Reviewing PetSmart's Gecko Care Guides (Vet Approved!)

Hi GoHerping For leopard geckos the best lamp to use is like one of those mini halogen lamps I think it works best because it produces minimal amount of heat and it could also heat a rock up

Holy cow no don’t do anything more than 85 degrees for crested geckos

I bought my first beardie at petco and the workers got my beardies sex wrong.

My leopard gecko care guide from pet smart is a lot better

I work at petsmart and at least at my store we care about our animals. I personally have a leopard gecko named Gideon. I often mention your channel and give them tons of information on how to properly care for the babies

DO NOT USE COCO FIBRE FOR BABY CRESTIES. i once did that and my baby gecko almost died by choking on it!

You'd get along with aquarium Nazis. e.g. at minimum 20k gallons for Dory fish or something like that.

The person who sent those to you probably circled the "Vet Approved" because they were appalled that these guides were possibly approved by real veterinarians

Heating pads/mats for leos is not always the best option depending on what your ambient air temps are. Our ambient air here is pretty chilly so CHE/ceramic heat is a great option for boosting the ambient air and keeping all of the warm side accessible to heat rather than a small square of space on the floor.

This was more entertaining then educational 😂

An employee at Petsmart told my little brother he didn’t need a thermostat for his leopard gecko. Thank goodness I have several reptiles and could give him better advice🤷‍♀️ don’t ever listen to them

i think one reason they might not mention using dubias is depending on where you are they're considered illegal. I live in Florida and you can't buy them in any stores here

I feel the EXTREME need to express this on one of your videos, because I know a lot of people look up to you. But I worked at petsmart for less than a year, and it was my first ever job. When i turned 18 and got my license, Petsmart was the place I applied to and got accepted immediately. It was my dream job, because all of my life, I had LOVED animals. So I thought it would be the PERFECT place to get a first job. During my first week, they had me on COMPUTER training. I had to sit in the backroom and finish a huge test, where they would make me watch videos then answer questions afterwards. I passed ALL of the tests without failing. However, once I started getting ACTUAL training, that's when things went south. When shipments of animals came in, we had to put all of the new animals in their right spots in the back room. In the backroom... We would have over 20 hamsters in a shoe-box sized container, with one TINY house for them all to fit in. Before, and AFTER I finished my training, I constantly found hamsters in the backroom that had been torn apart by the other hamsters. The hamsters that were out on "display" were usually only 2 or 3 hamsters make it look like they were being humane. The managers told me: "NEVER have more than 2 or 3 hamsters maximum in the floor display. We don't want that display to be too cramped like the backrooms." When a small animal got sold from the "floor display," We would go back to the backroom to grab an animal to replace that empty spot. I had to deal with that kind of BS for a long time. And, when I would try to HELP these animals by using a seperate enclosure, I would get in trouble. They always said: "I don't care how uncomfortable the animal is. We are trying to SELL them. If you can't follow that rule, then you will be fired." in the end, I quit the day before black friday. I went into the office at the end of my shift, and told them that I was done contributing to their animal abuse. The manager said: "Are you REALLY quitting, when tomorrow is black friday? You do know that we need ALL workers here tomorrow, right?" and I was like "Yes. I'm tired of dealing with your ways, becase you neglect these poor animals in the backroom. Deal with it yourself." I'm now banned from working at ANY PetSmart in the USA.

My leopard geckos are 27 years old and have a healthy life. They have been using sand all their life.

Petsmart is poop

Can I use eco earth

I went to a petsmart to start my reptile adventure and he said the leopard gecko equipment is the same as crested gecko equipment

do wanna mention that heat lamps should mainly be used for ambient temperature. I have a heat mat but the ceramic bulbs really help with humidity and keep the whole cage warm enough (i live in Minnesota so that's a must)

They are being like the weather man if they put it all on the leaflets they might be right

My lepard gecko doesn't seam to like a moist hide . So when she looks like she's going to start shedding we bring the humidity up a bit .

If some thermometers are bad are you able to recommend one for leopard geckos?

My petsmart cares.Well most of the people there do.

You should keep ants

Petco and petsmart try to cater to everyones needs according to my parents

but if u go to petsmart and shit you can rescue a mistreated animal 🙄 ur choice

honestly I swear when companies make a bunch of care guides all at once, they do mix them up. like there was one hermit crab care guide that went on and on about how important uvb was so they don't get metabolic bone disease...they're nocturnal...and they don't have bones...

is spagnum moss a good substrate for baby cresties

What's ur ig

Yes I am a very lucky person that has a good petsmart

Hey Ive been looking at multiple sources and im confused as ive heard uvb is beneficial to leapord geckos so i thought a uvb light was good?

A petco employee I talked to a few months ago told me they needed calcisand because they sit on it and absorb the calcium. I was like WHAT ARE THEY SPONGES?!

There was one petco employee that told me to use oven mitts when handling a bitey snake :-/

A few months ago I saw a leopard Gecko with an perfect shed and watched finish shedding and eat its shed, I wish I could have gotten it out of that horrid place

I am so happy I work at a petsmart with people who actually care. They tell people to not read the guides and do real research give real advise and recommend better things than the guides. Also try to fight to spend more and get better breeders it won't ever work but hey at least they try.

Ive worked at my Petco for 3 years and luckily, my reptiles almost never arrive with issues and especially not dead. The worst that happens is they arrive too small and I quarantine them until they get to a healthy sellable size. Where I see the problem is small animals, way more loss there. And that would be because that specific vendor isnt our reptile supplier. And I report them EVERY time they go and fuck up. I've actually gotten in several arguments with my small animal supplier and quarantine my small animals before I even allow them to be purchased. The last thing I want is some little kids first pet to die after a week of owning it thanks to the vendor. And at least while theyre in my care, they get veggies, fresh water every day and electrolytes every week. It hurts me that so many of my sister stores dont have at least 1 person who makes sure every mouth in their care gets the best in-store life as corporate allows. (meaning we have no choice how the habitats are set up)

I have a Crested gecko and I went to pet smart to get his tank and supplies (I bought him from a breeder not pet smart) and I saw these and read it and laughed so hard at some of the things on it.

Oh no dude. Youre as misinformed as petsnart. Geckos need proper deep heat waves to digest food. Heat mats are garbage.

This gecko is so pretty. 2:43 It reminds me of like, lightning, or something.

Have you tried a zoo med repti rock

I have 2 leapord geckos in a 25gallon I think, it's over 20 but not 30, and they've only fought 1 time I simply split them up for the night with a makeshift wall, they didnt damage each other and they havent fought ever since then

At my Petsmart 50,000 crickets died shipping

the guys at petco told me crested geckos dont like being held and they only eat crickets. it was just so great

Do u have really curly and oily pubic hair. What are u pronouns Do u like guys.

I do wanna see the other pamphlets. Plz

My name is MindONick, and you're watching Disney Channel POV: You're very confused

With my leopard geckos i took the sticky thing off of the thermometer and put it on top of the heat mat it’s not always 100% correct (as i use a heat gun to check still) but it’s usually pretty close

I worked at petsmart. Some of my fellow employees were actually incapable of critical thought. Thought BP’s should be on aspen because they are snakes, etc. I actually got in trouble for putting our bps on coconut fiber. Pretty stupid place to work. The customers are just as stupid. I had to explain to someone the dangers of co habing. They wanted to Cohab bearded dragons. I said “If they are both females it maybe could work, and you need a 100 gallons of space at least. That said I’m not selling you two of them unless you buy two enclosures.” They got pissy. Asked why. “Well these are babies and we have no real idea what’s male and what’s female at the moment” “So” “Males are very territorial and will fight to the death.” “So, I can just pull one out if they get like that” “No, you really can’t. Bad things happen fast how long would you want to have to fight someone your same size who decided they were gonna kill you” “Yeah but I’ll watch them” “Do you sleep?” As you can tell I was starting to lose my patience. “I mean yeah” “Cool so one morning you are gonna wake up and have a bearded dragon, and one bearded dragon with some assembly required.” “Huh?” “If you do what you are planning to do, you will be scraping one of them off the wall of the tank within the year” handed them off to someone else at this point with explicit instructions to sell them nothing other than one dragon and maybe don’t sell to them at all. Went on break.

Ps.. The vets at petsmart do not do reptile care. I called once and asked if they would see my reptile. They said they dont see reptiles. I "sounded" shocked and asked why my reptile had "vet approved" by petsmart vet under his care sheet. They said. We never seen any of the animals in petsmart

Last time I bought a bearded dragon from pet smart. They had 0 knowledge on them and I debunked every single thing they would tell me.

I currently work at petsmart. The quality of the animals is obviously not the best but there are certain measures we can take to try to prevent someone from buying a sick animal. I also wanna point out that in the training they mostly emphasize the care of dogs and cats which led me to believe thats what they do best. My store has some good people working there that have experience with a lot of different animals. My store is also smaller so we can maintain it and the animals a little better than a bigger store could.

Serpentarium is where I get my reptiles, the lady that works there is really nice lol and real helpful when I got my first reptile....My Dummy Beardie who I’ve had for soon to be 10 years.

it didn’t talk about pangea for crested

Crested gecko temperatures should NOT exceed 80 degrees and males shouldn't be housed together no matter what. Actually, if you have a breeding group, that's 10x worse since they'll fight for a mate.

So nobody’s going to talk about the thumbnail where the gecko had eyelashes?

Confused as to why you crossed out uv when Arcadia do shadedweller UV t5 kits which my leopard gecko often utilises, even my inverts have access to UV since it is essential to all living beings to have access to UV for a whole range of psychological and psychical reasons. I've always had great respect for you but not providing UV for a leopard gecko is an arcahic way of thinking, THRIVE not survive. Please do some research on Dr Francis Baines and her Furgason Zones.

I recently got a Leopard Gecko and while I was doing research on how to take care of a Leopard Gecko, I found the care guide for Leopard Geckos and was absolutely livid about it. I'm glad that you reviewed them.

I work at one those chain retails spoken, I'm one of those associates who always advise doing your own research and take what the "care guides" say with a grain of salt. I will also say that associates can not vet animals. Even if we know what is wrong, we can give a tip, but then direct them to a vet. It's true, most associates don't know small animal health past dog or cat. 1 or two of us know any details from years of working with the animals. Not all chain retail stores are the same, it's all about who works where. Our store is alright for a chain, it's def not the place to work if you love animals. It's a place to work and do your best to try and help where you can. Between what little you are allowed to do, how bad the pets are when they come in, to the number of customers who treat and buy animals like basic merch. It will mentally kill you.

I imagine that you think you are just socially awkward, but I find your humor hilarious!!! Would love to see what you think of the other two pieces of paper (I won't call them care instructions yet.)

My Bedded Dragon what's to breed and I haven't have tow

10-15 humans can* live in a 25x25ft room. Use antifreeze coated floorboards. *probably shouldnt

My cousins chameleon died like a couple weeks ago and he says that when his chameleon died it was like a rainbow color. Anybody knows what this is?

I actually really love reptiles and fish and dogs and cats and I have all of those animals. I wanna get a job at petco or petsmart just so I can work with people and their pets. But im 17 and u have to be 18 so gimme a year. For now I work at Walmart. However I was at petco a while ago and some guy was gonna buy a savannah monitor and I had to explain to him why that was a bad decision... he was getting a 20 gal tank with it but I convinced him to get a leopard gecko instead. I didn't know how big savannah monitors got. When I have a job there hopefully I can help that kind of person.

Uh oh. I thought cacium sand was made of pure calcium. Should have known :/

In Swedish crested gecko is ögonfransgecko and it actually means eyelash gecko

PLEASE DO A SNAKE ONE

How tf do you mess up crestie care? Like, literally the easiest pet I’ve EVER had, especially if you have a bio active tank..

I actually house my two male cresteds together, I mean looking back on it as my first pet I did horrible with mine, but they're both absolutely amazing now. I used loose substrate when my first was tiny, we used a hot heat bulb, I left the light on day in day out, and then when my neighbors gave me theirs after they saw I got a big tank and I just threw them together. At first I think my smaller crested attacked the new bigger one, but hey now they live together happily, we give them a great light cycle, and we feed them a variety. So if I could leave with one thing, I'd say, fucking research more than I did dear god would I have slapped my younger self

I got mine from pet smart and they gave me a heat lamp and my parents got the stuff

I just got my leopard gecko today and I know a lot about them And he is so cute

I know I love this video because I first got my leopard gecko and I didn’t know anything I bought it from Pirkko and then two days later I found out that you can’t put them on sand so I switched it to tile right away and I threw away all my Petco care guys and I looked it up and like Safari and like USmuchs so and I watched some leopard gecko care guys from You to

What do you do when the power go’s out

Okay how do I use a heat lamp in conjunction with an under tank heater ? I’m worried it’s going to get too hot in there LOL

I have 2 budgies that are way to much work for me if someone could tell me what to do with them that would be great

i was terrified when i went to pet co the other day and saw a crocodile skink

Honestly you can be a horse vet to approve a reptile care guide. "Vet approved " doesn't give any information. I think if you ask what vet they either can't tell you or that vet is not an exotic expert

So... UV has been proven to be great for Leopard geckos. This guy is not an expert on leopard geckos, I reccomend Leopard Gecko and reptile ramble (a podcast ) for good leo care

My dog likes chasing around the lazer of the heat gun lol

I am a PetSmart employee and approve of this message. 😅

Could you make a leopard geckos breeding video? I’m new to breeding and I can not find solid answers to some of my questions. Should I separate my male and female while she is due to lay her eggs? What size laying box is recommended and with what substrate would be best? Is it okay to house my male and female gecko year long(while ensuring they have enough hides and tank size)?

Crested geckos are the best

I don't know if you have Pet Supplies Plus in your area, but I had to purchase a juvenile ball python because of the care they were giving him. I went in there to get crickets for my leopard gecko and they said the snake had been in shed for a few days at that point. I went back 2 WEEKS later and this snake was completely covered in shed. It was all over its eyes, stuck over its backside. I sat there and cried contemplating getting this snake. I got it, gave it a bath and within 2 days all of the shed is off and it is my new best friend. It just makes me so sad seeing these places treat their animals this way!

10:24 "climbing doesn't matter that much for geckos" _looks at my leopard gecko who sometimes wakes me up at 3am with the sound of her sliding down from the top of a tree-statue hide after trying to reach the top of the lid_

oh boy, petsmart... abusing animals from fish to lizards. I've had 2 (Definitely wild-caught, and with mites if im not mistaken) long-tailed lizards die about a week after getting them from there.... in a tiny, extremely overcrowded cage with anoles as well. Oh and leopard geckos I've seen so skinny that their tails looked like sticks! Not to mention, the number of times ive had employees tell me the world's shittiest advice on how to take care of very easy-to-look-after reptiles!

Have to emphasize the bit about not asking breeders/vendors at reptile expos about husbandry: At one of the expos I went to as a kid, I got really excited about a crocodile skink and these two little striped lizards (one day I'll find out what they were called, I didn't internalize the name back then). I had a 30 gallon screen top aquarium and asked the vendor about cohabing them and he said it was totally fine because they occupy different elevations of the tank. I was an over-excited kid who impulse bought those three, but I did a lot of research after taking them home and realized that red-eyed crocodile skinks are extremely shy. The little lizards were short lived and also escaped a lot as the screen top was just loose enough for them to shimmy out. Luckily they were communal and enjoyed basking near or on top of each other. Those two lived their full lives happy and healthy (even if I had to go on lizard hunting expeditions in my room every time Jello snuck its way out). My crocodile skink who I named Gator is still thriving today. She's now in a 36 gallon orchid-infested aquarium with a big water bowl and many hide-y holes. Despite my goof-up, she's living a long life! She was already an adult when I got her and she's been with me for 13 years. This turned into a ramble about my little trio, but yes: people really want to sell their stock and may tell you inaccurate husbandry information to get it done. Even when someone is obviously about to impulse buy, they can take advantage of that. There are plenty of good breeders out there that I have talked to at expos that give correct information, but just as many desperate sellers too. My babies were lucky. Gator was secretive and always was either underwater or in her hides and Mello and Jello were arboreal, small, and communal. Thankfully, I at least researched as much as I could afterwards and that the tank I had could accommodate them.

I use a heat mat and a bulb for light. it's literally never provided heat. at least not enough to matter

I recently got a job working at PetCo, and I can say that the care for the animals is lackluster. It's mostly because corporate requires it to be a certain way though. but yeah, buying animals from them isn't ideal.

I work at petsmart and it hurts to look at the care guides, there’s a lot they get wrong but I try to do the best I can to take care of the animals there.

I’m going to get a Leo so I shouldn’t get it from PetSmart?!

You actually should mist leopard geckos apparently. Gives them water to lick up. Don't give them a rainforest by any means, but give them some droplets every now and then.

I have a leopard gecko named lemon pepper and he loves this

I remember being given the crested gecko guide and was like °_°

I'm lucky to have a petsmart near me that has some employees that actually know how to care for reptiles. I have 3 cuties that I "rescued" from petsmart, a leo , a crestie and a giant day gecko. All of them were gotten within approx a month of them being born so they weren't in the store its self long. Luckily they are all very healthy and happy so far. I still would never recommend buying from them, to not support their generally awful practices

“These aren’t long enough. I apologize.” Best part of the video! 😂

Can I ask.... I used too have geckos when I was a child, but can’t really remember what we used. But I know for a fact it wasn’t sand. What should we use on bearded

I work at petco and there’s one guy here in particular who really cares (and knows a lot) about fish (and goes on lots of angry rants about petco’s fish policies and rules). he has been accosted over not selling someone goldfish (because they didn’t have a proper set up) many times. and he’s very frank with customers about how petco treats the fish. like one guy cornered him about a goldfish and he told the guy that putting the goldfish in a 5 gallon was animal abuse. the guy then asked if what we keep the goldfish in is animal abuse...and was stunned when he said yes. then processed to corner him in the parking lot. I will say luckily a lot of my coworkers actually know about the animals and care a lot. unfortunately we are all slaves to the corporation and don’t get a say in how things are done.

Want the sharpie off your desk? Coconut oil. It also can remove gum off of shoes and waterproof makeup

my parents listen to this stuff so now they get mad at me when i say our leopard geckos need a heat mat, thermostat, and better substrate. the substrate we have is wood chips. its terrible and i don’t know what to do.

i work at petco and i absolutely turn every single person down if they will not meet the requirements you’ve pointed out- i know you hate us but don’t hate all of us 🥺

Alexa, play Scatman’s world

Can you imagine if your teachers corrected your work like that 😂