• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
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    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
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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 Edgar Machuca aka GeckoGen

K

Kasi

PartyGecko
Joined
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Messages
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Location
San Bruno, CA, USA
I am hesitant to do this, as I much prefer to avoid saying anything negative about other breeders - that said, I believe it necessary at this point to call attention to harassment of others by this breeder after hearing that the behavior and attitude that I experienced has not only happened to me. As far as I am concerned, the reptile industry is not only about money and animals exchanging hands, but about being able to set aside personal differences when it comes to interacting with each other, particularly when our actions constitute slander and/or harrassment. While I was unable to capture the entire conversation before it was removed from the forum, I am linking here to the pieces that I have; toward the end of the thread he made some unfounded and nasty remarks toward me, this is what happened next:

Conversation begins:

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I apologize that I did not capture the first post he made toward me, the thread was removed - here you can see one of his comments about me (gecko police), and then both other people's responses to the comments that he made and his response to that:

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After the thread was removed, he PM'd me - this is the PM I received from him after the thread was removed.

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I would like to reiterate that this thread is not about illegal activities monetarily, it is about harassment and slander, which are more difficult to pin down, and, equally harmful.

If anyone has had POSITIVE interactions with this person, I would love to hear it; mine has certainly not been that way, and I am hoping that those who were a part of this will chime in.
 
I have no affiliations with/have ever had a transaction with either of parties involved, but I did comment on this post simply stating that Kasi's questions were valid and his defensiveness was worrisome. I received this PM from him on Facebook, and he has either since deactivated his account and blocked me.
 

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I have received additional screen captures from other parties who were present for the event - I am posting them here.

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I was the person that requested he not bully people via his keyboard. This is the message I received from him on FB via private message. Since he's not one one of my friends there, he must have really wanted to deliver this message, since you have to pay money to message those not on your friends list.

I'm not having much luck posting the screenshot here. I've sent it to Kasi in the hopes she can post the message Edgar sent me.
 
Yes - his website and his statements are completely contradictory, that's one reason that I started by asking whether he was the one claiming that he had 'temperature resistant' geckos.
 
It's disgusting that he's keeping cresties in high temps and it is abuse IMO. The guy is apparently jealous of Kasi since he gets so defensive.
 
Show Me said:
It's disgusting that he's keeping cresties in high temps and it is abuse IMO. The guy is apparently jealous of Kasi since he gets so defensive.
Click to expand...

Agree wholeheartedly that this is abuse.

First, what's the benefit of 'producing' crested geckos that can tolerate higher temps? I find many people enjoy cresties because they do best in room temps and thus don't often require lighting/heat.

In his work, how many cresties have passed away that couldn't handle prolonged exposure to these higher temps? It's not a pleasant ending for them I imagine :(
 
MissFirefly said:
First, what's the benefit of 'producing' crested geckos that can tolerate higher temps? I find many people enjoy cresties because they do best in room temps and thus don't often require lighting/heat.
Click to expand...

I would assume that the appeal is that many people living in higher-temp areas that allow their homes to reach over 83 in the summer would be able to keep them as pets. As of now, I put a warning on my info that if people don't cool their homes during the summer, a crested gecko is probably not an appropriate pet. So... widening the market, at a guess?

I've dealt with Kasi numerous times in the past and she has always only come across as inquisitive and concerned about animal health. I don't think her questions merit the rude responses.
 
Wow

I just started reading this post on a whim, but then I got hooked and couldn't stop. All I can say is "wow". Kasi- Sorry you had to deal with such a loser. I think everyone will agree that Edgar is WAY out of line and not a person that anyone would ever want to communicate with, let alone do business with.

On the matter of thermoregulation; Kasi's first questions were absolutely valid. "How did you manage to override the entire thermoregulation system of a species within a generation or so?" Good question! Was he really selling these geckos as "conditioned to live at higher temps"? I'm glad you brought attention to this issue, because it is impossible (regardless of Edgar's "Science").

Why Edgar is wrong and Kasi's questions are justified:

Preferred temperatures are based on the rates of reaction, efficiency and thermal tolerances of many enzymes within an organism. The preferred temperature being the temp at which all of the molecular machinery within an organism is working optimally. Therefore, keeping a gecko outside of its preferred temperature range will negatively impact their metabolism. The preferred temperature at which a species thermoregulates is VERY highly conserved on an evolutionary scale (i.e. hundreds of thousands of years at the least). You can see this if you look at the preferred temps of 'reptiles' within different clades. For example: Iguanids in general like it much warmer than do geckonids. This is because they have evolved different forms of metabolic enzymes since they split from their common ancestor many, many years ago.

In order to create a line of crested geckos that thrive at higher temperatures, you would have to create a line of geckos with modified metabolic enzymes. This doesn't happen if you keep geckos in warmer conditions for a few generations. Google Lamarkism and learn why this makes no sense; that is not how evolution works. A thermoregulatory shift would require hundreds of mutations affecting hundreds of metabolic enzymes in a manner that allowed them all to function optimally at higher temperatures. This would require a huge population of geckos and a few hundred thousand generations. It is not something that can be accomplished by a hobbyist.

It is true that most species' are able to compensate a little in order to survive outside of their optimal range, but forcing them to do so WILL cause their metabolism to function improperly, and the animals will be stressed. Keeping animals outside of their preferred temperatures is cruel and abusive. As keepers we are responsible for providing an environment in which our animals can thrive.

Experimentation is ok under some controlled conditions, but DO SOME RESEARCH and be informed about what it is that you are doing!!!
I hate seeing self proclaimed "herpetologists", with no biological education and no notion of what science is, abusing animals in the name of "science". Worse; these animals are being sold to unwitting people, and false information along with them, potentially causing many more animals to be subjected to abuse by innocent, but misinformed pet owners.

Thanks Kasi, I hate seeing things like this happen. Good on you for sticking to your guns and pointing this guy out to the community. I hope he sees this thread and quits what he is doing, but that might be too optimistic.

Cheers!
 
Didn't read all of this but I do want to make a statement as someone with 2 biology degrees. To change an animals zone of tolerance takes more than 2 or 3 generations. It often takes many many years, we are talking often it is 100+ years. Take a genetics class, ecology class, hell even a general biology class teaches you evolution doesn't happen in a few years. You may have conditioned your animals tolerate that temps however long term (which you haven't been doing this long enough to show long term) it may prove to shorter lives, less productive in older years, and generations down the line you could see malformations due to constant high heat. So from a biologist standpoint, you have not proven you have produced geckos that are conditioned to live in warmer temps, you simply prefer to house them in incorrect temperature. And if they were a species of long term capable of it, you wouldn't see people with the issues of over heating and their geckos dying because by your argument, all geckos could be "conditioned" into doing it, you haven't genetically changed anything.

As far as bashing Kasi, well young man you are not well known enough to think you are such a big man on campus, I don't know about the rest of these people, I don't even know who you are. And I have been working with these guys for the last 8 years and I by no means would consider myself an expert or talk to people in this manner, you make yourself out to be a fool and seriously hard to take serious. Any serious breeder would take criticism and show proof of their findings. Any serious breeder would have taken into consideration the actual science of evolution and how it works before making a claim that they have altered crested geckos. If anything you are jealous and since you lack any real proof and experience you feel the need to retaliate against someone who was showing genuine concern for your animals, and for the possible future purchases of anyone buying from you. If you can't take that for the mere fact of love and devotion to a species, you sir don't deserve to keep them.
 
I just received a PM from him stating the following- this is the type of behavior I am referring to. I am on my phone and unable to provide a screen capture at the moment, but I can provide it if necessary.

"Hi Kasi, Thank you for the heads up, I really appreciate it. Herpworld just contacted me and Im well aware of what you are up to. I want to inform you that if this type of slander continues, or you continue to post anything that includes my name or Geckogen my lawyer will be contacting you. I suggest you take everything down or I will take legal action. I wish it didnt get to this point but it is what it is. No further communication is necessary unless is through legal means."
 
The names are blacked out because I have not received express permission to associate them with this thread. I attempt to keep people anonymous on the BOI unless they are comfortable joining in themselves.
 
Kasi said:
I just received a PM from him stating the following- this is the type of behavior I am referring to. I am on my phone and unable to provide a screen capture at the moment, but I can provide it if necessary.

"Hi Kasi, Thank you for the heads up, I really appreciate it. Herpworld just contacted me and Im well aware of what you are up to. I want to inform you that if this type of slander continues, or you continue to post anything that includes my name or Geckogen my lawyer will be contacting you. I suggest you take everything down or I will take legal action. I wish it didnt get to this point but it is what it is. No further communication is necessary unless is through legal means."
Click to expand...

Right out of the Handbook. When they get caught doing what they shouldn't, they cry lawyer. They know perfectly well that having an opinion is not slander, and relating facts is not slander. In fact, posting is not slander, slander is spoken defamation.
In addition, serious people have their attorney send a letter, they don't send ridiculous posts.
It makes me laugh every time I see this kind of 'lawyer' post, which is more often than one might think.

BTW if Edgar actually made the 'keyboard' comment in post #5, he should hide his head in shame.
 
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