Avangel Reptiles- parasitic reptiles, and more

On February 17th I ordered 2 leopard geckos from Avangel Reptiles. One Eclipse P Het RAPTOr and one SHTCT. I knew at the time he was on vacation and they wouldn't be shipped until March.

March rolled around and I got in contact with Chaz Stewart and had asked him for the Hatch dates and weights, as they were not listed on the website. He let me know that he did not have the hatch dates recorded and would get me updated weights and pictures that evening. I never heard back on those.

On March 2nd he messaged me and said that He had a problem but it could be fixed, and that “the eclipse you wanted was the wrong picture. I don't know how that happened but the right one is this one . Let me know if you are ok with this one?” The picture was another eclipse I had seen on the site but it was in a cup in the picture and I couldn't tell much about it so I asked for another picture. He sent me the picture from the advertisement. She was shown as a fat, vibrant, healthy leopard gecko, so I agreed to the exchange.
He said he was shipping them out that night, and I asked him if he had gotten the weights on them since he never got back to me about that before and he said he forgot and that they were between 30 and 40 grams.
I messaged him on 3/3 to let him know that they made it safe and were settling in.
Upon arrival, I was a little upset at the fact that they came in a completely unmarked box, and there was no foam inside- only a heat pack and some bunched up paper. I brushed it off as being the first time I had ever ordered reptiles, and trusted that he knew what he was doing and that maybe that's how everyone did it- even though I didn't think it was right. I was also upset at the fact that they were much smaller than I was expecting, but thought that was maybe due to an illusion of the camera.
I knew that Mew wasn't eating and was having loose stools. I accredited it to stress, and simply cleaned the fecal matter from her tub nightly and left her alone to acclimate to her new home. Deoxys was also having loose stool but she was eating so I wasn't AS concerned about her.
By March 21st Mew still had not eaten and had lost a gram. I became concerned with the smell of her feces and upon closer inspection were VISIBLE white pinworms in her feces.
I gave them both a dose of panacur that night and messaged Chaz to let him know of the situation.
He said “That really bothers me. I do apologize about that and I will take care of that and give all of my reptiles a dose of ARMION (His multivitamin). Speaking of, do you have some?” I told him that I did, and I was offering it regularly, but was treating the worms with Panacur. (Fenbendazole)
He said that he “got some reptiles from a friend a while back that had parasites and gave them liquid armion with pedialyte for a week and it went away. I also got a couple more from him and that must've been where it came from because I never had parasites before. Again I apologize and will look over my reptiles.” That was the last I heard from him at that time. No offer of any kind of correction or anything. Spent $214 on reptiles ($75 each and $60 in shipping) and received sick, skinny ones and all he did was “apologize.”

I didn't hear from him again until I made a post on instagram with a picture of Mew saying “Poor Mew still isnt eating.. got her on Mar 6th (mistaken date) from Avangel Reptiles and treated her for parasites... so worried because its been 24 days now and she still hasn't gained anything.... still 29 grams... still dull colored and acting like she doesn't feel good.. Not even Armion is bringing her around. Any tips? A friend is mailing me some carnivore care, It'll be here thursday... been giving her the armion and reptiboost to keep her going” (Drizzled on her nose, not forced with a syringe at this point, so as to reduce possibility of stress.)

At this point he DMed(Direct private message) me and said “You know its really frustrating when people post negative remarks about me instead of coming to me first. I have not heard from you not once before now with this post. I am always here to help anybody and everybody, but it seems like you came to me and I didn't offer any help what so ever. People will only think negative. So please tell me what is it I can do for you. I do want to help.” I reminded him that I did in fact text message him on the 21st and told him about the parasites. I told him that I wasn't really looking for rehab projects when I ordered them, and was trying to get away from rehab projects. I felt like regardless of getting them on sale ($75 each) I spent too much on them to have to stress over them as if I had bought petco rehab projects. I told him that I'm not trying to frustrate him but Im also frustrated at the situation.
He then asked how the other gecko (Deoxys) was doing and I told him that she was doing much better after some doses of panacur and some armion her feces had started to normalize and she had gained 5 grams. His big answer at that point was “Let me think of what you can do for the other gecko.”
I told him then that I removed the instagram post that upset him. He said that it didnt upset him just that people would view it and perceive it differently. I had a message from him when I woke up the next morning asking everything I had dont to help her and about my set up. I described to him that my set up was on point and told him I had given her the appropriate dosage of panacur every 3 days and for the past 2 days (at that point) a syringe ½ of reptiboost and ½ of armion(multivitamin) mixed with water to a light baby food consistency. He then commenced to blame me for the issue saying that as of right now he thinks Im just stressing her out and that I needed to put her cage somewhere dark and not mess with her, feed her, etc for a few days. I told him that she had had plenty of time to acclimate and distress and at this point she was losing weight and that I really shouldnt have to be worrying about this problem at all considering I ordered what should have been healthy reptiles.
He told me that I shouldn't be worried that he assures me that she was fine when he shipped her to me, and that hes not blaming me but she's an animal and can be unpredictable.
He asked how much interaction I'd had with her and I told him I had been leaving her to destress other than nightly cleaning the diarrhea stool from her tub. I heard nothing else from him.
I finally told him that I wanted a refund for the eclipse (didnt even ask for one for deoxys) and and that I would be sending out a crypto test, and a fecal test for coccidia, and the meds- all of which were unexpected expenses since I wasnt expecting a sick leo, especially from someone that sells a miracle health vitamin, and I have seen 2 other leos purchased from him and how badly they had progressed, and I wasn't about to wait around for her to get that bad. I said Its obviously a widespread issue in his stock and by testing mine I may have answers for him on whats wrong with the rest of his stock.
He said he didn't have widespread issues***** and this was the first time he'd ever had this issue. He said that he would only refund my money on return of a positive crypto test. (never mind the parasite infestation.) He said that he's sorry I was having issued but it was healthy when he sold it to me and that is why he switched out the previous chosen gecko for this one.

I questioned him about the other eclipse I wanted, saying that I was told the other eclipse I wanted was unavailable and that the wrong picture had been uploaded. If this gecko was healthy it wouldnt have arrived looking like it did as compared to the picture and having worms in its feces. I told him that I didnt order and pay all that money for sick geckos and didnt plan on ordering a rehab project needing all these additional medical expenses out of my pocket. If we didnt come to a solution I would not be afraid to take dated pictures, screen shots, and an accurate review to the BOI.
He said again that on the case of the eclipse the wrong picture had been added and he sent me an updated picture of the correct gecko. (the one I couldnt tell much by because it was In the cup, then the second picture he sent me looked fat and healthy.)

After much more conversation and calm debate- including him admitting that this is the first time in 10 years that he has SO MANY SICK GECKOS- he agreed to a partial refund of $56 of the $75 I paid for Mew, and didn't want me to tell anyone how he settled the issue just that he settled it. I agreed to the terms because I was tired of the constant headache and wanted to put him behind me and focus fully on getting my lizard well. I accepted the $56 refund and told him I would let him know what test results I came back with and told him that I would let everyone know that he settled it, like he asked.

I was willing to put the whole situation behind me and be done with this guy and his bully/pity me ways, until last night when I had multiple people coming to me saying that they had spoken with him and he was basically blaming me for the problem and running me into the ground to everyone. I accepted his crappy terms, accepted his crappy refund and the fact that he wanted me to cover for him in that he didn't adequately take responsibility and compensate me properly for the fact that I now have a gecko that has not eaten in a month and is crapping worms FROM HIM, and sure did not deserve to be trash talked to people after ME being the one getting screwed in the situation.

To put the icing on the cake a friend of mine had gotten overly emotional after seeing me upset for a month straight over this gecko and confronted him about selling parasitic animals to unsuspecting customers, and he claimed to have been retired from the military, and that the inhuman things he's seen somehow makes selling parasite infested reptiles ok. He also claims to have been in the reptile industry for 10 years... at age 28 I don't know how hes had time to accomplish all of these huge things.

For Photos, etc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing


-Kayla Jackson 4/7/2015

Just curious if you ever tested the gecko for crypto?

Did you ever bring the geckos to the vet? Get a fecal done?

While it is entirely possible that he sent sick animals, it is tough to prove that they came sick versus getting sick in your care without any proof. The fact that you got a partial refund after an extended period of time is actually a lot more than you would have received from other breeders.

The crypto test is on order as we speak and on the way, as well as fecal. You can see in the pictures the worms and microscopic images of them. If you look at the advertised picture and compare it to the picture of what was received you will see they were like that when I got them and did not contract it in my care

also have to wait for poo d: been feeding carnivore care and reptiboost so hopefully ill get some fresh stool soon

Not sure that my replies are posting, If you look at the pictures of what was advertised compared to what I received you will see that they were already slim and sickly before I got them.

I have crypto and fecal tests on order and am going to contact my local college this afternoon to see if they can examine a sample for me. Just have to wait for poop. I have been feeding her carnivore care and reptiboost so hopefully she will poop soon

Here are the photos Kayla posted on the web document she linked in her original post. These two photos are of the feces.

Here are her photos (again from the web document she linked in the original post) of the leopard geckos as advertised and then her photos of the animals she received.

That gecko is very skinny (tail especially) and I would definitely get the crypto test done. For the worms, if I remember correctly, worms that are visible in the stool (by eye and not microscope) usually come from insects, especially crickets. He should have offered to pay for the panacur though. I would get a fecal done at the vet and the crypto test done asap. It's a very quick process with Avian. I want to say that I had results in about 5 days from them when I overnighted the tests to them. Get a fecal done to make sure there aren't other types of worms. I'm guessing that was pinworms from insects, but I obviously can't be sure. High stress situations can cause an outbreak of worms and pancur only works for certain ones.

I'm very disappointed to see this post. Chaz has been around for awhile. Did you take pictures of the shipping box? That really bothers me, too. There is no excuse to ship without the box lining.

Maybe they should change the name of their company to "Parasitic Reptiles" !