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We decided to add this page to show you the story of Pilbara reptiles and our move to the new premises.
After 3 years of trading as “Rainforest reptiles” in Newent we decided it was time to look for new premises to expand our business because with more dry stock being added weekly (as well as livestock and our ever increasing captive breeding programmes), we had run out of space.
After a short search we had found the perfect premises. Although it had been empty for over 5 years (and needed a lot of work!) it was in a good central location with ample parking and of course the much needed space (well over 3500.sq ft). The main shop floor measures a good 1900sq ft, which is more than double the size of our shop in Newent.
The process of paperwork took over 9 months to complete and in June 2010 we were ready to start the hard work of renovating what was an old “Alldays” store. Work first started on the roof that had been leaking, the suspended ceiling had collapsed which caused some problems, but we quickly fixed that and gave the whole unit a much needed clean. Then the real fun “work” began…
We imported 36 brand new pro HP terra vivariums to fill one of the walls in the new shop. These are (in our opinion) the best vivariums out there. They are easy to clean, making our work life easier each day and more importantly keeping the health of our livestock paramount. The racking was built and we began to install the heating sources with a new concept of external heating, we have used ceramics and spot bulbs so that it is impossible for the animals to get burnt and now we can take the whole cage out and power wash them when needed. It was a great idea but extremely tricky, this alone taking over 2 days to sort out, we are pleased with the results.
We run all our vivariums on microclimate B1me thermostats which allows perfect temperature control and also allows for a night-time drop.
We wanted to stock all lines of the major brands of reptile dry stock so we built a mammoth 10m of floor to ceiling shelving along the other wall (see below). We were advised to install CCTV, so we did and with a wonderful result. The reason being is that it has allowed us to document the whole process of the development of what was a derelict building (photos shown below).
As the unit had been empty for so long it needed a lot of touching up. We themed around our new name ”Pilbara reptiles” and tried to give the shop an authentic Australian theme using real wood, covering up ancient defiantly out of fashion tiles.
Once we had the shop looking how we wanted, we began the immense task of moving the livestock. This involved bagging and boxing them and placing them in our new cages whilst at the same time our old cages were being removed and rewired.
Sheila our resident Burmese Python received a massive new cage with our breeding green tree monitor programmes housed above. All of this took us only 1 month, something none of us (especially Sheila!) would like to repeat in a hurry.
This is stage one of development in our new shop. Our key features include:
Over 12 years of knowledge and experience keeping and breeding reptiles
Wide variety of livestock with large shipments every 3 months
Our own captive breeding programmes
A new Invert section
2 large hatchling racks
A dedicated Marc Mense Python section displaying his top quality Pythons
Over 10m of dry stock shelving stocking every major brand
All livestock is hand picked by ourselves from top European breeders.
All Livefood is gut loaded and freshly put into tubs daily on request
New hp terra vivariums
Dwa species on display (see dwa section)
Stage 2 of development includes:
Building our crocodile enclosure in the main shop floor
Building a separate boarding/quarantine area (in development)
Stage 3 includes:
Setting up our DWA room
Setting up our dedicated breeding room on the second floor to house our breeding programs |
