Reminiscing about the old school

[Slice of the Jungle]

Recently I've been thinking about how in the mid to late 90's everybody was mostly working on High Yellows. Then in the early 2000's everybody in the leopard gecko community was working on Super Hypos and Tangerines and the morphs were able to advance so quickly. People would incubate all of their tangerines for example, to be females...then purchase the best male that they could from another breeder to breed to the females. It is cool having so many different morphs now...it just seems it's diluted the quality of geckos in the community, or too many are being produced, or lack of education. I just miss that aspect of the way the community was back then and think about where we would be if we all pulled in the same direction.

 

[acpart]

It's kind of like when there was only network TV and people pretty much watched 3 channels but now there's cable and not only are there hundreds of channels, but you can watch anything you want when you want to. Personally, I'm suspicious of the "good old days" because I suspect that when we were living in them, they didn't seem as good as they do now. The availability of quick communication, not only with words, but with pictures as well, and the amount of information that we have access to has inevitably made a difference in how things work. It's much easier to get into breeding due to the information and easy availability of geckos whose pictures we can see before we buy means that lots of people get into the hobby that wouldn't have before. It does mean that there are a lot more geckos out there and a lot more low quality geckos. In my opinion, the only way to counter some of the negative aspects of this is to do our best to educate other breeders and our customers about what a healthy, decent quality leopard gecko looks like. I can't tell you how many times I've advised people at reptile shows not to buy from a vendor that has 1 leopard gecko among a lot of other species (probably got it in trade and doesn't know much about it) or that has a small enclosure full of lots of tiny leos going for $10 each. Discerning buyers will find the decent geckos, just like discerning TV watchers don't drown in the torrent of cable channels.

Aliza

 

[Slice of the Jungle]

Aliza, I knew you'd be hopping in on this one. The other point that I forgot to mention is how affordable just about all Leos are now...you can get quality geckos right from the breeder, and just about any one you could want is affordable.

 

[Neon Aurora]

I wasn't around for the times you speak of, but I'd like to give my two cents anyways. I think there likely are too many being produced because the hobby has gained so much popularity. People are more likely to come into contact with the hobby and more likely to want to get into it even if they aren't willing to spend the money to do it right. I think there probably also are more people who don't know what they are doing simply because there are more people in the hobby than there were. At the same time, I think there is probably more information available than ever if you just look for it. The more people there are in the hobby, the more people who DO know what they are doing there are. Therefor, there is tons of experience to be shared and information available to read. Not everyone will read it, but those who do can become very well educated very quickly from learning from so many experienced keepers and breeders. I know I did.

As for geckos being affordable... I don't know about that. Maybe it depends how you define affordable. The geckos I have are pretty good quality and I had to save up over several years to buy all of them. I bought most of them for 300+ and that is a decent amount of money to me, definitely not something I can just spend of a whim. I've seen plenty of geckos going for 600+. I don't really find that affordable.

 

[jo57]

I started getting into reptiles back in the late 80's. I would catch garter snakes and black rat snakes and sell them to a local pet store or trade them for animals. I had anoles, collard lizards, tokay geckos, pythons, boas, milk snakes, etc. Towards the end of the 90's I got out of it. Now I am getting back into it and it seems like a lot of what was known then was wrong. I am not a fan of technology. I still don't have a smartphone. I have never downloaded an app. But I can say that with the internet, there is way more knowledge to be learned. In the 80's, all I had were to 10-20 year old books at the library. Now between the care sheets, and forums like this where people can share information and what has worked for them, I would think it would make the individual animals have better lives. I researched my baby savannah monitor before I got one and learned that the way I was caring for one 20 years ago was completely wrong. I do miss some things about the old days. But I do cherish having so much information available.

 

[acpart]

I do wonder how quickly the leopard geckos going for upwards of $300 get sold. I can imagine it going either way. I haven't dared price anything that high!

Aliza