Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone,

At a local PetsMart there are two leopard geckos living in a cage together, both of which looked slightly skinny (a good example of how skinny would be
)

I still have to get everything set up correctly so I'm not ready to buy one yet, but would it be smart to buy geckos that are so skinny?

There are also several (around 10) leopard geckos living in the same cage at another pet store (a store that I've gotten a very skinny gecko from before and was able to nurse back to a healthy weight) but they look even worse off than the ones at the other store (they look similar to this next picture:

All of the geckos from both stores look really young, so their skinny-ness might be explained by that, but would it be ok to buy from one of these stores or should I try to find a breeder online or somewhere that sells geckos in good health?

Oops sorry, title was supposed to be "AT PetsMart"

I think the title is absolutely correct.
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3.6.0 Leopard Geckos
0.0.2 Homonota Darwinii (Talus & Gracilis)
0.0.1 Tarentola Mauritanica (Pickles)
0.0.1 Cham Caliptratus (Clotilde)
1.0.0 Golden Retriever (Cafu)
1.0.0 Black cat (Felipe)
0.0.x Tenebrio Molitor
0.0.x Zoophoba Mario
0.0.x Lobster Roaches

I would only buy from someone selling healthy Leos with good weight. Whether that means finding a local breeder, ordering online from a good breeder, or finding another store. Whenever you buy from someone offering less than ideal geckos that are kept in poor conditions, you are supporting their mistreatment of animals. It can be hard to leave them knowing they will most likely die. But if you were to buy any, they will just use your money to buy more animals that will be mistreated and most likely die. If nobody buys them, they will eventually stop carrying them.

100% agree with garweft. Do not buy unhealthy geckos. You're both setting yourself up for disappointment & vet bills and perpetuating a bad situation in the pet store by encouraging them to continue bad treatment of the animals. Find a different store locally or find a reputable breeder who'll ship them to you.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

Even if you don't buy them I would talk to some of the employees. You don't have to be rude and demand they change but you could try saying something along the lines of you were going to buy one but they look a little skinny. You know try and get them to reevalute things a little. Also what I did a couple of times at my local pet store when I noticed one of their leopards was really skinny was ask them to show me if he was feeding well. I don't know how he ended up but hey he ate like a champ for a day.