To save or not to save...

[Lemur_6]

Hey everyone,

There's a leucistic adult female gecko at a petstore I know. She was sold to the petstore by a lady who didn't know what to do with it after her son went away to college. The gecko's been housed with a bunch of african fat tails that don't look all that good for about 2-3 months (nobby tails, puffy jaws, very lethargic, squinting eyes). However the gecko seems in good health with a nice fat tail (though the petstore owner says she's seen better days). She's missing a toenail or two. She's currently marked at $65, but I think I can haggle a bit to bring it down to $50 (and I have a bit of extra cash from x-mas).

I'm not too familiar with the pricing of geckos, is this a reasonable price? There's also a vet nearby that I can take a fecal to (but takes a while for results), so if she has any bugs hopefully I'll find them before the 1 month return date.

So, what do you guys think? Save or no? I've saved animals in worse condition before, but I knew what their problem was before I had them in my care (poor heating, not enough humidity, too little food, not enough calc, but no internal bugs).

Also, is it ever possible that 10 gal is not enough for a gecko? This girl is like huge, about 8-9" long and tail is roughly 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" thick. I might have to go dig the 20 long out of my basement (:crap: thing is so friggin heavy).

-Dave

[KelliH]

Dave-

Regardless of the price, if you do "save" the patternless leo from the pet store, be prepared to spend more than the cost of the gecko for vet bills. Like you said in your post, you will have to take the animal in to be checked by your vet, and have a fecal check done. Chances are the fat tails it is housed with at the store are wild caughts, and it is almost certain that these wild caught geckos have some (probably more) type of internal parasite. You will have to be prepared to buy the medicine or medicines your vet prescribes for this.

An adult leopard gecko can live in a 10 gallon tank it's entire life, no problem. However, if you do have an empty 20 long tank you may as well use it for her. You can do more with a tank that size as far as decorating, and also if you ever decide to get another leo (they are addicting!) you will have a rommier enclosure.

I always recommend to people to support the private breeder/hobbiest and not the pet sores, but I understand how you feel when you see an animal at a pet store that you really want to help. Just remember that leopard geckos are a big commitment, and if cared for properly they can live for over 20 years!

Please keep us updated on this, if you do buy her and how she does for you. Best of luck!

:)

[Lemur_6]

Hmm... surprisingly, my vet doesn't charge me all that much, she charges me $15 for a fecal, and $10 for drugs (panacur, flagyl, baytril, etc), or so far it's been that way. Yeah, I'm sorta used to paying 2 to 3 times the amount for the listed price any animal now due to vet bills, kept cornsnakes for a while and had leos when I was kid, and now I babysit leos once in a while.

Maybe I'll pass on the Leuc female now that you tell me fat-tails are WC (they're still WC?!). I wouldn't want to go through another tapeworm and bacteria crisis. Be a shame to see her waste away though, those fat-tails looked near dead the last time I saw them. Which again sorta leaves me gobsmacked; do leos have stronger immune systems than fat-tails? or was it because she was very healthy to begin with that helped her stay healthy this long? or is it because the fat-tail parasites can't be transmitted to the leo? hard to say I guess, but impressive nonetheless.

-Dave

[Seamus Haley]

Couple things here...

First off Vince, it's kinda not right to bring up your ads in posts which are not in a classified section... Not exactly in keeping with the rules either...

Secondly... Lots of fat tails are still WC, probably the majority of them although I have no hard numbers to back that up... Gut fauna can go either way when it comes to cross contamination; sometimes it's very species specific and only an issue for certain animals, other times the naturally occuring gut fauna can be *less* virulent to a species which has evolved to have a certain bioload in their systems but far more dangerous to species which have not evolved to cope with it.

Third... Fat tails and leos should never be housed together anyway, regardless of CB, WC, parasites and interspecies agression due to the simple fact that they have very different environmental needs... Anyplace housing them together is questionable at best to start with.

As to the issue of "saving" animals... There are really only a few scenarios here- sometimes people call it "saving" simply because it's a pet shop and it's become popular to badmouth them. Many pet shops are top notch and have healthy animals... if this is the case and it's a reputable place, buy it if you don't mind a retail markup. If it really is a bad place or the care the animals get is grossly improper or negligent (EVERY petstore, no matter how good will have problem animals eventually, it's a question of how frequently and how it's dealt with), then no matter how much you may like the animal in question or want to save it's cute widdle butt, by buying it you only support the petstore, profit the petstore, keep the bad guys in business. "Saving" animals from bad petshops only hurts more animals in the future. As much as it may not be something people like to think about... Let it stay there, let it rot and die and fester and allow every animal they have to get sick and injured and malnourished. It will put them out of business much faster as their losses grow quicker than their sales. Kind of a "Needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" situation.

If this was simply a product of wanting a leopard gecko and this one being coincidentally avaliable, there are literally hundreds of breeders, wholesalers and petshops who have top quality animals in good health for reasonable prices... Heck, many of them advertise through this site either in the CLASSIFIEDS section or banner ads... And the BOI is just a step and a half away so you can verify their credibility before sending any cash.

[Vince]

Hey sorry , I didnt know it was against the rules. I wasnt trying to advertise or anything. i was just trying to say basicly what you said about checking out the classifieds, i just brought up mine as an example, but now i know and next time it comes up i wont be specific to my own posts.

[Lemur_6]

Nah, I didn't really want another gecko, it was just that if that lady didn't give the gecko to the petstore to begin with, that gecko would be one fine gecko right now, and still is a fine gecko, though I dunno what's been set into motion by keeping her with the fat-tails who look deathly ill.

I've actually run out of cages at the moment, so even if i wanted to I'd have no space for her (power went out at my buddy's place, so he's keeping his 2 gex and cornsnake at my place till the power comes back on).

-Dave

[Steph Scranton]

Have you thought about trying to educate the pet store where the leo is at?

Occassionaly, it works. Heck I have even managed to make some changes at the Petco I work at. Not many, but enough so that I can say my critters there are healthy.

Try talking to the lady, but come of in a non-confrontal manner.

[Lemur_6]

Yeah, tried that a couple times actually. But there's only one girl that takes care of all the reptiles, birds, small mammals and any other miscellaneous animals they have, and she's just too darn busy to give a rats ass about one leo. I've been visiting once a week or so, and that leo's health is declining pretty fast, so I'd say in a few more weeks she'll be past the point of no return.

-Dave