Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had such a HORRIBLE week. Let me first start out by saying that I used to think that breeders that sell their geckos at "inflated" prices were being unfair to the young herpers that just wanted to have a reptile that is easy to take care of. After this weekend i now realize that their is great logic in keeping prices high...the more you pay for something the better you will take care of it. Here's my story...This is my first year of breeding and i have been selling my little guys through my local weekly advertising flier that offers free advertising for all items under $25. Being Albino Hets and very healthy i figured it was a VERY fair price for such an animal. I now regret putting them in there at all due to some of the responses i got and question i received from people who already OWN Leos and various other reptiles:

1. "The males have the big tails and the females have the skinny tails"

2. "I've been feeding mine a steady diet of Waxworms"

3. "I couldn't get the Tempertures right, so i decided to use a heat rock"

4. "I talked to a snake breeder friend of mine. He doesnt breed geckos but said i should start feeding my leopard geckos redworms"

5. "Is breeding geckos anything like breeding dogs"

6. "Holy Sh**, if mine get that big im going to get rid of them"

I offered to go to one womans house to sex her geckos. I get there and she has about 75 full sized crickets wandering around the cage and a bowl of dead mealworms for three juvenile leos. They looked completely miserable, totally broke my heart.

I have sold my geckos through the paper earlier this year with no problem, but this week was particularly bad. I will never do it again. So to all breeders who take crap for selling geckos a higher prices, stand strong, youre helping to make the herp industry a better place.

P.S. I DID sell one gecko to a very nice family who was willing to learn before owning a gecko, the rest I refused to sell to

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Have You Hugged Your Reptile Today?

1.1 Hypo-tangs (Butch and Suzie)
0.1 Tremper Albino (Lucretia)
1.0 Normal (Pete)
0.0.2 Het Tremper Albinos ready to go to good homes
1.1 Cresteds (Meiko and Layla)
Drop Me an Email
kdk83@comcast.net
Or Instant Message Me on AIM: k1d8k

Aaarrgghhh! How pathetic. Makes me not want to breed them!
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1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton & Olivia Newton John, Unnamed
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

I really do agree with most of what you are saying however I really
don't know that just because someone pays more for an animal they
will treat it better. I have just seen it go the other way too many
times. Someone will pay big bucks for that pure breed puppy but when it
isn't so cute anymore it gets tossed to the backyard and they only
even look at it to throw it some food. My mom got a persian cat from a friends
daughter who didn't want it anymore cause she had a baby. The cats fur was so
terriblly matted my mom had to get her shaved, the woman at the grooming place
said it almost looked like she had never been brushed in her life.
I guess what I'm saying is that, some people just suck.
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0.1 Leopard Gecko (Kai)
0.1 Spiney Soft Shelled Turtle (Berta)
3.1 Cats (Lancelot, Galahad, Orion, Mally)
1.0 Husband (Greg)

I work at a pet store where we sell purebred puppies with papers, 15 day general health and 1 year congenital/hereditary guarantees along with a free vet visit and up-to-date shots/wormings, The prices of our puppies range from $600-$3600 depending on the breed.People on a daily basis scoff at our prices because you can find puppies in the paper or on streetcorners for half that much. Granted we do still sell a large number of puppies.

You wouldn't belive how many people don't take the puppy to a FREE vet visit because it's out of the way or how many people that come in to say that the dog was killed by a coyote.

The number of people (mosty teen boys sadly) that come in looking for vicious dogs that they can train to kill is sickening. This is a small part (other than high risks of hip/knee problems) of why we don't buy Rotts, Pits or Dobies from our breeders.

Regardless of the price, there are people who will buy an animal and know nothing about them or who won't care for them.

np
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chickabowwow

3.2.2 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)
and 1 more egg a' cookin'