First and foremost as with most things you get what you pay for. I am not necessarily talking about the fanciest morph or most colorful gecko. What I am talking about is quality. Its really sad to see tiny little geckos offered for sale. Hatchlings have no business being sold until they are at least a month old in my opinion. I would actually prefer to even wait a couple of months. BUYER BEWARE! Sure you can get a tremper or a "tang"or whatever for 19 bucks. But what kind of quality are we talking about. I am not saying its impossible to get good quality from people offering affordable leopard geckos. What I am saying is for people to be extremely careful. There are numerous Leopard Gecko breeders that truly care about their animals and try and offer superior quality animals. Animals that have been hand raised in clean caring environments. In order to get a quality gecko you may have to pay a tad extra but its almost always worth it. Its just like in the Dog world. You have people running puppy mills and leo mills! Be careful! That great buy for that albino, might just end up starving to death! Oh I almost forgot. A picture with 20 some odd hatchlings running around in it is a BAD SIGN!!!! I repeat thats not good!
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BUYER BEWARE. A few things to consider before purchasing that "Cheap" Leo!
Replies (3)
np
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2.9 SHCT Leopard Geckos
0.0.10 and counting SHCT Leopard Geckos
0.2 Tangerine Albinos
1.2 Veiled Chameleons
1.1 Arizona Mt. Kings
a comment about the puppy mill thing though...those puppies actually usually end up costing a LOT more than a decent breeder's dogs would...If you want an example go to a pet store and look at a puppy...then go look how much breeders of the breed charge for a pet quality puppy...a petstore will readily charge $1200 for a rottweiler puppy with a respiratory infection (my best friend's experience...)...when a breeder might sell a pet quality pup for as low as $300...The only pups you'd see a good breeder sell for over a thousand dollars are show quality pups...and I can guarantee you wouldn't find a show dog in a puppy at pet store from a puppy mill...
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Christina
Leopard Gecko Morph Descriptions
2.3 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-1.0 tremper albino (Spitfire)
-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)
-ignorance is not to be punished when one is trying to gain knowledge...what scares me is the vast number of people who, when given the information to gain knowledge, choose to ignore it.
I hate seeing dogs in stores. They are not in a good environment, and like you say the prices are out of this world. I like to purchase all animals from the person who produced them not from a middle man. You can get a world class boxer pup for $1500 or an excellent registered for $400 straight from the breeder. Go to a pet store and some inbred will be $1000. I am not a fan of retail reptile sales either. Many of the animals are not even fed, just housed to sell.
Matt
