Store of the Month – June 2021

Rhonda’s Aviary

5675 US-90.
Milton, FL 32583
(850) 983-7777

Rhonda’s Aviary is our small business spotlight this month! Walk into this store and instantly you will feel the exuberance and outpouring Rhonda gives to customers, employees, and animals alike. Captive-bred birds and reptiles fill the store, and dozens of fresh food varieties are available you couldn’t find elsewhere.

Rhonda’s inspiration to start a pet store was because she ran out of room for pets at home. She never studied business but has enjoyed every minute of it, and her passion is infectious. Between herself and her employees, they raise and captive breed a lot of reptiles for the store, including geckos (white-lined, gargoyle, Halmahera, crested, and leopard), skinks (fire, ocellated, and orange throated), painted agamas, emerald swifts, and bearded dragons.

Rhonda’s first love is birds though, and she has several birds as store companions like an African grey named Xander, a Panama Amazon named Roscoe, and a “drama queen” cockatoo named Jasper. There are also many species for sale, including parakeets (lineolated, Bourke’s, red rump, American, English, ring-necked, and kakariki), parrotlets, lovebirds, sun conures, cockatiels, and Lady Gouldian finches.

Even as a kid, Rhonda had an excitement that couldn’t be quenched. In her words: “No animal was safe from my love. I filled our mud puddle in the driveway with water from the hose daily so that the tadpoles that hatched in there wouldn’t die. We kept Monarch caterpillars until they turned into butterflies, and helped baby ducks hatch each spring. My life was surrounded by animals then and now. They keep us in a constant state of wonder and joy.”

Rhonda’s has an exquisite collection of premium ingredients for birds and reptiles alike. The store has self-serve nuts, grains, and seeds for feathered friends, and cactus, silkworms, fresh, and frozen foods for reptiles.

The store offers programs for the community as well, and they do job training for special needs students, take in animals from local shelters to rehome them, offer boarding for exotic pets, and do school tours.

“It was a hobby that went wildly out of control. I got a tiger by the tail. I never went to school for business. I just love animals. Help! My employees depend on me, I can’t stop now. Listening to the needs of the community, we decided to open a specialty pet store as supplies for those animals were limited in our area. Our survival and growth havebeen due to filling that niche.”