Those little frogs are so cool! What are they called? Love dart frogs. Just don’t have the room or time for any at the moment. Hahah
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I think it’s a great idea!
…
So long as the gifter is willing to take 100% responsibility for the gift when the person or child either rejects it, or gets bored with it in a few weeks/months.
I know my friend just got her kid a snake as a gift, but this girl would have been happy with absolutely anything and out of the two this guy had, me and mom got her the one she wanted more without telling her.
I picked up something of the same species a month before just so I’d have hands on experience to help her with it, and incase this one gets dumped on me. (The mom is not a snake person and I was constantly getting texts asking about the ones we had locally up for re-home. We did end up getting her daughter an awesome little corn, and both mom and teen are good about asking me questions and their little snake is doing great)
My boyfriend has paid for snakes I’ve wanted, as gifts, but when he offered for Christmas this year I told him I didn’t want him to get me anymore reptiles unless it was a re-home and more of a surprise. It just doesn’t feel as much like a gift when someone hands to money for something you were going to get anyway. Or unless we hit up an expo and don’t know what we were bringing home until we get there.
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I have bought reptiles as pets for um…my kids…yes, that’s it…they are “their” animals and not mine at all… 
Actually, if they ask for a reptile, I make them read, watch videos and learn and I even quiz them on proper husbandry and natural history. But I take full responsibility for that animal so far as care and vet bills and so on, and I expect them to help with feeding and cleaning and chores.
And then I pay them to help me with my collection’s chores. $1 for the little little and $3 for the bigger little. 
And they learn a lot in the process.
So far as buying a pet for literally anyone else, I probably wouldn’t do that tbh.
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I think it really depends on the situation. If you know exactly the animal someone wants, i.e. they’ve sent a link to a specific reptile and you know they’re set up and ready for it, then I could understand it. However I don’t think in general it’s a good idea to gift animals unless the recipient is in on the process.
^This though, most definitely.
I have a story that is a bit like what would happen without a considerate reptile loving friend to guide a family:
While I’m not sure if he was a gift, one of the rescues in my collection previously belonged to a child. The parent was not a snake person, and it seems that the basics were rather overlooked. Mom trusted the kid to take care of it, but the kid was set up to fail as they had no lid locks on the enclosure. 10 gallon tank with a screen lid, juvenile corn snake, 1+1 = freedom. Six months after he disappeared, mom got the surprise of her life when cleaning the house. Poor little noodle was immediately posted on Craigslist, no price, just a plea to get the snake out of the house.
Whether you’re buying for a child, adult, friend, family, whatever, the best way to give any sort of animal as a gift is by gifting something like a Visa gift card with a custom image of the animal they expressed interest in, with enough money to cover the price, or alternately, some sort of coupon saying something like, “Redeem for one insert pet here , paid for courtesy of name”
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