Cave gecko question- female is supposed to be on top male is on the bottom. I found the seller on MorphMarket. They are beauties! However my question is, the female is VERY tiny… do you think these are adults? That is what they were listed as. reptiles cave-geckos
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That is absolutely not an adult. The male is of breeding size but still on the smaller end
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Yeah, I didn’t think so… but wanted to ask for advice before contacting the shop. I feel like the female is very skinny too. Pretty upsetting.
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The female looks healthy to me. They should be a bit leaner than something like a leo or a fat tail.
Does the male have kinks in his tail?
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Okay good. And yes it looks to me like he does.
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“Sorry to hear about your disappointment with the female. Although we disagree with your evaluation, we would like to know what MorphMarket’s criteria is for determining sexual maturity in Chinese Cave Geckos(
). We determine an ‘adult’ Animal capable of reproduction, not size, which she is. We have had many female Caves come through our shop that size, that laid eggs. So we stand by our listing’s description”
**this is a response from the shop
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My question is whether they should be laying eggs at that size. Just because they’re physiologically capable of reproduction doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthy for them to do so.
But I know very little about cave geckos, so maybe the seller is correct, I just don’t totally love that logic.
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Have you mentioned the kinked tail on the male? Selling an animal with undisclosed kinks or other health issues is a big issue
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I agree with you on that. I would not feel comfortable at all letting her reproduce that size. I can’t even imagine any eggs fitting in her tiny body. I have bred many geckos and it doesn’t seem like something I would subject her to. I feel like she should have been labeled stunted growthr if that is the case.
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I haven’t mentioned the kink yet. I see what you are saying! I didn’t want to make an issue out of the purchase and hate to complain but I’m kind of disappointed in the purchase.
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Oh my goodness she certainly IS tiny! I know nothing about cave geckos but holy cow! I would not breed her either!!!
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She is! I tried to let the seller know and they are refusing to admit that it is underweight as an adult.
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Yikes… For me personally I’d say this is an extremely unacceptable breeding practice.
I don’t work with CCG but this goes with any animal, you don’t breed a female dog thats in unfit condition just because she’s having heat cycles. You don’t breed unfit snakes that technically can produce clutches but are not at a good weight or size.
As the saying goes “just because its possible doesn’t always mean you should do it”.
Its another issue entirely if the male with the tail kink was not described as having a kinked tail in the ad desc.
I personally wouldn’t do business with them ever again if I were in your shoes…
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Exactly. I’ve heard people try to justify the notion of “capable of ovulating = ready to breed” by pointing out that they would (or at least might) breed in the wild at that size…but these animals also starve, are eaten by predators, carry heavy parasite loads, suffer from injury and disease, etc. in the wild, but nobody argues that it’s okay to deliberately put a captive animal through those things in captivity just because it’s what they’d face in the wild. So it always seemed like a stupid argument to me.
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I will not be. I wish I could leave a review on their MM, which is where I found the post, but I purchased through their website. They were just very argumentative and honestly rude. Saying that they disagree with my observations. They’re asking now how to satisfy the situation since they “don’t have time to go back n forth” I’m not even sure what to ask at this point because I think they will try to charge me shipping again.
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I would contact MM customer support and let them know about this, since the seller is on the platform. While they may not be able to help you in regards to the purchase itself, they should know one of their sellers is being sketchy.
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I agree with @noodlehaus, but I would probably also ask for a partial refund. Like whatever the average price for a female of that size is, since I’m assuming you paid more for an adult, breeding size female?
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Since you purchased from their website, I don’t know if MM can help you, but I would certainly post on FBI or Herpetoculture feedback and inquiry if you are on FB. It’s a good idea to at least caution other potential buyers if at all possible, with proof of your interactions so that people see facts as the truth
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I didn’t meant to delete my comment. It’s my first comment on this platform. Lol
I just wanted to ask if you’d be willing to share who the seller was because I’ve been looking to buy cave geckos but there are only a few sellers and I don’t want to work with whoever this one is! They gave you a completely unacceptable answer and even the male’s condition is poorly and questionable. I hope you receive some kind of solution for this. So disappointing.
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