As far as petstore leos being inbred, I read this at Ron Tremper's site:



"Line breeding or breeding siblings together is not detrimental. My colony of non-albinos has been inbred and line bred for 25 generations with no ill effects."



So inbreeding isn't as horrible for most lizards as it is for mammals. I know Tremper's albino line seemed to have started or at least push forward with inbreeding with no side effects so that isn't a problem with petstore leos. And I agree with others that there are good stores and bad stores. At the same time, some small "mom and pop" pet stores can be as bad or worse than the larger ones. There is a horrible one here in Columbus, and even after all the trying to close it it's still alive. It's a horrible sight in there, I went and couldn't believe what I saw :'( It's so gross. But I can say where I work we are so careful about all of our reptiles. No sand for any, because well they don't need it and we never have adults we sell them so quick! We sell more leos than any store in columbus (that's pretty easy seeins as I've sold 3 in one day before, because they are great new starter pets or just all around GREAT pets) But if you want some great leos come visit me in my store in Columbus, OH! I don't know where we get them from, I just know it's a breeder in Dayton. But we've never had a return, and the only problem we've ever had is a woman whose leo ate 2 dozen crickets every week and she liked giving her sales person a hard time! lol If you're getting a leo from a petstore, just use common sense. If the person helping you knows nothing about them, see if anyone working there does. If no one does, then go to another store. Eventually you can find someone like me or some of my other co-workers who know a lot, and know how to care for them. Good luck in your search!
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-Kristen



0.5 Leopard Gecko (Buttercup, Beaker, Beauty, Blaze, and Bubbles)

1.1 Fat Tail Gecko (Bell and her new boyfriend Bowser!)

0.1 Deformed Leopard Gecko (Gimpy)



Proud owner and operator of a Powerbook G4! Why use windows, when I can use Panther? It even sounds better.

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