7 of my crested geckos died in a week

All 13 of my crested geckos ended up getting sick at the same time, and ultimately only 6 remained after 7 did not survive the affects of the mistake. Today, I talk about what exactly happened with these reptiles, how it could have been avoided and what I learned from the entire unfortunate situation.

These crested geckos were animals that had been rehomed to us, and would have later been eventually sold through Emerald Scales. This video also serves as one of the explanations as to why I have difficulty delegating work to others, and why I highly doubt I'll ever accept volunteers to help me.

Here are a few related videos you might find interesting as well:

I bought a corn snake off Craigslist and it ended terribly

This snake almost escaped while being shipped

I shipped the wrong crested gecko to a buyer

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Video credits

0:00 The backstory
3:26 The discovery
5:37 What went wrong?
6:45 Termination
7:39 Treating the sick geckos
9:28 Thoughts on the situation
13:54 What I've done since
15:50 Outro

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[GoHerping]

Here are a few related videos you might find interesting as well:

I bought a corn snake off Craigslist and it ended terribly


This snake almost escaped while being shipped

I shipped the wrong crested gecko to a buyer

[GoodRedBlackRatio]

Hired a horse trainer, seemed great, told me she'd been going out and training my horse, was giving me updates via text, etc. I noticed my gear, saddle etc was never moved, always looked EXACTLY the same. Busted her lying, she'd just been taking my money and doing nothing. Fired her. Hired a new horse trainer, told her what had happened with the first one. New one seemed great. Same exact thing happened almost immediately. It can be VERY hard to tell the quality of people.

[GG-knse]

100% relate in feeling unable to delegate work to others. The exact same thing happened with mould in an animals food that no one noticed somehow yet I noticed immediately because I bothered to actually look. Thankfully no animal death though.

[Gwyllgi]

Did you not check up on the animals in that whole week? You are basically the manager. You need to manage.

[poppyrendall]

That's so upsetting, hopefully you can find someone reliable :(

[MyDuckSaysFucc]

2.5 weeks? For that level of mold, that means that she literally only fed them once or twice and never touched them again. That’s messed up.

[brendap]

To understand, a new employee of 2 1/2 weeks, one week being trained. Due to neglect, animals died from mould from poor care. It take at least 7-10 day to develop, I would think longer to cause death in that many animals in such a short time frame once found. My question, where were you during this time. It is YOUR responsibility at the end of the day. Nobody checks these animals on days she is not there, you feel it is okay for these animals to go without at least water for days. Shame on you....at the end of the day these animals are dead because of YOU. You neglected these animals not the employee that has work 3-5 days alone. It's your job as a responsible adult to follow up on new staff to ensure jobs are done correctly. Then you with held wages, I hope she turns you in to the labor board. You need to grow up and stop making excuses for your mistakes and take responsibility for your actions.

[ingesexton]

Also it wasn’t just one mistake… it wasn’t forgetting to fill one water bowl once, it was a HUGE mistake. Not even a mistake she straight up didn’t do her job.

[cassiemaayzombiesceks]

I would be so furious if I were you. I’m so sorry that this happened, it’s truly awful

[rovena]

I've only ever had mold in my leopard geckos humidity hides. They used them as toilets too. So I got different hides that are easier to clean and use moss instead of paper towels and check them more often. There's no excuse. Especially since the mold here was out in the open and ON THE GECKOS?? Like thats insane.

[syrup]

Love how the first comment on this video was "Good" like... What is wrong with people?

[madelinebogle]

I had a crested gecko that somehow got mold on her food dish and I have simply never put that same dish in ever since. I have NO IDEA how this person missed it. Also, if you’re worried about homes I can try sending your information to my cousin Vic. She breeds reptiles and is getting her degree in zoology as we speak. She even has Black mambas the last time I checked-

Over all, one of the most responsible People I know

[Sola_The_Demon]

Hiring is hard. I think first and foremost you should have a probation period. For animals, I would say between 1-3 months. The first few weeks should be training of course, but afterwards check up on them periodically. If you're already doing the work, checking on someone won't change much, but once probation is over then you have the free time.

It will take time, the key is to find someone good with the variety. Save hospital stuff for yourself in the meantime. Once you find someone who proves themselves (long term, personally a year +) you can deligate them to have others as you expand. (A manager so to speak.)

Never be 100% uninvolved, but you can step away more the more good people you find. Maybe even have part timers. Instead of someone who does everything, hire someone who comes in x time for cresteds, and another for beardies. They may only get 5-10 hours a week, which will keep them from relying on you, and as they prove themselves slowly give them more hours and more species.

Good luck, love the channel and love your attitude. Keep up the work, and don't let a few bad apples spoil the bunch.

*Edited for typos.

[brittanyh]

I’ve worked for two separate animal boarding facilities and watched people see just how far they can go with slacking off whilst seeing the negative effects it takes on the animals just because they wanted to go home earlier. They also utilized check lists and people would just mark off everything without making sure they had done it. People lose compassion when caring for animals and don’t realize it’s their actions directly causing harm or neglect just to make their own day easier.

[jazzmen-]

Wow, the task couldn’t have been more clearly stated. Even if it wasn’t how can you see mold in an enclosure and think it’s ok. It sucks that people suck.

[Lerrae]

Cleaning old food is a BASIC step for pets that require daily fresh food. It's one of the first fricken rules you learn about keeping things like cresties, beardies, etc. - every single guide I have ever read reminds you to remove uneaten food by the next day. This isn't just one mistake, this was laziness. that person was clearly just trying to manipulate you for their own mistake by claiming it was something you did that caused their negligence. That kind of aggressive mold growth and resulting death takes days of negligence. Whether you work at a pet store or a zoo or a vet (i've done all of the above), you are assumed to have some semblance of competence when it comes to daily cleaning and care...

[larsland]

I’m a fishkeeper. In my first year I made so many mistakes and lost a handful of very low maintenance tropical fish. I did not make those mistakes again. Now I rehab sick, young and dying fish so I’ve lost many fish and I handle it well. But those first few losses — the ones that were absolutely my fault — rocked me. We all make mistakes but refusing to even look at an animal...yikes.

[freedomisle]

It's not your fault. People are great liars in interviews, people oversell themselves and it's difficult for the interviewer to decipher the truth from the fiction. Out of those 30 people you interviewed, some of them would have probably been incredible employees, but lack the same interview skills. I am really against the whole interview process.

[Blixtwixy]

Moving forward, it could be helpful to designate a separate employee to do an end of day check-in on all the animals. It'd be mostly a redundancy, but it'd prevent something like this from happening so severely in the future. If you had somebody designated to just check every enclosure to make sure it looked clean and the animals were active, and mark down any behaviors that seem unusual, then something like mold would be caught much sooner. It'd also make the cleaning/feeding employees feel that they'd definitely be held accountable if they slipped up. It may also help you feel more confident in the hiring process moving forward if you organize to have redundancies in place. If your selection is small enough, it could even be you or your girlfriend who takes on checking each enclosure around closing time, since you can be confident neither of you would miss something.

You'd still save time from not doing the actual routine maintenance, but would have a safety net in case of error or neglect.

I don't know what your ex employee was thinking, but they probably thought they could get away with it one way or another. The only way I can think of for this to be a genuine mistake is if they somehow got confused over which enclosures housed crested geckos and had been checking a completely different section and ignoring the actual cresteds-- but if they were very knowledgeable about reptiles, that also seems very unlikely.

[fburnsDubstepEnderFox]

I would end up crying if that happened to my animals. Sorry for your loss Mr. Alex.