Start to finish
How Acquisition Works
There is no cart button on this site. Every animal is placed after a conversation, which sounds like friction and is actually the reason our live arrival record is what it is.
You tell us what you want
Either about a specific animal in the collection, or in the abstract — species, genetics, sex, timeframe, budget. Most of what we place never reaches the public listings, so the abstract route is often the more productive one. Use the Private Concierge form or write to us directly.
We talk
A call or a long email. We will ask what you keep now, what your enclosure looks like, and what your experience is. This is where we establish whether the animal is right for you, and it is where we will say so if it is not. We will also confirm the species is legal at your address — use the Legality Check before we get there and it saves a step.
Photographs and video
Before any money moves. Current photographs from several angles, video of the animal moving and feeding, the full weight series, the feeding log and the lineage documentation. If you want a specific shot, ask for it.
Reservation
A twenty-five percent deposit holds the animal for sixty days. Refundable in full within the first week, non-refundable after that because the animal comes off the market. On animals above five thousand dollars we offer an interest-free plan across three to six months, with the animal staying here and fully cared for until the balance clears.
Pre-flight
We confirm the shipping window against the actual forecast, not the seasonal average. We confirm you or someone else will be present, or that hold-at-facility is arranged. We send the husbandry specification for the animal at its current weight so the enclosure is running and stable before it arrives — not on the day.
Despatch
FedEx Priority Overnight, Monday to Wednesday, insulated box with the appropriate heat or cold pack. Tracking goes to you the moment the label is generated. If the forecast turns marginal between booking and despatch, we hold the animal here at no cost and rebook. We will not ship into a bad window to meet a date.
Arrival
Photograph the sealed box and the animal in situ before you remove it. Two photographs. Then unbox in the quarantine enclosure, weigh, and leave the animal completely alone for five days. Tell us it arrived. Tell us straight away if anything is wrong.
Afterwards
We are available for the life of the animal, not for thirty days. If it stops feeding in year three, write to us — we have the complete history and we would rather help than find out later that it went badly. There is no charge for this and there never will be.
Where fifty dollars of it goes
Every animal placed funds USARK
Fifty dollars from every animal that leaves this facility goes to the United States Association of Reptile Keepers. It is not rounded up at checkout, it is not opt-in, and it does not appear on your invoice as a line you are quietly paying. It comes out of our margin, on every sale, including the ones we discount.
We do this because USARK does the unglamorous half of the work — reading the bills before they pass, appearing at state hearings where nobody else turns up, and challenging federal listings. The Lacey Act injurious list we mention on our provenance page is not an abstraction. It is the mechanism by which an animal you legally own becomes one you cannot legally move across a state line.
None of this is a substitute for you joining. Our fifty dollars is money; a membership is a number, and the number of keepers on the roll is what gets quoted in a hearing room when somebody claims the hobby is a fringe of a few thousand people. Supporting membership costs less than a single rodent order.
To be plain about what this is: USARK is an advocacy organisation, not a conservation charity, and we make no claim about the tax treatment of what we send them. We are buying lobbying and legal work on behalf of people who keep reptiles. That is the intent.
Payment
What we accept
Honest answers