Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm looking for high quality, very very healthy leopard geckos-- and I will accept nothing less than that, because I've just gone through 2 1/2 weeks of hell fighting a losing battle to save leo babies with crypto! One died at home and the other had to be put down; I loved them both and it hurt very much, but I'm getting ready now to try again.

Right now this is the breeder I'm looking at: http://www.vmsherp.com/ . If anyone has experience with them to share, or suggestions of other breeders to try, please let me know! Thanks.

Are you looking for just a few, or a lot of Geckos? If you are looking for just a few make sure you check out all of the breeders, not just the large scale suppliers. What morphs are you looking for- are these geckos for you, or to sell, or breed? If you are looking for a special morph, go to the breeders who specialize. VMS is good, but they are not specialized, they sell all types of reptiles.
-----
1.1 SHCT Leopard geckos Big Papa and Big Mama
2.5 jungle & leucistic morphs Van Gogh, Monet, Manet Pissarro, Speckels, Mouthy, and Mama Cass
0.1 Ragdoll cat Tinkerbell
2.0 Devon Rex cats Gryffindor, Tigger
0.1 Cat Dinah
1.2 Bassett hounds Bogart, Sadie, Hermione
3.0 Feretts Blizzard, Coco, Fuzzums
3.1 Chinchillas

I just want two or three, and I don't need anything special-- they're just going to be precious, pampered pets. (: I may eventually breed them just for the educational aspect for my daughter, but the idea wouldn't be to sell special morphs or anything. Where should I look-- just at various breeders? It's really not that big of a deal to me how they look, but it is a big deal to me that they are very healthy and well cared for before they get to me!

You could save on shipping ($25-40), and perhaps the health of your geckos, if you have a breeder nearby. It's getting cold in much of the States, so it may be safer to pick up locally, plus you can meet the person who bred and raised your new babies.

Good luck
-----
Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Buy Geckos Here
Email Me

I live in Savannah, GA-- possibly the most reptile unfriendly placeyou could get! Vets that know little about the reptiles that they treat have referred me to the man that sold me the babies with crypto in the first place-- if there was a good breeder around here, he left in disgust awhile ago. I'm aware of a few breeders in Atlanta, but I can't decide which is more stressful-- going through overnight airmail, or having to sit through a five hour drive back to Savannah. What do you guys think?

Albey Scholl lives in Atlanta, or thereabouts. I think I'd take the 5 hr drive over an all night plane/truck trip anyday. That is if you find yourself in/near Atlanta anyway; I don't think I'd drive 9 hrs just to pick up a gecko. You can at least control the temps in the car during the drive. They'll be in the back of a (probably) non-heated delivery van and in a (probably) non-heated cargo plane for at least 15hrs if you ship them.

On the other side of the coin, being in the south, if you order from someone else in the south, it won't be so bad right now. I'm unsure of the transfer points the different carriers use, but as long as they're not transfering up north for very long, the trip won't be much different than shipping other places during the spring/fall. Look around, though; perhaps there is a local breeder near you. Good luck
-----
Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Buy Geckos Here
Email Me

I am in Beaufort SC. Email me privately. I work with a few small groups. I am a hobbyist. I believe this would be a better option than most local shops.

gjensen111@hotmail.com

Are you making sure to throw away everything that came in contact with the babies?
-----
chickabowwow

3.2.3 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)

A local pet shop. I'm contacting all neccessary authorities to do what I can to prevent him from selling any more animals-- he specializes in reptiles, and I think it fairly likely that every animal in that store has crypto.

I didn't throw their stuff away, but I did soak everything in bleach for 24 hours...Is this not enough? Now I'm worried-- do I need to just throw everything away?

Yes, it's best if you can throw everything away. The egg stage of crypto (called an oocyst) has a protective shell that's environmentally resistant. Extreme temperatures aren't enough to kill oocysts, neither is undiluted bleach. Ammonia is the only known chemical that can penetrate through the shell to kill the oocysts, but you have to make sure that whatever you're cleaning isn't porous. It only takes one oocyst to start an outbreak, because once ingested, it multiplies like crazy.
-----
chickabowwow

3.2.3 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)

ill totally recommend them, here they are:

-----

n/p

I purchased my very first gecko from VMS herps. The guy is very very healthy and doing great, I'd recommend.

Hey,

Earlier you posted you soaked all the old stuff in bleach for 24hours and were wondering wether or not that would be enough, this may sound weird but actually NO. Crypto is deadly but aslo quite tough it can with stand bleach and every other cleaning chemical it can also stay dormant for 1year or more (or until another animal is brought into the old animals same surroudings)then it will spark back up horrible stuff isnt it.
However ive heard amonia can kill it but i dont reccomend keeping any thing the old geckos came in contact with you would hate for the same thing to happen twice over 25$ worth of bowls cages etc. Im not sure about vms cause ive never bought from them but I have bought from xtreme reptiles there stuff was parisite free and wonderful also in expensive the best deal ive ever done was with garrick demeyer answers all ?'s and some and is prompt about shipping and the hole sha bang.
I've heard great things about rob jenkins who posted above and was a wonderful informative guy in all his emails to me keli at www.hisss.net has real nice stuff and is great to deal with from what i hear I bought from kn reptiles great stuff great people.

www.crestedgecko.com

Thanks for all of the reccomendations. (: This isn't as hard as it seems if you just ask around.

What about the tanks? I'll gladly toss off all the hides and whatnot to prevent anything like that happening again, but the tanks are specialty reptile tanks and on the expensive side...Is it possible that I could spray them down with undiluted ammonia and let them sit like that? I never ever ever want to see an animal that sick again, but I've already spent more money than I should and would like to be able to salvage something. They're glass tanks-- is that considered porous?

I recently bought 4 geckos from VMS.1.2 blizzards and 0.1 normal 66% het for tremper albino patternless. They are in great shape and very healthy. If you write an email to the guy from VMS he will answer all of your questions..