selling SHT as normals

[bcreptiles]

i've been looking at all the petcothreads for months now and have noticed, that there must be a few really large breeders, in america that supply some wholesalers, with lots of "wildcolours".
last week, i was in england, and they received a shipment from america with 500 "normals", i think there were only about 50 normals to be found in there.
the rest will also turn out to be at least hypo's, hypo tangerines and even superhypo tangerines.
and this wasn't the only shipment, that they received like that.
last year, there sometimes also were a few nice ones in there, but they were an exception.
just a question, why are they not breeding normals as normals, if they sell them for the price of normals.
i think, that if this all continues, that in a few years time, a "normal will be more special than an hypo.
what do you think?

 

[supperl]

I think it doesn´t matter for them. They have a big breeding stock and do massproduktion. I don´t realy think they overview each hatchling they back in such a bunch.
And in my opinion she hypos and high yellows should be cheaper than normals as it is easier to find them insteed of real normals.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I agree. Large chain pet store buy huge wholesale lots of hatchling leopard geckos from gecko mills that could care less about the morph type they are selling, and most of these geckos are too young to accurately determine what morph they are going to be. Don't forget that these pet store prices are governed by the geckos being inventory items and not what their morph description is... they simply don't know or care.

 

[supperl]

Yeah ynd look how often you see ppl here showing Leos the Picked-up from Petco or so when buying food which realy look great.
I mean look this one:
http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=12929
I realy like that one he will have nice Tangerine I think and 15 bucks is nothing for him I think.

 

[bcreptiles]

I realy like that one he will have nice Tangerine I think and 15 bucks is nothing for him I think.

and i think that is going ot be the problem, why buy an SHT from a breeder for 70/100dollar, when, if you keep you're eyes open , you can find lots of SHT for about 15$
and its not that difficult to recogniz a normal from a probable SH

 

[bethanboys]

Jumping in on this thread, because I too bought a SHTB from Petco for $25. In the tank they seemed to have two other possible normals (not quite orange enough to turn out to be tang I think) and another SHTB that I was going to get first because she seemed to have a bigger carrot tail but the one I got had more orange.
Anyway, I got it at about 2.5" length and I'm happy to see she progressed into a nice solid syper hypo tang baldy.

Here's her latest pic:

 

[supperl]

Damn Bethany that´s awsome^^

25 bucks for such a beaty that crazy but here you can see that Casper is right.
I mean for such a Gecko you normaly would pay around the 70-100 bucks and it may be that ppl start a petco lookout for nice tangs^^.

Well we don´t have a petco in Germany but I wouldn´t buy principle at a petstore. Dunno how it´s in US or Uk but in Germany most (not all) stores are horrible. We Have a shop near me where you could collect all pictures needed for a book called "Raptilediseases" if you wait a few month...... Leopardgeckos with toothpick tails and so on....


Well but it seems that Petco works good with their Geckos right?

But what so ever I like to know who breed my Geckos^^

 

[bethanboys]

Here in the US it really depends, some petstores are crap and don't take good care of thier animals, but some are okay.

The Petco I buy from (have bought the SHTB I just showed and a very pretty tremper albino as well) takes pretty good care of thier animals. All the animals are under vet care supposedly (they have stickers on all the tanks saying which vet clinic is providing thier care) and I think new geckos go under quarantine for awhile because every so often you see a tank that says "these animals are currently under quarantine and not for sale".
I've never seen an animal that appeared to be sick, not even any missing tails - but maybe they weed those out pretty fast?

The one complaint I have about our Petco is that they keep tiny babies on sand (although I hear that's a standard Petco practice).

But so far, both geckos I got thier are totally healthy.

 

[supperl]

Well the time I bought my feeders in that stroe that I mean I found every week dead animels... a cham or a Gecko sometimes a snake and many many dead fish....
Well I mean even if you don´t take care for your animals I think you should at least be able to sort the dead ones out.... I mean that shows how crapy the shop is. But it´s good that they are even to braindead to sort them out as everyone can see how crapy they are. I changed the store for feeders to a producer for breeders (same distance from me). So I don´t have to buy at Crapstore^^ and I get my feeders directly from the producer(Hammvisitors maybe know KERF). The feeders are packed at the morning you come and well fed.

 

[bethanboys]

I also wanted to add one more thought - I'd never pay $70-$100 for a SHT from a petsore without knowing it's breeding history. I think $25 is about right for a petstore gecko because you really are taking a gamble.

Now the $100 SHT from reputable breeders are worth that because you KNOW what kind of gecko you are getting, you know it's going to be healthy, you know it's breeding history and in return - should you breed it, you can sell your babies for the going rate between breeders because it's worth that.
KWIM? (Know What I Mean)

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

One of the things that really concerns me is that by selling geckos for $19.95 is that it can promote the "disposable pet" mentality. Some people would just let an ailing gecko die and buy a new one before spending the money to take it to the vet.

When you buy geckos from a breeder, your are getting a lot of care and personal commitment along with your gecko. In most cases, you will be getting a gecko that has been housed and cared for properly, and even some form of attachment to it and it's parents.

I have found that usually the best pet stores are privately owned businesses who care about their reputations. Large chain pet stores can tend to see their animals simply as inventory items.

 

[The Sunset Gang]

I totally agree with Marcia's comment the the best pet stores are the ones that are privately owned. The one small petstore around me sells their baby leos for 50 dollars. But, I have seen them marked as high as 65 before. Granted, I now always buy from a breeder, it just shows that the amimals are being taken care of. And Beth you really got lucky with that awesome gecko.

 

[supperl]

Yeah Marica is right.
But it´s not only on the customers side. Cheap Geckos mass production not worth to be healthy... thats what I leanrd on Turners Geckos. I asked the wholesaler if he has just one damn single health Gecko without milbs.... the answere was a clear NO.

And your right if you pay 20 bucks for a Gecko and you´ll have to pay 45 bucks for a complete dung analysis and maybe adds for medicals you most likely won´t do it. If you pay 325 bucks what you do first is go to the vet. It´s sad but that´s somehow "normal".....

And Bethany I know what you mean^^. But petco seems to be an easy way to gt a bunch of female Leos for Breeders.

 

[rhino43grr]

on a somewhat related note, i went to one of the only pet stores in the area and out of curiosity checked out the reptile tanks. i'm pretty sure their "leopard geckos" were in fact AFTs (hard to tell though since they all had regenerating tails) they were much darker brownish color than any leos i've seen. their reptile room was pretty tiny--as in only 3 or 4 people at a time could fit into it and would be bumping into each other. there's a petsmart going in sometime this winter though.