What do you do with all your hatchlings?

[JGoslee]

This question is for all the members who don't have a business. What do you do with all your baby leos? Do you keep them, sell them to local pet stores, give them to friend? Just curious.

-Jesse

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

Some to friends, local pet stores if they are a family run business, and keep the ones I want. Depends on the quantity too. You may need more outlets like classifieds here.

 

[acpart]

I breed the geckos for fun but one of my criteria is that I can sell the season's babies before the next season. I produce about 30-40 geckos a year. I sell at 2 small shows and have 1 pet store that I feel good enough about to sell to them. I sell them 2 at a time and they let me know when they need more. I rely a bit on word of mouth and have sold to several classrooms based on that. I used to worry more that they wouldn't sell so I did a lot of talking to a lot of people about it and put up signs but discovered that the signs weren't worth the effort. I find that the best selling time (besides the shows which are in late summer and early fall) seems to be the winter holiday season. I have occasionally advertised in the classifieds here but haven't had much luck.

Aliza

 

[mynewturtle]

I sell at reptile shows, 1 pet store (only small quanties), friends, and online(online is last option I like meeting the people I sell geckos to).

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I'm glad to see someone asking about what to do with all the geckos they produce, and this should be a question everyone should have an answer for before breeding your geckos! Right now, there are so many people breeding leopard geckos that the market is glut... and even well-established breeders are finding it more and more difficult to sell them. This is apparent by the number of classified ads for leopard geckos, the increase of vendors at shows with them, and the quantity of "Blow-out sales" we are seeing.

I would hate to be someone just starting out trying to be a leopard gecko breeder right now...

 

[DanTheFireman]

This question is for all the members who don't have a business. What do you do with all your baby leos? Do you keep them, sell them to local pet stores, give them to friend? Just curious.

-Jesse

Choice C, all of the above.

 

[TWC]

i keep the very nice ones to plan to breed them in the future, i will be selling most very soon, and i have given some to friends and my classroom. but for the pet stores, there arent that many around here that i trust, and they try to rip me off, so i dont sell to them.

 

[JGoslee]

I still don't even have any leopard geckos yet but I want to have a good plan when I do have a breeding pair. I'll probably end up giving what ever hatchlings I don't decide to keep away or trade with people online. There isn't any good petstores near me that I would feel comfortable giving any babies to.

 

[supperl]

I personelly decided to only incubate the eggs of the females I can expect hatchlings that I can sell or find a new good home to.
I mean you can sell a normal Leo for 50-60 bucks or lets say their are ppl paying it in a petstore. But I fear these ppl won´t look to private breeders where they would spend only 20 bucks or so(in Germany).
I recently searched a new good home for a male MS which has 72gramms and is adult. I had problems with finding a good home. I offered him for a good and than for a extreme good price and it still took long to find one offering a good home. All I got in respond was "Why do you sell him so cheap I don´t get it" I would say cause no one want´s to pay more for him and all I need is to have a good home for him. Well he now goes to a friendly man that will give him a few nice females.
But that case is why I won´t incubate eggs that will bring Geckos that I know I can´t sell cause they are not cool anymore or so dunno how to say it sound damn hard but if I have to decide to not incubate or to have to bring them to a pet store (which I won´t do^^) I would decide for the non-incubating.
Another poss is to sell them as feeder Geckos but who would do that????? I wouldn´t.
So I decided I incubate the eggs when I at least get something that I can find a good home for!

 

[Alusdra]

Like Marcia said, I'm very glad to see people thinking about this. I'm not a breeder and that is part of the reason why. (Not only would I maybe not be able to find homes for them, but would I actually be able to sell them?)

I don't think anyone wants to see geckos overpopulated like dogs/cats/cavies/parrots/iguanas/pythons etc.

 

[gaparicio]

I don't really consider myself a breeder since I've only hatched about a dozen leos and cresties in 3 years. I've only sold about 6 to family members and friends. I have a tendency to keep my babies since I get very attached to them. I currently have 4 (2.2) baby leos and 2 (0.2) juvie cresties that I hatched and don't feel like getting rid of.

It's kind of funny, I started with 3 leos about three years ago and now I have 20 leos and 5 cresties. I just keep buying and buying with no end in sight.

 

[Ipsl]

I haven't started breeding yet but I have one store that I trust to sell to. Other than that yeah websites. But than a lot I think will be word of mouth. But I'm not breeding for another 6-9 months anyway so thats down the line for me.

 

[LeopardLunatic]

im just now trying to start out breeding but if i do get babies i will prolly sell at a local pet store that i trust, friends and there is one show in the entire state that i may go to occasionally but thats a long 2 hour drive. I have a question too but i guess ill start a new thread for that.

 

[BG-Gecko]

We sell them on www.marktplaats.nl, you can place your ads for free here with a link to our website.
If it doesn't really work next year, we will reserve a stand several shows, or exchange geckos with other breeders.