Hoffmann’s Reptile Store

I was excited to visit this reptile store but got very disappointed at how rude a male attendant responded when I asked him about the gender of the albino rattle snake. He suddenly yelled to keep distance from the reptile tank and he didn’t even care to answer my original question…
And even though i like supporting local businesses I really doubt I will visit thus one again.
I do hope that management/​owner makes sure all clients as well as new visitors are treated properly and repectfully at all times. The overall cleanliness and terrible smell of location needs serious improvement too… SMH.

Rude rude rude. The bald man who was working the counter gave us a price, couldn’t break a hundred (LOL I’m sorry but when you sell 300 $ reptiles you should be able to break $ 100 bill.) Asked us to go to the bank for change. We waited for 20 min at the bank, drove back, waited for help again just to have him raise the price $ 15 more than the price he told us. He then said that price didn’t include $ 10 for tax. The man was going to accidentally charge us $ 35 instead of $ 39 for the pair of geckos we wanted. Easy mistake! And Sir, That’s fine if you want to fix the mistake and charge us the price you have on their cage. We are happy to pay for the price it is at. But do not deny with irritation when a customer tells you that wasn’t the price you said at first. We had also asked for $ 2 in crickets… but the price wound up being 46 $ total without tax… then another $ 10 on that for tax?! Either that guy didn’t like us or he doesn’t know proper math. 39+2=41…just incase you didn’t know, sir… Not to mention how simple it is to respond to people politely and realize your mistake with less of an attitude to the customer. I’m so confused as to how people can run a business and be so rude. I will never ever come back here. Everyone should just take the time to visit the reptile store at the mall in Tracy, don’t even waste your time here.

Mona at Hoffman’s is the best! She is sweet, professional, and really takes her time to understand your pets and their needs! You can’t ask for a better person to help you! Can’t say enough for Mona and the young gal with the blond hair (so sorry I forgot your name)!!! Thanks for always helping me out!

RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS. If you want to buy an overpriced reptile with a respiratory infection & pay vet bills… buy it here. Also, if the owner offers to take the reptile back in order to nurse it back to health & pay for medication, don’t do it. He’ll only neglect it further and it will die. Also, all their feeders have respiratory infections & mites. If your snake isn’t hungry the day you buy the feeder, expect the poor thing to die within a couple of days even if you have a proper enclosure/​food for it.
It’s a shame to be forced to give them 1 star. Animal Control should be called & have all their animals taken away. Actually… my daughter’s calling them now & I would suggest if you’ve had a similar experience, please report it.

I feel shameful even by giving one start to this place. The reptile cages were awful and the animal I was looking for the plumed basilisk was in a cage full of frogs which didn’t seem humane at all. I ended up purchasing her and within a month she started acting sick. I called up the place and asked if they could take her back and get my money back. She had the worst attitude and I could hardly get to my point. If you want to get a reptile look elsewhere, try east bay vivarium.

Yesterday I got my baby Hermann’s tortoise back with her new enclosure!!! (She had a respiratory infection.) :(Hoffmann’s Reptiles rules! The owner didn’t even want to charge me for her 2 week stay and the antibiotics she was given! He also said don’t hesitate to bring her in if anything changes. The wife came out to the car when we were leaving to give me a hug and say goodbye. Awesome business, no wonder they have been around for 35 years. Dan and Joyce are the owners and truly care about the animals and want the best for them. I was also helped by 2 employees, Angela and a guy (his name is escaping me) who built my new enclosure were also super sweet, friendly, very caring and helpful as well. I highly recommend Hoffmann’s.

My husband and I were going here for years. He got his lizard here, and we really try to support local businesses. The past year, we have been liking it less and less, and today, will be our last visit.
I came in to get some medium crickets, and they gave me a bunch of tiny ones, and one good sized one. I asked if they had medium ones, as the small ones were just too tiny, and would just hide. The response I got was «we mix the small and mediums» and «the small ones will get bigger, ma’am» the lady with the septum piercing gave me such attitude, I wanted to just leave. They finally did get me the size crickets I needed… By hand… Squishing every other one. I came home with less than what I needed, and a bunch of dead crickets to toss.

So I hate to talk badly about small, local businesses but I think the owner her needs a reality check. I was thinking about going back into his location to avoid going to the East Bay Vivarium, but then I read the reviews on Unilocal.I used to be a regular customer about 15 years ago and the place was not too impressive back then. I see these reviews now and notice not much has changed. The store smelled back then, so I can only imagine how bad it is now. The owner was a total dick back then too. I gave this location 2 stars ONLY because the owner is very knowledgeable about reptiles. He’s definitely someone to ask questions to about reptiles… if you are buying. If not, he doesn’t really want to waste the time. I bought 2 snakes, 2 of their homemade box homes for those snakes and countless mice and rabbits for food. I never could get a good attitude from him. I never felt appreciated. He would ONLY sell you a reptile if you were buying their products for it. He would also only sell you the size home he felt appropriate for the reptile. I bought a 12″ snake and needed to by a 4′ box! Insane! He refused to sell to me if I wanted to buy the smaller home. I told him I was limited on funds and would buy a larger box in a couple years when the snake got larger and needed it… makes sense right? Saves me money at the time and gives him ore business down the road with a long term customer… no brainer! He wasn’t having it. I only caved in because I didn’t know about the East Bay Vivarium at the time. Oh, and I had to buy THEIR bedding for the snakes home as well. Whatever that corn crap is. After kicking around the idea of trying them out again and then reading these reviews, I won’t be going there again. Eat Bay Vivarium here I come! They have a positive attitude with their customers.

If your looking for good customer service and super helpful information with any of your reptiles, Hoffman’s is the best place to go. Ive never had a bad experience vising the store. I frequently stop by just to say hi because the staff is amazing Danielle is super sweet and caring as well as Darren always helping me with any questions I have regarding my Dragons. Thanks guys! — Alyssa
PS. they even have the cutest bunnies and chinchillas.

I have a great respect for Dan Hoffmann. He is an honest man who puts care into his work and it shows on the smiles of every visitor when I stop by the store.
I recently walked in with my heart set on a snake. Hoffmann’s employees were kind and their guidance helpful and professional throughout the process. Today I came home with a beautiful baby spider ball python, happy & hungry, as it is their policy to ensure the health of the animals before entering their new homes. It is a pleasure to have her along with the growing frog sanctuary I’ve collected from the store over time. Hoffmann’s is heaven for lizard lovers and I’m so thankful to have a place like this in our community.

Called in asked how much hopper mice were, first off they dont even sell they individually. only packs of six. And secondly, they are $ 2.75 each! The east bay vivarium sells them for $ 1.75 ea. and doesnt make you buy a fixed amount.

Hoffman’s is a wonderful store to visit, with a wide variety of reptiles to view or purchase. The staff is friendly and helpful, offering good advice based on their experience. They may even offer to examine your pet if you have questions regarding feeding, shedding, etc. As far as smells, the store smells fine and it’s really unrealistic to expect a store where live animals live to be 100% odor neutral.

Hoffman’s specializes in reptiles and smelling like bum farts… If you need crickets or turtles or other critters than this might be your place. Read further to see why I gave them only 2 stars out of 5…
This place is locally owned, so I really wanted to give them five stars but I just cant. The smell obviously cost them a star. It’s really dirty, even for a pet store, so there goes another star. The third star was lost because in general the customer service is lacking. The people who work there are not friendly, and don’t appear to appreciate my business. They were never mean, but they never really make you feel welome even when your about to drop 10 $ on some crickets… I’m not one for romance, but the least you could do is kiss me first before you «blank» me.
Positive note:
I do want to mention that this place sells their own terrarium that they design specifically for reptiles. I think this is a good product and I commend them for making an effort to improve the reptile’s living space. If you need something like this to house a Bearded Dragon, you really can’t go wrong picking up one of Hoffman’s terrariums.

I cannot say enough good things about Hoffmans reptile. Everyone that works there is very knowledgeable about each reptile in the store. I have been going to Hoffmans for over eight years. The owner is A incredibly knowledgeable and great guy.
My first experience with Hoffmans my son found a frog in our backyard, we took the frog into Hoffmans to have it identified. The owner could’ve sold me $ 250 for cage dirt etc. but he told me because my daughter was young (frogs carry salmonella) that we should just let it go.
We recently bought a three toed box turtle. He is just awesome. If I have any questions or concerns I know I can always call and they would be able to help me. We also purchased one of Hoffmans cages and it is worth every penny we paid for it. We also found a Golddust Gecko. They have been able to tell us everything we needed to know to care for her. There is so much wrong information on the Internet. It is so nice to know that we have a place we can ask any questions and get true real answers
Thank you Hoffmans for being there for all of our reptile needs.

Hoffman’s stocks some really cool reptiles but the cleanliness of their store is deplorable. Every time I have gone in, the place STINKS, the floor looks like it’s never mopped, and all the merchandise has a fine layer of dust as if it’s been sitting there for ages. (Complaints I have never had at East Bay Vivarium). Staff is uneven. Some of the employees are helpful, others act surly and annoyed when you ask questions. Most appear to be under the age of 21 and show it. I have never seen an owner or manager supervising on any of my visits. It’s too bad because I would really like to see a quality reptile store in Contra Costa. Hoffman’s, unfortunately, is not it. Try a little harder to clean up your act, Hoffman’s, and I’ll be back.

They are awesome!!! I got my first bearded dragon from Petco, and man was that a mistake. He was so sweet and loved to be held but he was not eating. We had him for a week and that entire time he did not eat one cricket. We made sure all his temps where perfect and spent around $ 500+ to make sure he was spoiled and happy. Unfortunately he was sick and had to take him back. This broke my daughters heart. So we went to Hoffmanns and they where so helpful and sweet. The girl took the animals out to play with my girls and they had a blast. We ended up getting out next bearded from here. We got her home and she ate within the first half hour! Yay success! Thank you so much Hoffmanns! I would give you more stars if I could!

I went back to Hoffman’s recently and had the WORST experience.
When I went there initially, they had this one kid that was just amazing. Super informative and helpful. Undivided attention and care was given.
My last trip, I repeated myself 4 – 5 times and the kid helping was more interested in the hot chick with big breasts and tattoos. Seriously? I asked twice before she walked in and he just had ZERO attention span. No help. Wow.
Three words. East Bay Vivarium… They’re out of Berkeley. WAAAAY better and definitely worth the drive. They spent time on the phone with me and have been real helpful.
I will NOT be returning to Hoffman’s.

Recently a friend unexpectedly gave me a turtle! I knew next to nothing about how to care for it and called Hoffmann’s to see if I could bring it in and get some advice. Due to a malfunctioning GPS, I ended up finally arriving just before closing, just as the owner (I’m assuming he was the owner) was on his way out the door. He turned right around, came back in and took 30 minutes educating me about the proper care and feeding of my cool new box turtle.
I was so impressed that he was willing to help me when I was so late, and also impressed by his depth of knowledge about the animal. Hoffman’s has a new, loyal customer here! Thank you!

The employees are nice and I enjoy looking at all the reptiles in the store. I bought a Leopard Gecko from them and I really like him. But, I have one HUGE compliant! All of there reptiles are on sand. I bought my guy about 6 months ago with sand and changed his cage at 3 months with more sand. Last week I had to take my gecko to the vet for not eating and not pooping. I spent $ 150 to find out that my gecko in compacted with sand and worms which is all related to the sand. When the geckos go for there pray and they miss they get a mouth full of sand which leads to the compaction!
According to the several websites and the vet paper towel is a much better option to line the cage with. Hoffman’s seriously needs to change their ways!!!

My wife and I visited Hoffmans today for the first time to buy crickets for my son’s bearded dragon.
The place stunk to high heaven. The enclosures were full of reptile poop.
The kid working behind the counter was so rude and unhelpful that we walked out.
I will never go there again. For shame!