Originally published on June 5, 2018. Updated September 22, 2022.

Just another day and I’m comparison shopping for bulk rates on worms. 

But I should really buy a gecko first.

I’m hanging out at the Hewitt Reptile Emporium. It’s got all the scaly creatures. They peer out at me from their warm orange terrariums.

It smells... well, lizard-y in here.

Here's a green tree python named Bonnie.

Besides snakes and lizards the emporium also stocks exotic turtles* and frogs.

Kayla, the store’s owner, picks up “Toothless” the store mascot. He’s a hefty Red Argentine Tegu. At two years of age he’s maxed out in his weight and redness of color. Tegus start life with a brown hue and get redder with subsequent skin shedding.

Toothless is the size of a big throw pillow and surprisingly squishy and dry. I’m not sure what I expected the skin of a tegu to feel like but it wasn’t this.

The reptile store has been on lower east Hewitt since 2014, selling cages, food, and supplies that are quite specific to the reptile scene. Where else can you buy dragon sand, snake bedding, or “repta-bark” (cage lining designed to mimic a leafy forest floor)?

Trick question— you can’t. There are no other reptile-specific stores in Everett.

Kayla says that true reptile lovers swear by the Hewitt Reptile Emporium as opposed to your conventional dog and cat generalists like, say, Petco.

Petco can’t do lizard bedding true justice.

If you want the true reptile experts then slither, hop, or belly-crawl your way down to east Hewitt.

Reptilian things happen here.

*I had to Google it, but yeah, turtles are reptiles who happen to live in water. Frogs, of course, aren’t reptiles, they’re amphibians. My life keeps getting weirder the more info I find out.

HEWITT REPTILE EMPORIUM
2914 Hewitt Ave
Everett, WA 98201
(425) 322-5025

Richard Porter writes for Live in Everett.