Burbank Scales N Tails

Awesome pet shop friendly staff, so many diff precise of replies in impeccable living conditions. Will diff be back

This place is the best been coming here for about a year now and place is always kept clean and in stock with a lot of variety. I would disregard the 1 star reviews. Place does not smell like death the person that said that is most likely a uptight white woman who doesn’t know shit about reptiles. All the animals here are well kept and look well fed. I support this more than a petco where the reptiles look borderline dead! Awesome place with fair pricing. Plus they have all kinds of feeders from fuzzies to hornworms.

Get our feeders here every week, and the owner is very knowledgeable, any issue with our snakes we can ask him and he always steers us in the right direction, no B.S.

Not open. They say that open at 11:00 am, but they are closed. Customers outside and leaving since they are not open. This is sad a business is losing money and customers by not opening on time. Poor service

I have been in the Reptile Hobby most of my life. I’ve kept animals that I’ve caught myself as well as captive bred or imported animals.
While everybody in the hobby knows that Reptile Stores can never match the overall quality of small, boutique breeders, there is still a basic scale of quality that even the pet store economy should be expected to adhere to or go out of business. I try to judge pet stores by standards appropriate to a retail environment where animals should be moving off the shelf quickly into a more ideal home, and in good reptile stores that is exactly what happens.
Let’s break it down by what they carry, specifically:
1. Bearded dragons. Their breeding stock of BDs (which are not for sale) look well fed, in fairly clean cages, alert with open eyes, propping themselves up easily — plump and healthy. He also has spent money to acquire quality color morphs. However, he has many females in his breeding stock and considering that BDs can lay upwards of 80 eggs per year (in multiple clutches) which is bad news for his baby BDs.
The babies are kept in large tanks with 20ish animals per tank. Some were dead at time of inspection and were allowed to remain in the enclosure. Most were skinny and underfed and some cannibalism had already occurred. Now, some of this will happen even in ideal circumstances but the point of responsible breeding is to introduce care and husbandry practices that keep these things to a minimum — no safeguards are in place.
To be specific, here are some of the generally accepted breeding standards from professional breeders that Scales and Tails does not duplicate:
A. No more than 5 animals per tank.
B. Animals are regularly re-​arranged and re-​housed based on size to prevent dominance behaviors from limiting feeding of smaller animals and exaggerating the differences in growth rate between animals.
C. Animals are provided a constant supply of fresh greens so that less dominant animals have a chance to eat throughout the day when they feel safe.
Things that go without saying would be to disallow dead animals to remain in the tank with live animals you are trying to keep healthy, and to not allow the entire floor of the enclosure to be speckled with poop. Though, this is another issue that is hard to avoid when you keep so many together. A primary reason why a retail outlet should only involve itself in very limited breeding of BDs as limited shelf-​space determines just how many you can provide proper care for.
But that is the beauty of it for Scales n Tails, because BDs breed so easily and so much, they can afford to let a huge amount of their stock languish and die.
No surprise that many of their juvenile BDs were missing body parts.
2. Green Iguanas. These were kept in a small (for their size) and wide wire enclosure which was low to the ground. Iguanas, which are generally harder to tame as pets, are arboreal animals that should be kept high to give them a sense of security and allow them to make positive associations between human beings, food, and safety. One of the animals noses was raw with pus from trying to push itself out of its enclosure, the scale completely damaged and the underlying flesh exposed. And one 2 foot male green housed with multiple 1 foot juvenile greens.
3. Crocodile monitor. Monitors, in general, should be sold very infrequently by reptile stores. They require larger enclosures for their mental health and wellbeing, and lengthy stays in inappropriate environments have a negative effect on animals that are notoriously hard to tame and make comfortable in a captive situation — varanus salvadorii among the hardest to properly care for. Their croc, in particular, is large. It is in the largest enclosure in the shop but the enclosure still does not provide it enough length to properly turn around without stretching and bending itself. These are also arboreal animals, but this animal can only climb maybe three to three to four feet up, and still lower than the heads of the human viewers. In addition to requiring larger enclosures, owing to their exceptional intelligence among reptiles, they also have very specific heat and humidity requirements. There is no way that the setup provided was giving the animal the humidity and temperature gradient it needed. The distance from the singular heat source and dry, thin layer of substrate aside, the primary reason I know this enclosure — which it really should be criminal to keep a large and intelligent animal like v. salvadorii in — is because as a reptile the animal is cold blooded, it requires the appropriate thermal gradient in order to move itself back and forth and control body temperature and consequently metabolic function — and the animal is far too skinny and far too lethargic. This animal is already a «rescue» — and the biggest problem with that is paying the price tag on it encourages the store to stock another one and continue the same abusive treatment.
Plus this place smells.

I would give this place ZERO stars if I could.
This place should not be in business. This place should not sell animals.
The first word I though of when I saw the conditions: appalling.
Dirty cages, feces smeared on cage walls.
A crocodile monitor, too small for the enclosure, and a look in it’s eyes that told a story of neglect and no attention/​adequate husbandry.
Birds that looked to be near death and diseased.
Dead fish in tanks.
Bearded dragon babies lying dead in several enclosures.
Severe over crowding of bearded dragons.
The smell of death, decay, filth.
I cried when I left the store… out of frustration, the conditions, everything.
Do NOT support this store if you truly love animals.

This place is great and their prices are good. Best coral prices and he’ll usually deal on multiple coral purchase.

This place has definitely downgraded as far as their selection of fish and equipment go. In other words I think they’ve managed to some how become more tails than scales! LOL!

I have to say this is a pretty cool spot.
If you’re tired of places like Petco and Pet Smart this is the place to come. I bought my African side neck turtle here. She is a beauty. My red ear slider needed a companion and anyone who knows anything about red ear sliders they can be pretty territorial.
My new African side neck turtle was the perfect match as they tend to be pretty passive/​calm
The owner’s son told me that people actually bring their pets they no longer want and surrender them. I thought it was sad for the pets but nice that this place takes them in even if it’s to resell them but at least they have another chance at a home. Hey, even reptiles have feelings!
Check this place out lots of reptiles waiting for a forever home. Oh and the prices are pretty reasonable.

This is my go to place when it’s dinner-​time for my Ball Python, Cesar! They used to be on Verdugo at Olive, but now they’re on Magnolia right across the street from Tony’s Darts Away. With this move came expansion! Now, along with their usual reptiles, amphibians and fish, they have Bunnies and birds, guinea pigs now too!
(Previously reviewed content removed due to change in Scales N Tails policies)
Also anytime I have a question, the owner, Vahe (dark haired middle-​aged guy with a goatee) always has some great advice for me. He’s been doing this as long time.
It’s always busy, so I never go if I’m in a rush.

Pretty cool place. They have some really neat reptiles, birds, fish, small furry creatures… they also have feeder mice to feed my snake. Nice people.

scales n tails is the greatest pet shop in all of this los angeles area. i absolutely love them, their service & their animals. very knowledgable and very helpful.
the animals don’t look miserable at this shop and thats what i love! they look very happy and well taken care of. they take amazing care of their animals and thats all I’m looking for in a pet shop. an owner that actually loves and cares for all its pets. the animals at petco look super depressed. always sleeping. never interacting.
also its really nice how they let you touch the animals and get a good feel before purchasing. absolutely love this place.
oh and they have the coolest reptiles EVER

GREAT PET STORE!!! I bought my daughter a yellow crested gecko. Our first lizard. Vahay the owner of the shop was incredibly helpful not only in the initial purchase & set-​up but also in follow-​up food purchases & making sure our gecko gets everything it needs. Not to mention every visit there is always something new a fun to see. I love this shop!

My mice are so damned picky about their wheel, this is the only place I’ve found that sells the plastic wheels that they like (they can’t move the silent spinner wheels). Super easy to find what I was looking for and I saw a couple of different wooden play toys that I’ll definitely be coming back for.

Came here for the first time to get roaches for a production I’m working on. This was the only place I found that even sells live roaches which was awesome. The staff was very friendly and informative on how to take care of the bugs. They were also able to accommodate me with pricing which I’m very thankful for. I was eying their cute dragons and if I ever plan to purchase one I will definitely come here again :)

When we first got our fish tank I was so excited to finally be able to fill it with fishes after a long wait of water cycle. So when the time finally came we immediately came to Scales and Tails to pick out our fishes. First of all, we’ve wandered around the store for at least 30 minutes and still not a worker in sight. When someone finally came they were very helpful. The reason this place got 2 star is because our fishes had ick. For people who don’t know this disease is hard to get rid of. It can infect your whole tank. Every time we bought fishes from this place, the fishes were sick. I’m absolutely sure this didn’t come from other fish stores because we waited a couple months apart from buying the fishes.
I wish I could have experienced better because I truly wanted to Love this place. I don’t think I’ll be coming anytime soon.

Husband and I loved the place. We were coming in for saltwater, and left with Ana our new Russian tortoise and some live rock for my new tank! And we got a great deal!

Great store! I got my 4 month old baby corn snake on Valentines Day here and they were so helpful. My bf owns a corn snake also but I have never own one myself. They gave me everything I needed. Lamps, heating pad, mulch, tank, pinkies and Cupid (my snake) for a little over $ 200!
Couldn’t be happier with their friendly service and knowledge. Cupid has adjusted well too! :D Thanks for everything!

The place is great. Big variety of Lizards, well taken care of, and always clean. The store owner is VERY knowledgeable with all the pets in the store.
One time, my sister bought me a crested gecko from an expo and about a week later, he was dying, I didn’t know what to do, so I took him to this shop and the store owner helped me try to revive him. He gave me some guidance on what went wrong and what to do next time. Sadly, my crested gecko died, due to a parasite that he threw up shortly before dying.
I bought a new one yesterday after a year. He breeds them in store and takes care of them all so I have high hopes for this gecko :3
This is a family owned business and the people are really friendly. Don’t ask the older mom/​dad of the business owner about complicated things, because most likely, they’ll give you a general response.
Other than that, no complaints about this place! Choose your reptile/​fish wisely!

Absolutely LOVE this place! I’m a new chameleon owner, and « Unilocaled» a store to get some more branches for my little guys new home! I came in unsure if I could use drift wood I found hiking in Zion in my chameleons cage. I felt bad bringing in my own driftwood to a store where they sell their own. The owner ended up helping me and was WAY beyond helpful. He gave me thruough instructions on how to treat my wood to ensure the parasites, if any, were gone. Not only that but he then gave me more tips on how to care for my chameleon, and not even trying to sell me anything in the processes.
You can tell this store genuinely cares about their customers and their little family members! Not only are they friendly and educated, but they have gorgeous wood and amazing stock of different reptiles and animals! I ended up buying a few more wood branches for my guys home :) beyond happy here!!!