He needs to stay out of birds, and some of the furry animals. He needs to stick with reptiles. Was cramped, smelled like dust ,bird toys had dust on them,,Makes you want to buy everything in this store.Also the kid working there, knows nothing about birds.Yet he gives the wrong info to customers . read more

If I could give this so called exotic pet store a zero star review because that is what it deserves. Living conditions for the poor animals are atrocious. Cages for birds are dirty, to small and no enrichment toys for them. Birds get stressed and do self harm. They need to be happy. Some of the birds are being boarded by customers. I would not let them take care of a maggot let alone one of my bird babies. The fresh water tanks with frogs in it had dead frogs. No humidity, water bowl or UVB on the chameleons. A couple struggling to shed due to lack of humidity. No UVB on the poor Bearded Dragons. They looked stressed and one had a sore on the top of its nose. Water bowls were way to small for them to soak and one looks very thin. Tortoise enclosure was dirty and small. Torts should not be housed in and see through enclosure. The large bunny's cage was disgusting and way to small for a small bunny let alone a bunny of that size. A lot of the animals are marked not for sale. Store pets!!! I hope they are not breeding them because the way these poor animals are kept would not produce healthy babies. The over all store was dirty, smelled awful and made me sad for the animals. People think they are saving animals from places like this when they buy them but they are making so they can keep the doors open and buy more animals to sell. Please do not purchase anything from this place. It's just awful! read more

I have tree frogs, a Pac-Man frog, and crested gecko, all from here and all healthy, go to spot for feeder insects and staff is knowledgeable, wpuld recommend read more

UPDATE 10/18 *Aldabras live in a terrible setup. They're not for sale (NFS), so this likely all they have. *In a corner are large turtles in black tubs with no apparent UVB lighting on them. *The snakes are still crammed into the tiny boxes, and all showed strong signs of stress. *8 red foot tortoises in awful small enclosure. NFS and they've been like this for over a year. ORIGINAL 2017 REVIEW: SERVICE I spent about 20 minutes browsing and was not acknowledged by anyone the entire time. As this is the case, I can't say much about the service, besides there wasn't any. CLEANLINESS Both the cages and store itself are absolutely filthy. The moment you walk in, you're treated to the smell of cricket bins, the sort of thing you wouldn't normal have prominently displayed. It's a pet store, though, so I let it slide. Now let's discuss the cages. Many of the animals had very dirty water, sometimes filled with feces. The bottom covering (sometimes carpet, most times paper towels) on many of the leopard gecko cages looked like it hadn't been changed in days. I'll discuss more about cages later in this review. On to the store itself. There's clutter /everywhere/ with no rhyme or apparent reason, it's reminiscent of a hoarder house. There are cages and parts of things all over (including safety hazards on the floor). I'm not even sure what of this stuff was actually for sale and what was junk (that might have also been for sale). ANIMAL CARE This was the most dismal part of my experience in this store. *There are several large (roughly 14" nose to tail) tortoises crowded into small roughly 3'x3' enclosures. *Some of the snakes (including a full size Rosy Boa) are in roughly 8"x6"x4" acrylic row cages (the ones normally used for short times at reptile shows). The ball pythons spent the entire time I was looking at them rubbing their noses on the acrylic and looked anxious. The tanks were far too small for a proper heat gradient (if there was heat). Ball pythons in many tanks obviously lacked proper humidity, they had dry wrinkly skin, and some piled into their water bowls. It's worth mentioning here that I don't remember seeing temperature or humidity gauges on any of the tanks in the store (maybe I missed them?). All ball pythons (except the ones in the acrylic cages) are housed several to each tank, even full grown ones. Ball pythons are solitary animals, they become stressed when housed together. There are not enough hides in each tank to make it even reasonably comfortable for the snakes. *The leopard gecko tanks were filthy. Some had large parts of the bottom without covering. While I recommend counter top liner for leopard gecko flooring, paper towels are fine too. At least when cleaned properly, which these tanks were not. Small geckos had entire bowls of mealworms, something which in large quantities is known to cause impaction in small geckos (why risk it?). The geckos did not have a moist hide for humidity (which is needed for shredding). *The full size poison dart frog(s?) was in a very small enclosure where I'm not even sure if it had proper temperature parameters, the glass on all sides was almost completely fogged over. *All of the (I assume feeder) mice and rats are in small overcrowded (10g?) tanks. I know they're (probably) feeders, but they should at least be kept in humane conditions (especially if they're visible on the sales floor). *I'm unsure about the conditions of the fish, birds, and furry creatures, as I admit I didn't spend much time looking at them. REFUND POLICY As you can see from my review, buying a pet here runs you the risk of getting a sick animal. There are signs posted that there are no returns or refunds. Keep this in mind before purchasing any of their livestock. NOT HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE There simply is no room for wheelchairs or walkers. IN CLOSING I sincerely hope the owner sees this review and takes steps to address these issues. I'm appalled by the conditions in this store. In the mean time, if you're looking for a companion animal, I highly recommend looking elsewhere. read more

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Although they have a large collection, i have found some of the staff to be very rude... Also, the condition of the enclosures leaves a lot to be desired. They DO, however, have live pinkies which is convenient. read more

We picked up very healthy, friendly and active young Veiled Chameleon and baby Collared Lizard. Haven't seen the latter offered very often before. They also had varied food for reptiles and reference sources in the shop. Been back a couple times since for food, and they seem genuinely interested in how the animals are doing, plus have ready advice. Wide selection of reptiles in stock, plus the material to house and support them. No complaints here! read more

Place is awful. Full of large animals in tiny cages. I made this yelp account just to make this review. Never saw a pet store that treated animals worse than this. Saw a tank with salamanders with no filtration no heat nothing just a tiny tank with water and live animals in it. Really hope this place gets shut down soon. read more

Ack's exotic pets is for the experienced and serious exotic pet owner. If you are looking for a sweater or gucci hand bag for your Chihuahua, you better go somewhere else. You will not find that at Ack's. At first look you will think that the business owner needs a larger location (and you are probably right). Ack's is a very small business with an even higher overhead. Unlike the large pet stores, they will not sell you unnecessary crap. Yet, they carry only high quality food, supplies, and equipment necessary for caring for your exotic species. Once you talk with the owner, you get a sense of the passion he has for what he does. Although, he will probably never get rich, catering to such a niche market. His store is always full of serious customers who know where to get quality animals and goods. There is an amazing variety of reptiles, beautiful hand raised birds, and plenty of hard to find small mammals. The owner and his employees all possess an expert level of knowledge. Some with lifelong experience of not only caring for, but breeding a variety of exotic species. I have been going to Ack's from their beginning and will continue to for many years to come. read more

This place is HORRIBLE!! Tiny cages and aquariums and multiple turtles and other creatures crammed into small spaces. It broke my heart. It is also cluttered and dirty and dark. And the girl working there was completely rude. She snapped at me when I was petting a Macaw and other than that, besides sliding a box to block one of the ways to exit back into the store, she was on her phone and never bothered to ask if she could help or answer any questions. This place should be SHUT DOWN!!! read more

Awesome service and a huge variety of product. I just feel terrible for some of the animals' enclosures. It's a small place with a huge amount of animals, so I'd imagine it's hard to properly house every single one of them. read more

Went there and the store is dirty, smells bad, and the animals are not in appropriate cage sizes. Also the staff is rude and they don't even care about the customer at all. read more

The turtles had no water, animals looked sickly and had very tiny enclosers, incredibly rude workers and over priced. Do not suggest

tw: animal neglect/death * * * * * I went into today in Cicero to look at their feeder prices as I'm in the process of getting a whites tree frog (dumpy frog). I've heard the negative things said about this business in the past but I wrongly assumed they'd adjusted the way the "care" for their animals and figured I'd check them out. I was not expecting to walk in to horrific conditions. There were MANY things wrong with the various enclosures, including a lack of thermometers on every single reptile and amphibian, insufficient substrates, no fresh water, and extremely small tanks. However none of that compared to what I saw when I came across their dumpy frog enclosure. At first I assumed there weren't any in stock because the tank was almost empty except for a large branch standing up. The top of the branch was directly under a very harsh light. It took me a second to realize what I was looking at but at the directly under the light was a fully grown, shriveled up, dead dumpy frog. This light WAY too hot for this frog, it had absolutely nothing in the tank monitoring the heat or the humidity. It's tank was way too small and it had almost no real or fake plants in it's enclosure to shield it from the extreme heat coming from that light. The frog looked like it had been there for a while. These people do not care about the well being of the animals. They want to profit off of animals that they do not know how to properly care for and they should not be supported. read more

Acks Exotic Pets - Pet Stores Near Me - Cicero, New York

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I have been going to Acks since I was a teenager. We have gotten Sugar gilders, an African Grey, several snakes and more from them. Never hand any problems with any of our animals. I even brought a snake from a different store to have Carl help assist feed. They are always willing to help even if they are busy. They may not always be "friendly" but I've never had Carl refuse to help me with anything. There is a newer guy there who assisted me in looking at all of their snakes, as they are my favorite. He was incredibly knowledgeable and compassionate, taking time away from the cleaning he was doing to help me. I even went home with a beautiful baby ball python. I will always 100% trust their judgment and will always get my animals from them. This is the place to go if you have no experience with animals just make sure you go to Carl. He will always make sure you have what you need and that you have the knowledge needing to keep your new baby healthy. 10/10 guys, keep up the good work! read more

Acks Exotic Pets - Pet Stores Near Me - Cicero, New York

We have had our birds wings clipped there twice. They trim them on Wednesdays as long as you make an appointment and come between 12:30 and 4:30. We called yesterday (Tuesday) and made an appointment. Getting our bird there is extremely hard, and he was really uncomfortable because of the heat, so we were happy to have finally made it. However, when we finally got there, the associate laughed and said that he didn't do the clippings and the guy who does them left at 10:30am. When I asked if we could get the guy back into the store, he said no because he lives outside of Albany! We were so disappointed that there were supplies that we needed there but we did not want to spend a dime there, nor do we ever want to go there ever again. There are many YouTube videos on how to clip your birds wings yourself, and it is easy to learn, so don't waste your time and money with acks. read more

Rude staff, filthy not only in the cages, but outside of them too. store has no descernable layout, Only tanks/cages that seem maintained is the fish. Grab a paper towl and wipe down the plastic once in a while, it's not that hard. This palce used to be alright, now you can tell their priority isn't on cleanliness just by walking BY the door. read more

I was a first time customer yesterday I had went up to the register asked the guy if he could help me out with the sugar glider he was very rude and unpleasant and said what do you want I explained that I was there to buy some sugar gliders he stated he had only 2 there in fact there was more then 2 in the store in another cage there where 2 in a sack sleeping never got to see the other ones I had noticed he put gloves on to handle the sugar glider I then tried to ask him things about the glider he had no interest in having a conversation at all .I have worked in retail over 24 years I know what great customer service is witch should be provided to all customers because you want the people to come back and highly recommend your business to there family and friends this is how you keep your business going I have to go back today in hopes I get better customer service witch I travel from Cortland .Yours truly ! read more