Backwater ReptilesReviews of backwaterreptiles.com

I just received my hermann tortoise from you. He is not 4 to 5 inches. more like 7. Also he is missing a claw. So I'm guessing he's older then what I expected. It would be nice if you added information about how old they are when you send them. I am disappointed. But regardless, obviously he needed love. He looks dehydrated...Just letting you know! Also...Im pretty sure its a girl....not a boy as I ordered. I understand it's hard to tell until they mature more...but I'm pretty sure its a girl.... Very lethargic. I thought he was dead at first. Hopefully I can save him...very disappointed. I will not recommend this company!

They sent me an injured frog. His leg was smashed between the shipping container and the lid. The frog died. Not only they accused me if trying to get a free frog from them but they had sent me the completely wrong species. I ordered a clown tree frog and was sent a hourglass tree frog. Katherine kept insisting that it's the exact same thing. Well, it's not. Horrible people, horrible service, horrible shipping, horrible treatment of the animals. Overall, I will never order from them again.

My kids saved up there allowance to get a pet.we ordered 5 lizards.3 chinese water dragons and 2 iguanas.when they arrived as i rushed to fedex location.only to find all of the very t lethargic and eyes shut.me 2 liltle kids stayed up all nite with eye dropoers of water trying to get them something in there belly.the next morning i woke up to bot exstremely small hatchilings were found dead.the other one died an hour later.we had a funeral for them.i waited a few days and decided to get them maybe some that would live longer than 3 days.they dont want to replace them.so i spent 150 dollars for 2 sickly iguanas i dealing with now.they also are questionable i hope they live. So please do not support this online pet shop.. We do apologize you feel this way and are quite shocked that you are blaming us for your own refusal on a very common protocol followed by every company. Not only is it extremely common but you legally agreed that you read our Terms so I am not sure why it's a surprise we need these snapshots. Anyone would understand why we need these snapshots in order to proceed with a refund or a replacement. We cannot just go off of hearsay.

Ok so most of this is the complaint I just wrote to them and I will update when I get a response. I have taken out our real names and just used email screen names. Also like most people say, I would leave a zero if I could!!! Hello, my name is Ravensjoy, You haven been having an email conversation between me and my son on his email. His name is SierraWolf. The little dude we received, was a precious and adorable Jackson Chameleon and we offered him a cricket right out of the package, I am pretty sure you have heard most of this, but he jumped at it, like he hadn’t been fed in years. Well he would go 3-5 days without eating. We went all over town to find the smallest crickets, the smallest meal worms and the little fruit flies. We emailed several times and called no one answered or ever called back. I think I will just copy and paste this into a Trustpilot and yelp review. My 13yo son, whom you took money from(tech you are not supposed to make any type of contract with a minor without the parents permission and that includes sales contracts, it’s not that he didn’t have permission, but you didn’t even check)and needed your help, is now heartbroken, because the little guy died this morning. We all worked and worried over him and you said it was all normal. I went to a reg. Pet store and found an employee that has 8 different sets of chameleons and I showed her his pic and your email had said he was two weeks old she informed us that he was most likely 2days old and why we were having so many problems. You guys never taught his to eat properly. I want a refund including the shipping! UPDATE: this is the email I got back today. You’ll notice they only cover one thing. Plus he’s a 13yo boy knowing that, they needed to have a better “bedside manner” the life of an animal was at stake, send another email or tell the kid to have your mother call for better instructions. Hi Ravensjoy, We are very sorry to hear this. 🙁 Also, I do not mean to put this bluntly but what you are saying below is just honestly not true to the situation at all. We have been messaging SierraWolf consistently and we asked snapshots of his current enclosure and then he just stopped responding after we asked this. That is not on us if Sierrawolf just stopped communicating with us so I am not sure what more we could have done here. We believe that something in the enclosure was off if you were having difficulties and since this request was clearly ignored in the emails. Baby Chameleons do not have to be taught how to eat as they will just eat given the correct enclosure set up of course. Also, it appears you did not read our website. This is what it states on our website verbatim for your knowledge under Terms and Conditions: "You must be at least 18 years of age to place an order on this site. Agreeing to our terms signifies your adherence to this rule. We will not knowingly collect any information from children under 13. You must identify your age during the registration process if requested. We take the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) as well as all FTC regulations very seriously, and our policies and procedures are designed to maintain strict compliance with the Rules and Regulations set forth thereunder. That being said, we do not assume any responsibility for any misrepresentations regarding the age of any user made in connection with any user’s registration for or use of this website. We reserve the right to terminate without notice the access of any user if we believe that the user has provided any false information to use when using this website. Should we determine that you provided any false information to us when using this website, we reserve the right to take appropriate legal action, including without limitation pursuing civil, criminal, and injunctive redress." Thank you, Katherine Backwater Reptiles, Inc.

My husband ordered a Russian tortoise for our daughter. We received the tort Exactly 2 weeks ago. She arrived lethargic. Within 24 hours she was not moving, and would not open eyes. I figured she was stressed from her trip and just gave her time. After four days of not eating or drinking, eyes remained closed with discharge, and not moving, I had seen enough. I contacted Blackwater reptiles but they don’t pick up the phone, supposedly do the Covid. I emailed them and waited almost 48 hours for them to reply. I asked them for advice and support, but I was given none. I was basically told me I was doing everything right and I should wait it out. I then recontacted them the next day after no improvement and asked them if they would cover the vet bills and they told me no. The only thing they did was extend their death guarantee from seven days to 30 days, so essentially my turtle has to die before I get money back (minus shipping fees of course). Anyway, I couldn’t stand by and watch an animal suffer so I made an appointment with the vet. $350 later, she got antibiotics, fluids for “severe dehydration“ and vitamin A&D shot. At this point she is more alert, moving around a little, eyes open but still has not eaten. No doubt I’ll be ending up at the vet again later this week for more costly treatment. I’m pretty upset about the whole thing, and considering calling the credit card company to dispute payment. In retrospect, should never have bought from backwater reptiles. Quite honestly, I should have Taken more time and done more research to adopt an animal. My fault for that. Won’t make that mistake again. Hopefully if you’re reading my review, you won’t either. Don’t buy from backwater reptiles. Either buy from the reputable breeder or adopt.

Horrible business. Took my money now I can’t get in contact with anyone. I will be seeking legal representation. DONT NO BUY FROM THIS PLACE. While website is a SCAM!!

Not sure if I got extremely lucky or if a lot of the bad reviews were the buyers' fault. I ordered an albino ball python hatchling around late April and it arrived next day as promised. I was glad they didn't put a heat pack due to weather being in the high 80's/low 90's. There hasn't been really anything wrong that I could tell after having him for 6 months. But I do have 3 major complaints hence the 3 star review. 1st, my python appears more like a yearling than a hatchling, I'm no expert but I doubt ball hatch a little over 2 feet long. 2nd he was not emaciated, but he was skinny, even for a "hatchling" I could see some of his spine and his stomach was nearly flat it was almost like a triangle shape. 3rd which didn't affect me but might affect others is that they are a drop shipper, they are the middle man and more often than not they have never interacted with the animal being shipped or possibly the shipper, resulting in a mixed bag of reviews due to the mixed bag of care taken for the animals. After 6 months of love and care my snake has put on some weight and muscle ans appears to be healthy though I'm still planning on taking to a vet just to make sure nothing is wrong with it. I might buy from them again, I'm not too sure.

I ordered a goliath birdeater from them, what arrived was a close cousin, but not the species I ordered. Also,she looked absolutely starved!! She was in very rough shape. She showed up in a deli cup with a tiny bit of substrate, I can only imagine how rough and stressful her trip was.