Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a friend visit me from south Africa yesterday and I live in Carlsbad, ca. After doing the usual reptile stop, LLL, we had some extra time. Knowing there is nothing like petco in the UK or south Africa, I decided to take him there just to show the enormity of it. I have never bought anything from them and never intended to. Walking into their "reptile section", I was horrified to see a huge tokay gecko for sale. Not only do these not make good "pets", this was also fairly aggressive, which a sign on the front of the cage said. The guy there told me that it had been there for months because no one wanted it. I thought I would be able to give it a better home than the tiny cage it was in. Then a little way down, they had two golden gecko, from $18.99 each. Upon closer investigation, they were two sub adult crested geckos, mislabeled and only had meal worms in the cage. I asked the guys what they were and he said, rather dismissively that they are golden geckos and the price was on the front of the cage. All said and done, two cresteds and a huge tokay for just over $60. Sad. Got the crested home and the attacked the baby food.

so, let me get this right.....you got 2 cresties AND an Adult Tokay for a mere $60 because "petco" can't buy a CLUE?

WoW! Lucky you & lucky gex for getting a Better Home!
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2.0.0 Cresteds
1.1.0 Afican Fat Tail
1.1.0 Viper Tail
0.1.0 Oedura Castelnaui
.0.0.1 Marble/Auric

Petco just had to settle a multi million dollar lawsuit for animal cruelty...looks like it didn't do much good. From what I've been told, PETA is a bit excessive, but the information on their website is truthful regarding the complaints against Petco. I'm currently having a problem with Petsmart giving out horribly inaccurate caresheets that are so wrong they could result in the death of the geckos, also the geckos at the stores are in poor health(see posts below).
Petco Cruelty

yip, two FEMALE cresteds and a huge tokay for $63.

I went to a Petco that had about ten 16" Nile Monitors for sale for $40 each. They were in about a 2x2x2' cage, I went back a few weeks later and they were all gone, I don't know many people that could care for a large monitor and I doubt that they found any.

>>I went to a Petco that had about ten 16" Nile Monitors for sale for $40 each.

Still, I'd rather see this problem addressed through education of potential buyers than have PeTA write legislation banning herps. If you convince the public that they REALLY don't want that Nile monitor (at least as a starter herp), the demand dries up, and PetCo will quit selling them.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

its a hard call. I felt really bad leaving these cresteds in the care of some morons. I know the best thing to do would be not buying from petco, but i think in this case it must have cost them soime money. When they keep tokays for six months and eventually sell them for $24, then i think they are losing money hand over fist. I wish there was a real way to solve this problem, but i think education of potential customers is the best thing we can do. Support the mom and pop reptile and pet stores. They may be a bit more expensive, but thats all they have. Dunno, no easy solution. Cheers, don

Tch...why do petstores even carry Tokay geckos? They don't sell very well cause no one wants to keep them! I got my beautiful Tokay from a Pet Supplies Plus...and get this, he had been bough and returned five times before I saved him...people said he was too vicious. He had been marked as 25 dollors originally, but they were so desperate to get rid of him I got him for five bucks. Don't pet stores even try to research what they're buying before they sell it?

at petsmart. so I have since visted the local petcos and petsmarts in hopes of finding a cheap crested, or anything else they mis-lable. good for you!
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- Happy herping!

KE

my boyfriend and i went to a petco and got a super hypo tangering carrot tail baldy leopard gecko for 60 dollars. She was mislabeled (it was a morph mesup, not species, but significant still).
Here is a pic of her.