{"id":131130,"date":"2026-03-06T09:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/131130\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:45:10","slug":"slither-on-in-to-the-reptile-depot-the-lafayette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/131130\/","title":{"rendered":"Slither on in to The Reptile Depot \u2013 The Lafayette"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Easton\u2019s South 25th street, fish, snakes and lizards coexist in a harmonious, humid ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of us around,\u201d said Pat Kline, co-owner of The Reptile Depot, about reptile stores in the region. His store has served the Lehigh Valley for six years.<\/p>\n

The store peddles reptiles, amphibians, fish, arachnids and more, which Kline said allows him to relay personal stories and share advice to customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stock the very common stuff, like your bearded dragon, leopard gecko, crescent gecko, all the way up to the stuff you\u2019re not gonna see every day,\u201d said Kline. He also has tarantulas, scorpions and Madagascar iguanas.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lizards are reptiles, while frogs are not. (Photo by Andreas Pelekis<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Quite literally a circle of life, the other end of this store houses dozens of mice set to be sold as snake chow. The number of animals at the store \u2014 which is a lot \u2014 varies at any given time.<\/p>\n

Kline said that the store\u2019s prices run cheaper compared to commercial, large-scale animal stores. The reptiles are lined up against the back wall of the store, with large snakes crawling around tanks and smaller iguanas towards the ground. Kline said the remainder of the store was filled with supplies: substrates, lights, heat bulbs, various foods and more.<\/p>\n

\"\"This is one tiny turtle. (Photo by Andreas Pelekis<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Logan Hutchinson, a Phillipsburg resident, used to make a 30-minute drive to buy food and other necessities for his snake. After discovering Reptile Depot a few years ago, he said that \u201cthere\u2019s a new animal to look at\u201d every time he stops by.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually I send my grandpa down here,\u201d said Hutchinson; his family tends to visit the store once a week to buy mice for his snake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they don\u2019t have what you want, they\u2019ll definitely get it,\u201d said Tommy Beiser, a customer who adopted his banana ball python, Samson, from Reptile Depot.<\/p>\n

Beiser emphasized that he wants to \u201cshow love to the small business instead of the big corps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Reptile Depot also sells fish. Not as food, but as pets. (Photo by Andreas Pelekis<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Reptile Depot also featured an array of fish \u2014 goldfish, angelfish and more, tucked away in a back room next to fish food on sale.<\/p>\n

At Lafayette College, around four miles east of the shop, reptiles are forbidden in college residence halls, though emotional support animals are allowed. Fish are allowed in residence halls. Academic Resource Hub Director Marty Sullivan said there are no emotional support reptiles on campus this academic year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would suggest come in and have a conversation with us,\u201d Kline said of his store. \u201cThat\u2019s what we would rather do. Have a relationship and talk to you.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Easton\u2019s South 25th street, fish, snakes and lizards coexist in a harmonious, humid ecosystem. \u201cThere\u2019s not a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-131130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}