Paul, the owner, has earned his nickname as "Lizard King" because he is truly passionate and knowledgeable about reptiles. He has over 30 years of experience and is a genuinely kind-hearted person, to both animals and the people who come into his store. The store itself is conveniently located at Dufferin and Bloor, with a wide selection of reptiles, birds and fish. They have everything from ball pythons to leopard geckos, to chameleons and everything in between. I purchased my bearded dragon from the store and was given all the support, advice and tools I needed. When I have questions or concerns about her health and care, I pop into the store and they are always eager to help. There are not many places where you can expect that type of dedication after a purchase has been made. read more

Earth Echoes - Resting water dragon. - Pet Stores Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

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Good dude. Always gives me a good deal on crickets for my beardie. 10/10 Also, he's got a bunch of little scaley cuties. Especially his female iguana read more

A very interesting place I found while I was walking along Bloor street! I saw the window display and decided to take a look, although I was there near closing the owner, Paul, took all the time to show us around and explain more about the different snakes, he even let me carry a couple of them! The shop is small bit carried a good variety of different snakes! If your a snake lover go there and I'm sure Paul would help you out! read more

Earth Echoes - Pet Stores Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

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Extraordinarily friendly and helpful staff, and a large selection of reptiles! This is a fun local pet shop to visit for pondering or supplies. I've bought mice from here a few times. I've also had snake troubles once and got some really helpful advice from these folk. read more

I'm happy to have found Paul in my neighborhood. Before Earth Echoes my only choice was The Managerie, which is fantastic as well but a bit far. Someone here's mentioned the smell of his place. Well I can only hope him and his staff are doing right by the animals, but it is a small space. Back me up here Paul. Now, my needs are minimal at the moment for only needing things like crickets, but he's more than thoroughly educated me on the potential for adopting a variation of the Chameleons that he has. He's very personable and has let me handle whichever animal I wanted. He even found a special rare dessert type of dweller rarely found here in pet stores and is growing and alive today ;) Thanks a bunch for that man! I've always appreciated his calm demeanor even when his place was buzzing with the energy of kids crowded around the cages. Keep it up Paul! read more

Paul is a great guy. Store is open usually after 2pm.

Since Paul, the owner of Earth Echoes has chosen to question some of the assertions in my review, I thought it was fair that I take some time to respond to his comments and then add some additional detail about the bearded dragon that I purchased in order to convey the severity of his health problems. I am certain that Paul has thirty years of experience in the business and I would not question that he knows more than I do about reptiles. Unfortunately, thirty years of experience and learning about reptiles does not qualify a person to run a business nor dispense accurate advice. Paul's recollection of the total price paid for the bearded dragon and equipment is about 50% accurate. He originally sold me a 25 gallon tank for a nearly full-grown adult for the total price of $400 (lizard and equipment). When I went home and did the research that I should have done previously, I discovered that every bearded dragon enthusiast recommends a minimum 50 gallon tank for an adult lizard. When I went back to the store to complain, Paul forced me to pay $90 (after negotiation) to upgrade to a 50 gallon tank. I also paid more to upgrade the light that was originally provided as it was not providing the required heat for my bearded dragon. Once the unfortunate situation had been sorted out, I was quite annoyed with Paul but continued to frequent his store as it was relatively close by. Within a few weeks, we noticed that our bearded dragon had mites in his eyes. When we took him back to Paul, he wiped out his eyes with some Q-tips and sprayed him with an anti-mite spray (that we later found out is entirely ineffective and is not recommended by vets) and proclaimed him healthy. Unfortunately, a small amount of research would indicate that clearing a bearded dragon of mites is a time-consuming, multi-week process that can certainly not be accomplished in one visit. Once I discovered this information, I was quite upset with how I had been treated and yet still returned to his store as I needed to purchase live crickets. At this point, I began to examine the other bearded dragons in the store. I noticed two very unfortunate situations: a) Almost every bearded dragon was infested with mites. If you want to look for yourself, look around their eyes and you will see that there are small black dots embedded in their eye caps. b) He has many full-sized bearded dragons in absurdly tiny enclosures. If you were to read the bearded dragon community messages boards on the Internet, you would quickly realize these are completely inhumane conditions. At this point, I was done frequenting the store and found two other reputable sources for live crickets (Tails N Scales and Menagerie Pet Shop). However, our problems were only beginning. After our bearded dragon began to experience some unpleasant bowel movements, we took him to the vet to discover that he had intestinal parasites. The vet theorized that they likely existed in his gut prior to the move to our apartment but they began to multiply as the stress of living in the original 25 gallon enclosure began to take its toll (our bearded dragon was one of the few fortunate ones to live in one of the larger tanks in Paul's store prior to the move). In addition, the vet noticed a large burn on the dragon's back that was beginning to scar. We had noticed the mark when we purchased the bearded dragon but thought it was simply some random variation in his colouring. When we found out that it was a burn from going too close to a heat light, we were livid. In addition to the necessity of going to the vet, I should also mention that we have spent well over $500 in vet bills. Both vets assured us that we were doing everything right in taking care of our lizard (only because we subsequently did our own research) and it was highly likely he was already ill when we received him. If this story does not prompt you to stay away, simply do your own research on the Internet about how to care for various reptiles and go to Paul's store to examine the living conditions of his animals. You can make up your own mind at that point. read more

I have purchases two (2) Corn Snakes from this shop, and about five dozen frozen mice. My first impression as I walked in the door was appealed, the smell in the shop is terrible; it is a strong scent of urine and feces. I noticed immediately that the reptiles are kept in small quarters, very cramped and not ideal at all. I saw full grown Corn Snakes (approx 5ft long) in 10 gallon tanks. I saw bearded dragons in small tanks cramped all together (maybe 5-10 in a tank). The two baby corn snakes I bought were in good health, and they had a good variety of baby Corns. But the snakes were very overpriced compared to other places within the city or Reptile Expo. The mice I bought weren't very good, they were skinny and looked like they had been very sick before being frozen. I didn't end up using all of them. My final complaint, and the main reason I will never be going back is that one of the employees was hitting on/harassing my girlfriend and calling her derogatory names. She ended up leaving half way through the visit, and insisted on never going back. Overall: poor staffing, over priced, poor conditions. read more

Please do not support this place. You walk in and there is incense burning to cover the smell of the animals, which by the way is incredibly harmful to snakes in particular. I'm willing to bet it negatively effects all of those poor creatures and I really felt so sad walking through this tiny store. Cages and buckets were stacked up in any way they could be, most of the animals didn't have nearly enough space or protection and were forced to live with many others, some of the snakes were crowded in a small bucket and it is generally a big no no to keep them that way. The birds were very attention deprived, most parrots need at least a half an hour of socialization every day and a few of the birds looked severely neglected. Many bird cages did not have water. A large snapping turtle was enclosed in a small tank with nothing to do except swim back and forth. These animals are amphinians and can live in the water, but should always have access to land. I am by no means an expert, and I may be incorrect on some of these things, but this place is not treating their animals well at all and I urge you to recognize signs like this in pet stores and do your reasearch before purchasing an animal anywhere. read more

This is my favourite place to be. The staff are wonderful and there is lots of interesting animals. The owner Paul and his staff have a wealth of information to share. They take amazing care of their animals. I have found if I need any assistance with my animals I can count on them to help. All in all I will continue to come back time and time again read more

I have dealt with Paul now for about three years. I never had any issues in the store or with any product or feeders sold to me for my bearded dragons. My dragons had laid 5 clutches which all incubated and hatched healthy. I bought my two dragons from Paul when they were just a few months old and the prices were good. He helps by answering any questions you have to the best of his knowledge and is willing to give any advice you may need. Keep up the good work Paul and Thank You for all the help and advice you gave me my bearded dragon is doing really well. read more

This was just heartbreaking walking in there. Despite being a small store they definitely had hundreds of animals there. The large animals were kept in tiny tanks, the birds were smushed together in poop covered cages, the bearded dragons were crammed 6 in this tiny tank (and on sand too), the ball pythons were housed together and one very obvious was sick. It was awful. Also the owner was burning insence which is very VERY harmful to reptiles and birds. I just can't imagine what these poor animals have to go through. Please do not support this store. I beg of you. Please do not "rescue" these animals by buying them. It only supports them. If you are upset with the abuse in this shop please report them and write a bad review. I have no ill will to the owner, I'm merely concerned for the animals health. read more

Been seeing Paul for 8 years. Store is different every visit, always fun when I bring the kids in, best reptile store in toronto by far!

I stopped in here to pick up some frozen rats recently as I had run out and didn't have time to get them from my usual source (Tails and Scales). Now, I don't know if they produce them in house or get them from another supplier, but for the first time I was thoroughly repulsed by what is normally a routine chore for me. Instead of the plump, clean, healthy looking rats I'm used to, every one in the batch was severely emaciated (spinal ridge very prominent etc) and filthy. I suspect they were left a little too long before being frozen because the smell upon being thawed out was terrible, and one was either suffering from an enormous tumor or had become bloated. Needless to say I did not use the majority of these (quite costly) feeders for my animals. Conditions in the store are grim. Rodents are kept in small, overcrowded glass tanks (very inappropriate housing - they require a lot of ventilation or they quickly develop severe respiratory problems) with no room and nothing to keep them stimulated. The reptiles are also severely overcrowded. The vast majority of species sold here are explicitly solitary animals, and while I understand that some *short term* cohabitation may be necessarily in the limited space of a pet store, keeping a dozen juvenile bearded dragons in a dirty 10 gallon tank is unacceptable. Many missing toes by this point, of course, and many more unable to bask under the single heat lamp due to being out-competed by their roommates - which will likely result in a (short) lifetime full of health problems for whoever decides to buy these guys. Many enclosures looked unattended to - numerous leftover sheds and some feces. I also had a difficult time determining what they were using to provide adequate heating/UVB to many of the animals. I was baffled to see a couple of large boas and pythons kept in wire enclosures. These are snakes that require high humidity and heat to thrive, both of which would be impossible to maintain in a wire cage. One was even labelled as a store pet, which means the poor thing was condemned to a lifetime of inappropriate care. Same goes for their free-roaming iguana. The owner is pleasant enough to deal with, but that doesn't excuse his terrible husbandry of these animals he claims to love. I get the impression that adequate care has been made a lower priority than profit and that they've taken on more animals then they can easily maintain. I'd like to see him cut his stock by about half and focus on providing better care to those that remain and updating his husbandry knowledge rather than relying on the outdated information that was available when he got into the business (I'm looking at the care sheets posted on their FB right now - lots of big no-nos, like advising cohabitation, suggesting keeping leopard geckos and beardies on sand, recommending a 30 gallon tanks for an adult bearded dragon (these are active, two-foot long animals!), 100F basking temps for ball pythons in screen top tanks with a light... I could go on.) read more

There is an interesting review war going on here! I am neither employed by/related to Tale and Scales nor Earth Echoes but I have used both stores. It is true that Earth Echoes is messy (or at least was: I haven't seen the new location), cluttered beyond hope and smells really bad. On the other hand, T&S looks extremely well organized, clean and welcoming. I don't have enough experience with reptiles to be able to judge how knowledgeable the two owners are. They both seem to love what they do. They both are helpful. They both are kind persons. Paul seems a bit more genuine to me: he doesn't make an effort to present himself as a friendly, warm person. He is who he is and, all considered, I like him, behind his scruffy appearance. The owner of T&S (sorry, I don't know his name) feels a bit less direct and genuine. But that is just my impression. My feeling is that they both 'play' a bit with prices. I share Zachary's impression that Paul makes up his prices on the fly. My feeling, however, is that he does that more because he is unbelievably disorganized than because he wants to rip you off. The owner of T&S does the same, I am afraid. Perhaps not with his large animals, as prices for them are clearly included in their labels, but with little things. In one occasion I was buying some food and he gave me a price. Than he had to go for some reason and somebody else helped me complete the transaction. Well, the price suddenly changed, going down... It might have been a mistake made by either guy, of course. I bought a snake from Paul and never bought any large animal from T&S. It is true that Paul put together a kit for me, including tank, lights etc., with creativity but in a way that many would criticize, using several accessories that were not new but that he 'recycled' from other cages/sets. So, Paul, if you want to get five stars from me (and from many others I am sure) I would suggest you: - tide up your new store and keep it much cleaner than the one on Dovercourt; - clearly label, including prices, all your animals, tanks, accessories, etc. - sell only new stuff to your clients; - give a receipt (you never do!) This would definitely offer a very different and much improved image of your business to your costumers! read more

Yes, I was also duped by the good reviews. I went in there with my toddler son to buy him a terrarium and a crested gecko. Paul himself told me that he could have a terrarium ready that day. I told him I would come back and also look at some of his crested geckos with intent to buy. I gave him $60 cash deposit (in good faith) and was supposed to return a few days later to collect the terrarium and the gecko and pay the difference. He has not responded to my emails, and texts and now when I call - the number is out of service. I went to him because he supposedly loves reptiles and I thought he would build us something nice for the pet we were about to own. Not to mention I would have continued my business there for supplies and maybe future pets. I won't even return for the deposit - this guy is a dirtbag. Enjoy your $60 you stole from me and my son you pathetic jerk. read more

We went to this pet store because of the great reviews and the awesome photo on all the review sites and that might have been how this shop was 5 years ago but that is not the case anymore. First off you can smell the shop before you see it, I don't know if reptiles are supposed to smell that much but the shit smell is overwhelming and extremely off-putting. When you go into the store it's like seeing animal hoarding first hand there are so many tanks packed into such a small space to the point where you need to slide in sideways in some places..it's also dark as hell and not at all like the website photos. Animals are packed into tanks far to small and literally on top of each other, the tanks are full to the brim with shit and ALOT of the animals are missing limbs and tails. I know this is common in some reptiles but it just seemed like too much and it's probably due to the fact that they are crammed in so tightly. I feel bad writing this because it seems like there might be something else going on here.. maybe some rough times or depression that is leading to the state of the store nowadays but it seems very wrong and unsettling in there and the good reviews here are shocking. I really hope for the animals sake changes are made. read more