Riverside Wildlife Center (Formerly Riverside Reptile Ranch) Reviews

A little sceptical when we pulled up, but pleasantly surprised after our tour!

Was greeted as soon as I entered the door. Staff was awesome . my daughter really enjoy the animals.

Awesome they walk you through, they allow you to hold some animals, great price. Doesn't look great outside but don't let that fool you. Worth stopping by to see

It was a surreal experience like nowhere I have ever been before and our guide Jeff obviously loved every animal and reptile there???

This is a must-see. We visited meramec caverns and on a whim stopped by this little gem. It was super affordable, very neat and informative. They had a 200 year old turtle and an ayam cemani (a pitch black chicken). My son enjoyed touching all the snakes. My family and I had much more fun here than at the meramec caverns!

Interesting. Not many places you can get this up close and personal with animals. Could use some sprucing up.

Excellent, hands-on experience, while learning through fun. Unlike any other animal rescue. Lions, tigers, alligators, etc. Unique animals and reptiles. Walking tour, with friendly, experienced guides. We have been going for years and keep going back. On your way to Meramec caverns, be sure to stop in. You won't regret it

My daughter (17) and I couldn t even stay for the entire tour . This is one of the saddest places I have ever seen. The whole place is filthy, reptile enclosures were small, dirty water. We felt so guilty for stopping here. I really cannot understand how this place could be a legit rescue.

We loved the private tour we had here, such a cool place!

Very fun visit! The tour guides are super friendly and everyone there really cares about the animals. Animals seem happy and healthy!

Colton was a great tour guide, and full of knowledge. I wish the place had been bigger more for the animals comfort.

My sister and i are on cross country journey and just drove by the sanctuary and decided to stop. The lady at the desk greeted us right away and help us get our tour together. Thw owner took us on our tour and made sure we got up close and personal with all the fur / feathered babies we wanted to then took us to see the scared friends we kept our distance with most!! She was friendly informative ! We just loved the place .. great atmosphere excelent staff. I just cant say enough to praise the owner.

Excellent! Very knowledgeable! Lots of cool animals and reptiles! Awesome place

The tour was absolutely amazing, everyone was super nice. I highly recommend coming here. 10/10 would go again.

An amazing place! Beautiful animals and friendly people! Will be going back!

This place is amazing and the people there were amazing as well!!! Highly recommended!!!

Wonderful place the staff was great and informative

I have mixed feelings about this place. On one hand, the staff was friendly and informative. The place was hands on and kids were able to hold/ pet some animals. On the other hand...enclosures were definitely low budget and small. Especially saddening was the alligator snapping turtle enclosure. Also, it was mentioned by our guide that they don't carry any anti-venom due to high prices and short shelf-life. They had several venomous reptiles. As previous reviews state, Missouri has very lax standards on privately owned animals. I don't feel that workers are purposely abusing animals, but I did feel guilty supporting this operation.

What a gem! I took my hubby here for his birthday and he loved it! Our tour guy was James and he was very knowledgeable of all the animals. We even were able to hold an alligator (3 yrs old) and a Python (70lb). Steve is the tiger expert and was able to answer all of our questions plus teach us a lot about tigers. Jasmine and Jafar (the tigers) have a great bond with Steve and you can see the respect between each other, it s beautiful! There s a plethora of reptiles and farm animals as well! Must see!!!

Yes, it looks super iffy from the outside. Yes, it smells from the animals. Highly recommend. There's an absolutely amazing collection inside. How many places can you go and touch a real hippo skull? Not many, I'll tell you that. Most of their animals are rescues. The guide knew a lot about them and their histories. The reptile section has a LOT of snakes and lizards you can hold. Truly my favorite part. For real, ignore the outside. It's worth every penny.

I absolutely love this place and the ppl who run it. They do so much for the animals. Thank you! Also Lynn goes above and beyond to accommodate customers who have been coming for decades! Will always be a place to take my children when we are in the area!

Everyone saying this place was terrible only looked at the place and thought the animals were being treated poorly. I know for a fact that this place is wonderful despite how it looks. Don't judge a book by it's cover. Our guide was Colton, he told us interesting facts about the animals and told us how they take care of them. It sucks that some people are bashing them on how the place looks. I loved the experience and am definitely coming back. Screw everyone who hates this place!

My kids and I had an absolute blast !! This place is truly an amazing experience and so thankful we stopped !!! So worth the price to go on a guide !!!

Thank y all so much for a great experience !!!

The tour guide was great-he made the whole experiance!

Staff is very knowledgeable and personable. Seem to enjoy their job and sharing their knowledge of all the different animals that are there. It's privately owned, small but extremely enjoyable.

Great place, great people! Worth a trip to see all the cool critters!

This place is awesome. They have a decent variety of animals, and the guides are funny, and knowledgable. The staff here are pretty friendly, and overall great atmosphere. Can't think of many other places where you can hold an alligator. Would visit again. Big John, and Dakota were cool.

Just kind of a neat extra stop visiting Meremac Caverns! I think it was $8 for adults and u get to hold a gator. Pretty affordable in my opinion!

Had a blast it is
small but worth the time to check it out can't wait to go back

Awesome place volunteers are all about the animals you can tell they do what they love my family defiantly will be coming back

Always a good time.. Wish they had bigger cages 4 the animals but it never seems gross dirty & the animals seem like they are being taken care of. Love love love holding the alligators

The conditions the animals were living in was absolutely disgusting. I am ashamed to have visited and supported this place. Not only were the cages for each different animal much too small, but water was dirty and clearly not kept up daily. I will admit that the 100 degree weather may have made the conditions look even worse than they already were, but in general this was a very disappointing visit for me. I will never visit again, and I suggest you do the same. I would give it half a star if that was possible.

Amazing experience. Our tour guide was phenomenal

We were there today April 12th. ...4 children and 8 adults 2 of the adults were in wheelchairs. The staff and our your guide were fantastic and very helpful. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about every animal and reptile. We all had so much fun I would recommend Riverside Wildlife. So go learn, enjoy and have fun. Thank you again. Cathy O'Brien and family.