Animal Kingdom, Chicago IL

[conipto]

Neutral

Well, I happened to walk by this place on Milwaulkee today, and I had been reccommended to go there to pick up good cheap crix. And for that, they excelled. Great prices, and huge crickets.

Now, the Tarantulas they had there left me some what jaded as I walked out of the store. The selection was 2 Full grown Rosehairs, two Juvenile Rose Hairs, a Striped knee, and a King Baboon. The two Juvenile's must have been newer arrivals, since they were inside the display tank still in deli containers. both of them looked healthy, and the price (14.88 each) was pretty good, for a 4 inch T, I thought. (Good enough to take one home so it didn't wind up like the other T's there.)

Now, the King Baboon, that was a sorry looking Tarantula if ever I saw one. It seemed to have problems with it's carapace/leg joints and some white powderish stuff all over it. It was sitting in the corner of a medium petpal and had some very large wood chips for substrate. Hard, large wood chips.

The two Adult Rosehairs didn't look too terrible, but one had the crusty black patch indicating a molt (I assume) on it, and will probably be thrown away when it does molt by the inexperienced staff there. The stripe knee was too well hidden in it's environment to see, so that one is anyones guess.

Now, I spoke to one employee there, who has bought a starburst baboon, and a goliath bird eater. What little I have learned on Tarantulas seemed like a wealth of information to him, and he admitted he's the only one who will usually feed them.

There were also two dead Emporer scorpions for sale for 20 dollars each. One had it's stinger removed, the other was covered in white fungus.

Aside from T's, most of the animals (aside from the fish and the great selection of crickets) were all pretty rough looking. I might continue to get the crix there from now on, but aside from feeling sorry for the T's, I wouldn't consider buying from there again.

Bill

 

[Windchaser]

NEGATIVE

I just stopped in there today to pick up some crickets for my s'lings. I am waiting for a shippment from the Wormman, but needed some before they arrive. Anyway, the place had a nasty order to it. Most of the animals were in dirty cages. The tarantulas they had were in appalling conditions. These were juvies, kept in deli dish just barely larger than their leg span. All were on a paper towels with no other substrate. There was no water available for any of them. Needless to say, they were all severely dehydrated. In addition, their prices were a bit high.

When I spoke to their reptile manager, he didn't appear to care at all that their animals were in bad shape. He certainly didn't apprear very open to talking to me.

The only decent thing I can say was that their cricket prices were pretty good.

 

[Tony]

NEGATIVE

I will concur with the two above posts, in all respects..It aint the same place it was when I was a kid, then again what did I know then?

Usually you'll get a nice overcount on 100 crix, then theres this one guy who insists on counting out 100 exactly.....If you live NW side then it's a good palce to go, only for crickets...The spiders..<shudder> I dont look anymore..
T

(also try ocean aquarium <?> on Irving and Narraganset, NO qty discounts, but they do carry 5-6 sizes)

 

[Aztek]

NEGATIVE

Like the others said, the only good thing is the prices on crickets.
They ahve a bunch of emperor scorpions in one glass cage with no hides, no water, on sand, bright ass light on all the time.

The Tarantulas I saw where all kept in deli cups and not in terraniums.

Birds are cramped together(Like in all petstores)

They also had a tiger in there for entertainment purposes, God The place they kept it in was barely the size of an average bedroom Poor cat just walked back and forth for years, they removed it a while ago but man, poor cat.

They also had monkeys, a Tucan and other exotic animals for show and not for love or whatever you'd call it. The puppys where kept in cages with wired floors, fish die right away, dogs are also overpriced when you can adopt one for a quarter of the price.

Also the staff is just a bunch of kids like me. I even saw some little 15 year old working there
But yeah... Tiger and emps is what bumbed me out the most.

Also it smells.

 

[tmanjim]

Damn**negative**damn

Well, I always buy crickets here and I try not to look at the T area since about 2 months ago when I saw a full grown King Baboon in a tiny KK all curled up. I have tried to tell the employees about minimal requirements for T's but!!!!!. I was in there today and bought crix and ventured back and well, there was an unknown type of T all curled up with the abdomen caved in, pretty disgusting. I told the attendant there was a dead Tarantula and probably is not too good for sales and they should consider NOT having T's. I wish these places would leave the T trade to professionals or to at least people who can properly care for them.

 

[bluegootty]

Booo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the fish are over crowed,, the reptile look like they were bone problem(lack of supplement)and the invert are just horrible...two words to describe...DONT BUY..........