Store of the Month – April 2024

New England Herpteoculture

161 Woodford Ave Unit 58A
Plainville, CT 06062

(203) 768-3414

Website: https://www.neherpetoculture.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neherpetoculture/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neherp

Our store of the month for April is New England Herpetoculture! Husband and wife duo Mike and Jessica run the business together and focus on being a bioactive specialty shop. They originally launched this unusual business model as “online only” back in 2012, but launched their in person store in 2022.

“Our goal with our new Plainville (CT) showroom was to help people with an active curiosity about animals & bioactive environments learn about professional grade husbandry, vivarium design, and plant care. Sharing the creative process with our customers 1-on-1 has been a great experience. The environments that we help folks create are more enriching for animals, and have the capability to be sustainable and self-cleaning in the long term. It’s a wonderful feeling to have a positive impact on the local enthusiast community and their animals.

The store has also allowed newer customers that are just starting out to ask questions and learn from our experienced members of staff. When folks leave the shop feeling confident about a terrarium project, we feel like we’ve done our job. We try to make the whole process as fun & enjoyable as possible.”

There are a few species bred in-house at New England Herp, and these are mostly passion projects for Mike:

“I’m a huge fan of New Caledonian Geckos. Gargoyles, Cresteds, Leachies, and Eurydactylodes are some of my all-time favorites due to their ease of care, personalities, and propensity to thrive in living terrarium environments. As far as difficult projects go, our Mantella, Glass Frogs, and Vietnamese Mossy Frogs have been ‘about ready to produce offspring’ for about a year now. We’ll have some eggs one of these days!

We work with these animals because we genuinely love doing so, but I should mention that we aren’t really a pet shop. We don’t buy & resell animals, and even the sales of creatures born in-house aren’t a significant part of our business model. We carry a ton of herp supplies and feeders, but our primary specialties are bioactive terrarium supplies & live plants.”

At home Jessica and Mike also keep mourning geckos, gargoyle geckos, leachies, several types of amphibians, and a ball python.

Mike originally got into reptiles as a child, when he would catch frogs, snakes, salamanders, and toads during walks around his grandmother’s pond.

“Those are some of my happiest childhood memories, and are the experiences led me to become an amateur herpetoculturalist throughout high school. I didn’t attend my first herp industry expo until I was in college. The internet was in its infancy back then, so quality husbandry and care information was much tougher to find. Having the opportunity to learn from real experts at the expo absolutely changed my life. Once I knew we could do better for these creatures, I really wanted to make a difference.

Shortly after that, I started reading about more advanced Dart Frog husbandry, which led me to understand the basics of live vivarium design. (Now called “bioactive terrariums”) Back then, dart froggers were the only ones who had mastered the art of live vivaria, and I absolutely fell in love with that hobby. Once I realized I could combine my interests of horticulture & herpetoculture, vivariums became a lifelong passion for me.”

Mike hopes to develop the store by adding a classroom and starting educational programs, while also increasing plant and product options. Already the store works with a local VOAG (vocational agriculture) program, and has lots of custom equipment like CNC machining, 3D printing, glass cutting, welding, woodworking, etc. to create terrariums for offices, zoos, museums, universities, and the general public.

Make sure to show this store some love this month by visiting them in person, or checking out their website: https://www.neherpetoculture.com/