NekoGeckos
Hobbyist Gecko Breeder
I have done lots of business with Jeff Porto at Shedskin in the West Valley Mall in Tracy CA, and I was almost always disappointed.
The first thing that upset me was the first leopard gecko I got from him. She was old and skinny and had mbd, but she was only my second gecko, so I wasn't as informed as I am now and couldn't tell she wasn't in proper breeding condition.
He had this female in a tank with at least 4 other females, and a giant male "black pearl" and they were all breeding in there constantly. The tank itself also bothered me. It was a wooden vision tank with a light bulb in it and sand substrate. I think the bulb was their primary heat source.
Anyway, as the months passed, I traded geckos with him frequently, often giving him a healthy animal in exchange for an unhealthy one, just so I could rehabilitate them. Eventually I grew tired of rehabilitating every animal I got from him and started asking for refunds. He danced around my request several times, leaving me out the money and the gecko.
I have also relied upon him for other services, including euthanizing a gecko and incubating eggs for me while I was away. He failed at both tasks, leaving my diseased and starving gecko suffering for weeks because he didn't euthanize her like he said he would, but tried to "jumpstart" her so he could sell her.
When I left eggs for him to incubate, almost all of them molded over despite being fertile, and the one baby that did hatch was thrown into a 5 gallon exo terra with 5 other larger baby geckos. The baby I hatched would have been fine if he had called me when it hatched, or if it had gotten any food or water for the first couple weeks of life. It died a few days after I took it home. What a waste of a gorgeous reverse stripe mack eclipse.
The most upsetting part of every experience I've had with the guy is his absolute refusal to take any advice from anyone. He still uses sand for his leopard geckos, he won't admit his mistakes, and almost every gecko I've sold or traded him is now dead. Mostly because he overbred them or housed multiple males together. One male I even specified was aggressive and almost killed one of my other geckos. He put it in a tank with two other males.
Because of his 'can do no wrong' attitude, I have witnessed a carpet python escape it's tank in his store, even after I warned him it was getting out. I have also received a nasty set of parasites from animals I got from him. I had to downsize or euthanize nearly half of my leopard gecko collection because of the disease his animals gave mine. It could have been prevented if I followed better quarantine procedures, but he didn't seem to care about the animals at all.
Also, when my uncle gave Jeff his yearling savannah monitor, he put it in a 30 gallon tank. My uncle only gave him up because he couldn't afford to upgrade his 60 gal, and the poor guy gets shoved into a 30 gal.
I have witnessed him on multiple occasions belittling customers by talking about them behind their backs, giving them false advice because they won't know any better, and overcharging them tremendously.
His "40 years of experience with reptiles" doesn't mean much when your animals are dropping like flies. He is just what you'd expect of a man running a mall pet store.
The first thing that upset me was the first leopard gecko I got from him. She was old and skinny and had mbd, but she was only my second gecko, so I wasn't as informed as I am now and couldn't tell she wasn't in proper breeding condition.
He had this female in a tank with at least 4 other females, and a giant male "black pearl" and they were all breeding in there constantly. The tank itself also bothered me. It was a wooden vision tank with a light bulb in it and sand substrate. I think the bulb was their primary heat source.
Anyway, as the months passed, I traded geckos with him frequently, often giving him a healthy animal in exchange for an unhealthy one, just so I could rehabilitate them. Eventually I grew tired of rehabilitating every animal I got from him and started asking for refunds. He danced around my request several times, leaving me out the money and the gecko.
I have also relied upon him for other services, including euthanizing a gecko and incubating eggs for me while I was away. He failed at both tasks, leaving my diseased and starving gecko suffering for weeks because he didn't euthanize her like he said he would, but tried to "jumpstart" her so he could sell her.
When I left eggs for him to incubate, almost all of them molded over despite being fertile, and the one baby that did hatch was thrown into a 5 gallon exo terra with 5 other larger baby geckos. The baby I hatched would have been fine if he had called me when it hatched, or if it had gotten any food or water for the first couple weeks of life. It died a few days after I took it home. What a waste of a gorgeous reverse stripe mack eclipse.
The most upsetting part of every experience I've had with the guy is his absolute refusal to take any advice from anyone. He still uses sand for his leopard geckos, he won't admit his mistakes, and almost every gecko I've sold or traded him is now dead. Mostly because he overbred them or housed multiple males together. One male I even specified was aggressive and almost killed one of my other geckos. He put it in a tank with two other males.
Because of his 'can do no wrong' attitude, I have witnessed a carpet python escape it's tank in his store, even after I warned him it was getting out. I have also received a nasty set of parasites from animals I got from him. I had to downsize or euthanize nearly half of my leopard gecko collection because of the disease his animals gave mine. It could have been prevented if I followed better quarantine procedures, but he didn't seem to care about the animals at all.
Also, when my uncle gave Jeff his yearling savannah monitor, he put it in a 30 gallon tank. My uncle only gave him up because he couldn't afford to upgrade his 60 gal, and the poor guy gets shoved into a 30 gal.
I have witnessed him on multiple occasions belittling customers by talking about them behind their backs, giving them false advice because they won't know any better, and overcharging them tremendously.
His "40 years of experience with reptiles" doesn't mean much when your animals are dropping like flies. He is just what you'd expect of a man running a mall pet store.
