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    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Bad Guy GeckosEtc Line Strength

Hi everyone. I Would just like to say that over a 10 year period, I have purchase at least 50-60 geckos from Steve. All came in excellent health, ate like pigs, and grew up to be beautiful adults. When he said they had a 30 day guarantee, I was very surprised as I have never heard of anyone making that kind of guarantee.

With that said, I would now like to briefly mention an experience with a wild caught IJ blue tongued skink. After we purchased him he was in our care for a few weeks and appeared to be in very good condition...eating, growing and very active. One day I noticed he seemed to have a problem (he seemed to be squirming around a bit), and after examining him, could see that he had a prolapsed hemipene. After a discussion with a vet, I learned this can happen from an infection that can be caused by a piece of substrate, uneaten foods etc getting inside.... As a wild caught reptile, it certainly was not from inbreeding. This was the only reptile that we have ever had this type of problem with, so am assuming it is rare, but does happen.

We have known Steve for over 10 years and not only is he very professional, but a very nice person as well. At shows, Steve was never too busy to take the time to talk reptiles with our son and answer all his questions... I am sure Steve spent numerous hours answering questions and he was always happy to do this. I will be doing more business with Steve this year. Thank you Steve for all the wonderful geckos you have sold us!

Linda Switzer
Switzer Reptiles
 
Had to reply, I love Steve! After my purchase hes always been more than happy to help and answer any questions. One of the best and most knowledgeable breeders in the industry. Steve could never be a bad guy, and never will.
 
I rarely reply in here but when I saw "Bad Guy" next to Steve Sykes I couldn't believe my eyes. I have spent thousands with Steve over the years and have always been impressed with his quality and service. Steve and his wife are two of the nicest and most honest people in the industry. Coming from another leopard gecko breeder, prolapses and egg binding are just part of breeding geckos. Happens to me at least once a year regardless of the gecko's origin. I have many geckos from Steve's Super Giant lines and have produced many wonderful healthy geckos with no problems whatsoever. Anyway, if there ever was a "Bad Guy" thread that should be changed to a "Good Guy" it would be this one.
 
I have purchased a Blizzard eclipse male, and a Max Snow from Gecko's ETC. I have not had any problems with the gecko's I bought from them. I am sorry that you have had a bad experience with them. I am just being objective about the subject for anyone that is thinking about purchasing from them.
 
As has been stated by others, prolapses and egg binding happens, whether leopard geckos are "inbred" or not. I have personally had at least 6 males prolapse over the years and not one has died. Losing an egg bound female is an awful thing but it is the price we (and our animals, sadly) pay for reproducing them. How someone could blame the original breeder for things like this boggles my mind.

P.S. Steve Sykes is one of the top professional leopard gecko breeders in the world and I have no doubt that had these sad incidents of death happened during the specified time of his guarantee he would nonetheless have replaced the animals or otherwise made his customer whole.
 
Hi, just gonna throw in there really quick names Anthony me and my partner just purchased from Steve, my partners name is Kyle and he's purchasing another, all I have to add is Steve's a beast........ I hope that helps
 
I'll join the lovefest... Steve is one of the best, for sure. Always willing to answer questions, hold animals, and he puts an extraordinary amount of energy and passion into what he does.
 
I agree, he answered all my questions, and I couldn't be any happier with my geckos which I also purchased a giant raptor, eats like a champ breeds like a champ, I have about 10 eggs in the incubator just from the male I got from steve and the female which is also a giant raptor, I didn't run across any problems and that's going on about 3 months now......
 
Hey there, my name is Collette Eskra. Although i have never done business with Steve, i will say that this thread has not thwarted me from doing so. I am by no means an expert, and am just starting off myself, but i too have a female eclipse with a small depth perception issue, and i must say, SHES DOING FINE. When i first purchased her she needed help with eating, but i noticed the problem (Within Days I Might Add) and have been assiting her through her "Derpyness". Since i have been helping her, she has improved her eating almost by a full 100 percent to where she hardly even needs my help anymore. :D She's such a good girl. All i can see on the accusers part is that he was negligent, and refused to help an animal in need, or put forth the effort to do so. :[
 
I am currently in the process of purchasing an animal from Steve. His email correspondence is extremely quick and very professional. He placed the animal on hold without a deposit for me and updated his website within a few hours to show it was being held for me (my initials).

I will, without a doubt, purchase more animals from Steve Sykes after this purchase is completed.
 
I recently spent another $1500 or so (after this thread was started) with Steve and couldn't be happier. He is always great to deal with. I look forward to doing more business in the near future.
 
I just hope that people take the time to read through the thread... Unfortunately it's still a black mark for the seller even if, as it appears, he's not at fault. Some will search the BOI, find a Bad Guy thread, and be put off of doing business with him. That sucks. There has to be a better way of labeling threads, some kind of community voting system to decide who's actually at fault. The BOI operates a lot like a courtroom, with burden of proof, no hearsay, etc... why shouldn't it have verdicts? Just my 2 cents.

Also, I'm just starting to get into Leos and from what I've read I will absolutely do business with Geckos, etc. I'd like to get some Super Giant blood in the mix too! Of course, I'll actually pay for it.
 
I'm glad to hear you'll be getting Geckos from Steve. I am sure you won't be off-put in the slightest like you had happen before. Sorry to hear about your bad dealings with the Facebook fraud...
 
I have never purchased from him and have not kept Eublepharids for a while but I have looked his website over. It is outstanding (animals individually pictured) and his email response to the OP was top of the line professionalism. I read it as if it were a crypto refresher course. Plus, the guy (if I recall correctly) does field work with California tiger salamanders so if/when I purchase geckoes again, my mind will be made up.
 
This post should be removed. A newbie could just see this and not get the right facts and such(not read the whole thing). This guy is extremely knowledgeable and experienced(understatement). I wouldnt drop $1450 down on a pair if otherwise. I saw the bad guy symbol n steve sykes and was like no way....
 
knobguy said:
This post should be removed.
Click to expand...
Doesn't work like that here. BOI posts are not removed except in the case of very specific rule violations...and even then they aren't deleted. This thread would be pretty silly without the content of the opening post, don't you think?
 
Dennis, I don't think this thread will hurt Steve. Anyone who actually reads it will see that he is one of the top breeders out there. Anyone who misses that point is probably someone none of us need to do business with, it's pretty obvious.
 
Wilomn said:
Dennis, I don't think this thread will hurt Steve. Anyone who actually reads it will see that he is one of the top breeders out there. Anyone who misses that point is probably someone none of us need to do business with, it's pretty obvious.
Click to expand...

As both a newbie here as well as a potential gecko buyer, when I first started reading this post, I immediately ruled Steve out as far as sellers I was considering. Then I read further and saw what was really going on. I only hope that others will do the same. I think it would be pretty hard not to because very early on in this thread, people starting asking necessary questions (that weren't getting answers) and praising Steve left and right.

So I wasn't going to consider Steve when I started the post but now that I have read it's entirety, Steve is probably one of the top 5 on my list of people TO consider! This post helped me process my decision better by being able to read all the positive experiences people had with Steve. I agree, this post won't hurt his business, if anything, it will help him.

Just mah two cents! :D
 
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