[KClark]

today i went to a reptile store out of town and they had two tokays in a 10 gallon tank with a seperator an nothing in the cage. they are soooo skinny with their bones protruding from legs to belly to head and they were such a dark color with dark spots. it made me soo sad, i might go back and buy them and fill their tummys

[Riverside Reptiles]

I would not recommend going back to get them. You really only are doing two things when you do this...
1) encouraging the pet store to get more sick, crappy, wild caught animals.
and
2) setting yourself up to take on the costs of likely pretty considerable vet bills and/or death of the animals.

Just my 2 cents

[keeper_26]

Originally Posted by Riverside Reptiles

I would not recommend going back to get them. You really only are doing two things when you do this...
1) encouraging the pet store to get more sick, crappy, wild caught animals.
and
2) setting yourself up to take on the costs of likely pretty considerable vet bills and/or death of the animals.

Just my 2 cents

Agreed. You may find this to be the majority opinion on a board such as this. As somebody who's worked in a pet store, I can tell you the worst thing you can do- FOR THE SAKE OF THE ANIMALS- is buy them. The store will order more, and the cycle will continue, and you will be stuck with two sick animals and as stated, a stack of vet bills. I admire your compassion and willingness to help, but I more-so respect one's ability to avoid buying such creatures for the wrong reasons (but right intentions)..

[KClark]

Originally Posted by keeper_26

Agreed. You may find this to be the majority opinion on a board such as this. As somebody who's worked in a pet store, I can tell you the worst thing you can do- FOR THE SAKE OF THE ANIMALS- is buy them. The store will order more, and the cycle will continue, and you will be stuck with two sick animals and as stated, a stack of vet bills. I admire your compassion and willingness to help, but I more-so respect one's ability to avoid buying such creatures for the wrong reasons (but right intentions)..

yeahh thanks guys, i understand, just a crappy situation when you see that and care so much

[MauricesExoticPets]

$5.00 a Tokay is about all a petshop pays, and you pay $15 to $20. Then you fork over another $100 and change to house each gecko. On top of that come the vet bills not less than say $40 per gecko each visit. If they live and they don't always, you have yourself a pair of Tokay geckos. A week later the same shop will order more and not feed or care for them, which leads you to buying another, and another, etc.

I've limited myself to supporting fewer and fewer petshops, based on how they care for their animals. If they don't treat the animals like I would, I don't buy a thing. But I sure will take up their time.

Maurice Pudlo