Pet House's Contented and Healthy Reptiles

Pet House's Contented and Healthy Reptiles

The new owner of the Goleta store continues the store's tradition of providing excellent service.

As the happy owner of a lizard and other reptiles over the years, I'm well aware of how difficult it can be to locate a reputable pet store. Too many exotic "specialists" handle reptiles like livestock, purchasing them from shady sellers and storing them in confined cages. Or, like at a handful of unnamed establishments, animals are routinely pawned off on impulse-buy clients who may have seen a fantastic YouTube video or two but have no idea what they're getting themselves into.

Fortunately for us, Pet House in Goleta is one of those rare locations where snakes, lizards, tortoises, and other delightful scaly things are humanely housed and sold to knowledgeable consumers. "We know where our animals come from," said owner Andrea Navarro, "and we always make sure our customers know what type of care they require."

Navarro, who began working at Pet House as a cashier while studying marine biology at UCSB, purchased the Calle Real business from its former owner, Wendy Guyer, a registered veterinary technician with scrupulously high standards for animal care, in January 2021. Navarro is carrying on that legacy, and as a longtime admirer of all animals, particularly frogs, she is the ideal person to monitor the store's happy and healthy collection of reptiles and amphibians, not to mention its diverse variety of birds, fish, rats, and other small mammals.

Pet House mostly stocks snakes and lizards that are resilient, simple to handle, and make excellent first pets, according to Navarro, who met her husband at the business and now has two children, ages 9 and 11. Leopard geckos, bearded dragons, corn snakes, and ball pythons are examples. They're gorgeous, calm, and you never have to bother about walks or litter boxes with them. There's also the unmistakable cool factor. "They're absolutely cool," Navarro said, "but I usually tell people to consider before they commit, since some of these men can live for 10, 20, 30 years."

For those looking for something a little more advanced, the shop also has veiled chameleons and rainbow boas, as well as more "oddball" offerings like Guyana pink toe tarantulas and Madagascar hissing cockroaches, as Navarro describes them. She said that they don't carry anything that will grow to be too large, such as monitors or sulcata tortoises.

Navarro went on to say that the staff takes pride in designing and building their in-store terrariums and that they source plants from the nearby Terra Sol Garden Center. Their "feeders" (crickets and mice) are purchased exclusively from a seller in Agoura Hills, whom they have known for years. While the outbreak caused the price of reptiles around the country to increase and even treble as individuals took up the pastime and supplies were depleted, the market is finally beginning to level off, according to Navarro. Despite the fact that their total company declined, Navarro and Pet House's team of ten managed to keep the doors open at all times. They now provide pickup and delivery as well.