blackwaterreptiles.com

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Lstrayer92

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hey all! i was just wondering if any of the members on here have gotten a tortoise or any animal for that that matter from blackwaterreptiles.com ? i was thinking about ordering a Russian off of them, i got my first russian at a pet store, and i would love another one but my local petco doesn't have them in stock anymore i guess they only sell them seasonally. and i was wondering if you or anyone you knew had any reviews good or bad, i'd like to make sure they ship them safely and if they arrive in a safe and fast manor...

before everyone jumps on me i plan on housing them separately and my yard is large enough for both of the to roam around without even seeing or being around each other lol, i have read plenty of threads and done research about how they can be territorial and mean towards eachother.

thanks!! :D
 

EchoTheLeoTort

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I have read of them and dealt with them myself. I would not suggest them at all. And the first tort i ever got there came sick. I got my leopard hatchling at LLLreptile and I would highly recommend them. LLL has russians on their site as well that are available between 4-6 inches. They ship fast and get there fast, and are completely safe. My leopard has been doing amazing.
 

jakehinds

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Backwater reptiles is literally right down the street from me. At least their office is. I emailed them asking if i could do a local pick up and they said they ship everything straight from the breeders if I remember correctly. All's I know is there's nothing in the store/office.
 

mctlong

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Just a reminder, replies to threads in the vendor review forum must be reviews for the same exact vendor based on experiences with the vendor.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Will said:
My personal experience with Backwater reptiles is so negative and volatile, moderators have not allowed it to be posted in the past.

Will

I'll calm it down, hope not to be moderated away, I have a better result of why they don't have gravity at their on-line store, they suck.

I bought two pancakes 16 October 2012. I ordered females. They arrived and my hydration test for arrival showed a big post soak weight gain, from the pre-soak weight from 'out of the box'. They also looked like males to me at the time of arrival, but sorta small, so I had doubts about my own determination.

They had more worm than fecal in those first few deposits.

So begins the long road to dealing with all that. One was not what I call a 'doer' from the get go. It's behavior was all wrong for a pancake. It did not seek shelter ever, just laid there and moved to eat and drink.

The non-doer died about a month after they arrived, to bad, but that's the breaks.

Those darn worms would just not die. Three courses of panacur treatment, and adults and small individuals kept pooping out like nobodies business. Panacur is "fendendazole", by intervet.

So after some literature look around I see that many vets in Europe also use Anthelcide EQ which is "oxibendazole" by Pfizer (thanks Baoh).

The oxibendazole, bam one course of treatment and the worms are gone gone gone.

So now "she" has been 45 days clean, yeah, get to put "her" in a colony. I did not reconfirm the sex, "she" grew quite a bit over the year.

The male in that colony let me know my lapse right quick, "she" is another male.

Blackwater's jobber in Texas, where these came from, has a particularly panacur resistant worm 'type', and the silly people did not correctly sex the tortoise.

I was doubtful about the sex, but now, for sure, it's a male.

What to do? Don't buy there, they don't have good oversight for their jobbers.

The initial purchase was rife with other issues associated with simple retail tasking, but that is another story, that need not be told.

Will
 

John Ramos

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I have heard that backwaterreptiles is not a very good source. But I know that turtlesource (sells turtles & tortoises ) is a very Well educated and good place to receive tortoises from. I have had good experience with lllreptiles also.

I can say without hesitation that backwaterreptiles.com in NOT A GOOD SOURCE of at least tortoises.

Recent experience with them:

I've had a Russian male for a little over a year now, fairly good size and more than viable to breed. I'm still new to this but wanted to get a female and at least go through the breeding process at least once. I found backwaterreptiles.com to have a very professional website and had feedback from supposed Universities. Looked like a good place for my female critter. I ordered it as a female and asked for the largest they had, all clearly spelled out. Paid for it and overnight shipping and got it the day after they shipped it. Opened the box, it was making noise in the box. I opened the cloth bag it was in (looked like a part of a pillowcase that had slept under a freeway for a few years), nasty first impression. The tortoise was alive, shell was pretty beat up, and it was a small male. I will include a pic of the rear end.

I contacted backwaterreptiles.com and basically got their disclamer, "we are not responsible for sexing of the reptile" thing, stating they have 300 reptiles to sex at which point I said this is one of the easiest to sex and provided pictures of different tails for their perusal.

Their comeback was "they would refund me the money" if I pay to send it back. This means I would have to pay for shipping to me and shipping back to them. Overnight FedEx both ways means I lose as much as the critter cost in the first place. The only people to make out on this deal is FedEx!

If a company that deals in reptiles can't sex a tortoise, there shouldn't be a sex choice on the shopping cart page, it should say "surprise me!"

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this outfit to buy bugs from, they'd probably get that wrong too!
 

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Kapidolo Farms

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South of Southern California, but not Mexico
Backwater is an internet portal with an office representing several 'sources' who are relatively annonymous. The sources tell Backwater what they have, Backwater markets the animals for the sources.

My exact experince: I bought two female pancakes tortoises from Backwater (Headquartered in Granite Bay CA). The animals shipped from Texas. The shipper used FedEx. FedEx requires a shipper phone number. I backtracked the phone number to confirm the name of the person selling the tortoises, which was also on a label under the label used for shipping to me. The person who had the tortoises and shipped them is not a "backwater" employee, he is a 'jobber'. I then looked at Fuanaclassified's detailed review of the person who actualy sent me the pancakes. They had universaly poor reviews. They also had an arrest record for animal dealer transgreations (I now forget exactly what).

A few weeks later one of the two pancakes had died, a year later the other female was indeed a male.

So a bit more about the actual purchase from Backwater. I got an email conformation that the replacement caiman was on the way, when I had purchased but not yet recieved the pancakes. Then I got a refund for the caiman. When I called and said I had no caiman transaction with them and the refund was wrong, they then gave me the contact info for the actual caiman purchaser in Alaska and asked me if I would forward that PayPal refund to the caiman person in Alaska.

I simply used PayPals return function and returned those funds to Backwater, it's not my interest to be a mediary for their error. I also did not want any sort of record about me and a caiman in CA, where all crocodilains are illegal to posses.

These two things, the use of jobers with a criminal history, the attempt to 'transact' a crocodilian purchase to me in CA allowed me the paranoid perception that they are a sting business. USFWS and Cal F&G have both done this before. I would not deal with them for anything.
 

Oscar_Smith

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Aug 19, 2014
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Personally, I've had bad experiences with Backwater Reptiles, too. It just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover. The website may look visually appealing, but there are many sites better.
 

JerseyPaul

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Aug 30, 2014
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I actually was in contact with them over purchasing eastern box turtle hatchlings and they were apparently not familiar with laws in jersey, telling me I already needed a permit in hand to purchase. This is false. Purchasing must be done out of state first and then proof of purchase and captive breeding is sent in along with the permit application. They would not email me back when I informed them of this. Now I will look for another seller or simply wait for the Hamburg Herp Show in PA in October.
 
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