), and out of all the getula kingsnakes, they're the toughest to find. Ken had on advertised a while back, it was a solid jet black nigra, I made the purchase and couldn't be happier. Just wanted to say keep up the good work.

Steve Craig

sulawesi water

Hey just wanted to throw in my experience. I bought a sulawesi water monitor from LV Exotics back in January.

It arrived in good condition and has thrived. That thing is crazy Ken you should see her now!

Great experience all around...

Thanks

Tom Palopoli
[email protected]

Thanks very much for the post. I'd love to see the monitor now. Shoot me out a photo sometime if you can. It's very gratifying to know that the animals you send to custmers please them so much. I'll keep doing the best I can. Take care

Ken,

Sorry I haven't responded to the post, I have been very busy. Anyway, I am a male and have no relation, nor do I know anyone on this site, or any of your customers.

I will admit that I was probably a little tired and grumpy, since I drove out there in the middle of the night, after a full day of work. When I got to your shop, it was still early, so I slept in my car for about 2 hours until you opened.

I was obviously very excited to see this monitor since I just drove out there on a whim in the middle of the night to see it. I was a little let down when he was smaller than I expected. There was a miscommunication error somewhere. Whose fault it was, it doesnt matter. S* happens.

I don't know if we are talking about the same cage the monitor was in, maybe you had him in a few different ones? As far as I remember it was on a shelf, not stacked on or attached to anything else, as I carefully looked so I would not break or damage anything. I could not see the monitor, so I gently slid it out a few inches(maybe 6? but then again, my observation measurements could have been off).

And yes, I felt that your employee, you say Ashey, was rude. Perhaps she was not in the best of moods either. I can understand that, we are all human. As I work in the retail industry as well, I know that no matter how much you want to punch someone in the face or violently rip their soul apart with words, sometimes you need to bite your tongue. Im over it now, but just know that they way your customers are treated has significant weight on how they view your store.

And Ashley didn't stop me from anything, as I had already inched the cage out. I was holding the cage in place with one hand, observing the monitor. All I did was push it back in when she snapped. There was no mistake. Maybe potential, as you say (I don't recall). Nothing happened, thank goodness. I apologize for touching your cage if I was not allowed to.

As far as the mites go, they were only grain mites. And they were all over the montiors cage as well as many others. I know that they cause no harm to the animals, but if the cage was cleaned before he was put in, there would be so few mites(if any) that they wouldn't be so obvious. They were not the parasitic snake mites and I did not mean to shed such a bad light on your situation.

It is quite possible that they had yet to start cleaning the cages for the day, because you had just opened the doors. I would not know, but I do know how messy those animals are. I will give you the benefit of the doubt on that.

I actually thought you had a phenominal selection of animals at your store, it just seemed to me that there were too many with such little space. I now understand that you have seemingly quick turnaround so they are usually not in the cages for long(good thing).

The one that bothered me was a black roughneck by the door that looked really really thin and dehydrated. Maybe you had just gotten him into your store and had not had time to nurse him back to health yet. I know the imports come in very poor shape.

You seem to be a good guy, with a very high knowledge of animals and I really think its great that you frequent this website to deal with problems and receive comments and concerns. Furthermore, the integrity you showed in the story about refusing to sell the venemous snake to the couple you felt could not care for it properly. To turn down a sale in order to protect the animals and customer shows a lot of character on your part.

I'm interested to see your new store, as you say its much bigger and nicer. Although my first experience was not what I hoped, I believe you are a good guy and it could have just been a misunderstanding. I'll make an effort to stop by next time I'm in the area.

I don't have much to contribute to this, but I have been eyeing Ken's adds on KS now for a long time, and they have an awesome selection of herps for sale!

I am very glad to hear that Ken and the others at Exotic Pets are such great people.

Thank you, Ken for contributing some positive influence ito this industry. I usually just read the "Bad Guy" posts so I can exercise caution when making purchases online, but it gets kinda depressing after a while to hear about all of the low-lifes out there.

I'm just really impressed with the strong show of support you received here and it encourages me to want to be the most respectable breeder/seller I can be. It shows that when you do good, people notice and it pays off for you.

I look forward to doing business with you in the future.

Keep up the good work!