Wholesale paid well until it didn't. I chose a smaller business and more time on the morphs that got me into this.
Video · 17 min watchWritten by Brian
PetSmart and Petco are the two big chain pet stores in the United States. Their live animal sales are controversial. I used to supply them with geckos, and I get asked all the time why I stopped.
Mass-produced wholesale breeding
Some companies never sell to individuals. They produce as many animals as they can and sell them wholesale, mainly to big pet stores. One US breeder hatches more than 300 leopard geckos a day, 365 days a year.
Critics say this makes reptiles look disposable: an impulse buy for a child, thrown away when the child gets bored. Care is the other complaint. Animals in these stores are often kept in the wrong habitat, too hot or too cold, and staff with little reptile experience repeat corporate care sheets that are often wrong on temperatures and food. There is no real expertise and no education before you buy, and that is the real problem.
Why I don't think they should be banned
I see some merit in the petitions to stop these stores selling live animals, but I don't agree with a ban. Nothing else brings as many people into reptiles. I am the example: the first crested gecko I ever held was in a chain pet store, where I only went because my girlfriend at the time wanted to. I was tired and grumpy, and the moment I held it I was hooked.
Why I stopped supplying them
I used to run two divisions. The high-end side bred specific morphs and patterns to create new things, for collectors and other breeders. The wholesale side produced pet-quality geckos. I hatched about 5,000 geckos a year, 2,500 to 3,000 of them wholesale, mostly for Petco. I sold to one of Petco's licensed distributors, who had the inspections done, and the corporate office told him which stores to ship to.
I quit for two reasons.
- No passion for it. What drew me into breeding was making something that had never existed: new colors, patterns and combinations of mutations. Wholesale is about producing large numbers of healthy pets. Nothing is wrong with that, it just wasn't what interested me.
- The numbers stopped working. When I started, wholesale geckos sold for $24 to $25 each. When I quit, they sold for $11. My space was full, and to make it pay I would have needed a much bigger facility hatching 15,000 to 20,000 geckos a year at $11 to $12 each.
I am not morally opposed to breeding on that scale, but it isn't why I got into this. I sold off most of the wholesale animals, and I make less money, but I am happier. A gecko friend and I used to joke that breeding reptiles is Pokémon for adults. Over two years I brought my numbers down and expanded my high-end projects.
What you can do
If you see an animal in a store tank that is not right for its species, politely ask for the head of the reptile department and tell them what it needs. These departments are often run by 17 to 19 year olds who don't know any better, and many are glad of the help.