KelliH said:
I know why people where afraid to post about past "not so good" deals with Chris. They felt intimidated by him, and they felt that it would do no good to post here, since Chris was so "well liked". I know of two seperate deals folks had that are not even ball python related that involve VERY subpar animals received from TSE (they were sick). You see, that was Chris' MO, intimidation, intimidation, intimidation. He's good at it. I never liked that aspect of his personality, although I tolerated it because I (like many others I'm sure) thought "at least he is an honest guy, he calls it like he sees it etc.".
Regretfully, I am one of those people. After reading
this thread, and after talking to a few other gecko keepers about the situation, I’ve decided that I should probably post this, even though I’m not real proud to do so. This should also explain my “vote” in the poll that was added.
I ordered five baby leopard geckos from TSE in June (I think) of 2005. When they arrived, they appeared to be in decent health and I was pleased with them. I left good feedback, posted a picture or two, etc. After having them for a few days, I noticed that they weren’t eating much. At the time, I was not as well-versed in leopard geckos and I trusted that the animals I received from [the almighty] Chris Johnson at [the esteemed] Top Shelf Exotics were healthy, superior animals.
A few weeks had gone by and the geckos began losing weight so I did a few fecals (which was not easy considering they were barely eating). The samples were over-ridden with pinworm oocytes. “No big deal,” I thought, and I started treating them with de-wormer. I did not contact Chris or anyone else at TSE to let them know what was wrong because I assumed that I would be able to effectively treat the animals. Furthermore, after witnessing the way Chris publicly hounded and berated numerous other people, I expected that if I had brought it to his attention that he would have turned the situation back on me, making it my fault, and likely would have accused me of having an “infested” collection. Keep in mind that this was shortly after he had accused another “gecko person” of having sick animals in their collection, and I certainly did not want nor need the same “attention.” So, I kept my mouth shut.
The geckos continued losing weight and eventually began throwing up the medication I was giving them. I deeply regret not taking them to a veterinarian to find out if something else may have been wrong with them, and I accept full responsibility for their demise regardless of the fact that I strongly believe they were already sick when I got them. At this point speculation is all I have left, but I have a strong suspicion that there was something wrong with the geckos other than a pinworm infestation. Pinworm is easily treated in leopard geckos and rarely fatal if treated, thus my suspicion that there was something else wrong. Again, I should have taken them to a vet. I know that now, but you know what they say about hindsight.
Anyway, eventually the geckos started to die. I don’t remember if two died and I euthanized three, or if it was the other way around. I did take a picture of the last three though, just in case. I apologize in advance, because I know it’s not a pretty sight, but reality rarely is.
For quite a while afterwards, I still believed that it must have been something that I had done considering the reputation Chris had, so I never said a word about it to anyone other than close friends. That was when I heard that not all of the animals he was selling were actually produced by him. I never asked if he had produced them, nor was I ever told, but I was under that impression when I made the purchase.
Now, for the record, I had approximately 50-60 other geckos at the time. Of those, I still have every single one with the exception of a few that I sold to a friend. None of these other geckos have exhibited any signs of ill health—not then, and not now. I have had a total of seven geckos die while in my care (current head count is somewhere around 140). Five of those seven were the ones from TSE, one was a hatchling that I had to euthanize because of a deformity, and the other was a female picta gecko that was killed by her mate during breeding. I apologize if that seems irrelevant, but in all honesty I think it proves my point that the geckos were already sick with something (coccidia, perhaps?) that they did not “catch” from any of my animals.
So there it is. Yeah, maybe I should have said something at the time, but it could have easily cost me a lot more than the $190 I spent on the geckos. I regret not taking them in for further evaluation, regardless of whether or not it was too late to save them. But, I feared the wrath of Chris, and saying something to him wouldn’t have done the geckos any good anyway. After all, I’m just a “nobody” who wouldn’t have stood a chance if caught on the other end of Chris’s MO here, and I just didn’t need that.
Sorry this ended up being so damn long.
