Wasted $450 on a "reptile starter kit" at the San Jose expo and I want to warn every new keeper
I bought the full kit at the Reptile Expo in San Jose about 5 months ago because the booth guy made it sound like everything in the box was exactly what my new gecko needed. Turns out the enclosure was too small, the heat lamp ran way too hot, and the tank thermometer was off by almost 8 degrees, which I only figured out after I shelled out another $120 to fix all of it. The substrate they included was also junk and got moldy in about 10 days, so I had to toss the whole thing and start over. I get that bundles are convenient and the guy was friendly, but he pushed me toward stuff that made him money, not stuff my animal actually needed. I should have just done the reading and bought each piece on its own. Has anyone else gotten burned by one of those all in one starter kits, and did you return any of it or just eat the cost like I did?
Dang, $450 plus another $120 is a lot to lose, but was the kit really ALL junk or just a couple things? A small tank and a bad thermometer still work as backups, and the lamp can be swapped for a cheap bulb instead of buying a whole new setup. Moldy substrate after 10 days sounds more like the tank was too wet or there was no airflow, not that the dirt itself was trash. Half the battle with these expos is knowing that the guy selling bundles gets a cut, so yeah do your research next time, but calling it wasted money when you got a working setup out of it is a bit much. Sounds like you learned the lesson cheap, honestly, some people lose a whole animal over stuff like this.