Karen A Toms Misrepresented Animals?

I think her add is a little fishy on king snake. She has an add placed Albey’s Hypo Carrot Tail

And she has a photo of the animal that she says is the animal in the "before" Picture. And they look nothing alike.

Proven breeder - currently gravid. Her Original picture from
Albey’s Too Cool Reptiles and the male she has been paired
with pictured above. $300.00 + Shipping

P.S that's both pictures in the zip file just incase they get removed from KS.

I see your point, Christa. My knowledge of geckos is really limited, but can anyone comment on how common it is for a gecko to change appearance so much? Is it normal, uncommon, totally impossible?

What's odd is that both photos show a nice looking animal, so I wonder why she'd bother posting a pic that is not of the animal for sale. Odd.

it looks to me like this pic...



and this pic...




are of the same animal, the first being in Albey's care, the second being in her possesion, at a late date. Unless I'm missing something they look like the same animal, just some minor changes that are common in Leopard's from sub-adult to adulthood. Take notice of the "white" splotch in the center right where the carrot coloration meets the yellow behind both hind legs in the first pic. Then check out the second pic, same area...in my experiences, I've noticed that with age comes more intense brown spotting. Again, that's just my opinion but I'm almost 100% and once you check that out, all the other "differences" should be more visually apparent.


and this pic...



is of the male she may possibly be gravid by.

Sorry if this "layout" confuses anyone, I'm a little confused myself, but I may be missing something. That's just how I saw it.

then angel of the shot and the lighting i think is what is throwing people off a bit. The 2 of the female seem to me to be the same but as they age colorations and spots do change... spots will lighten up and disapear..
Had them been taken by the same photographer..with the same lighting and angel im sure it would look allot more like the same animal.
Take into consideration filters.... background... lighting.. angel etc.
Also is one before or after shedding? The before shot could have been taken right after shedding so it is brighter in color.. the newer shot may be just before shedding when they are a bit darker in color.
Either way she is confusing people by posting 2 photos of the same animal. SHe may be trying to tell people that she has kept it in good shape and letting you see that her tail is more than big... its huge!!! So she sure looks like a good healthy animal to me.

It looks like the same animal to me also. Leopard geckos can change quite a bit from juvie/subadult to adult. Here is a dramatic illustration of that point:

A friend sent me this one, we thought for sure it was going to be a really dark adult:


Here is the same gecko about 3 months later:


Pretty big change there!

Anyway, i just thought I would share those photos in this thread.

Well I'll eat my shoe then. I just thought that for the most part leo's got lighter with age not darker!


Thanks guys for setting me straight!

My leo's also are much lighter than when i first got them. I bought one in the pet shop as a baby that was sold to me as a normal but is in fact a hypo tang carrottail.
lucky me got it for 20 bucks .. hehehe. They didnt know what they had. Now as an adult she has a beautiful red base to her tail and is as orange and a real tangarine quite a beauty!

I think this rediculous post is the very reason some people may be saying this board is for " entertainment" value only. First, no I do not find the post entertaining, but what I am saying is this post does not belong here in my opinion, bad mouths or brings into question the credibility of a business/person trying to do business and devalues a legitimet post. I feel too many people do not give the business the benefit of the doubt, LIKE in the GenerAsian thread, and jump on the bandwagon bashing businesses BEFORE any information has been gathered and both sides have had their say. I am no gek expert, but would not question the pictures I saw, and to put a "negative" post on this forum without some obvious attempt at fraud by the seller is freaking beyond me.

Someone selling a het that you know is not a het, yeah, tell us, but a pic that looks 90% like the other pic, to question that here, ...come on! Get a hobby if you have that much time on your hands...other than the retpile hobby.

David Reid

PS-this is the type of baseless questioning that may eventually be the downfall of the BOI. Someone is going to get peeved for this kind of pub. and not let it go!

David Reid- Sorry for the rambling Webslave!

I don't see any bashing here. A question was posed, some answers were given, some education was attained. No rudeness, no name calling or blame throwing. I think this is exactly why this board is here, so people who do not know can ask those who do.

Wes Pollock