FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
To better serve you, we have devised a comprehensive list of questions people ask on a regular basis. While we encourage questions and strive to answer all emails within a timely fashion, we recommend that you check here first as it is likely you may find what you are seeking, rather than having to wait for a response from our resolute staff.
Once again, we thank you for your patronage. We always look forward to serving you as you Get into The Gecko™!
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Are you a retail walk-in store?
We are currently NOT a walk-in Brick and Mortar store. We are a private breeding facility and a large-scale dry goods wholesaler and reseller. We WILL take customers BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. This is generally to either pick up online dry good orders (we offer curbside pick-up) or to pickup reptiles you have purchased online or wish to purchase in person.
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Can you ship Live Animals?
ABSOLUTELY! Within Canada we using REPTILE RUNNER to your closest FedEx Hub or to your door, at our discretion, based on being able ot safely ship your animal to your location. In the USA, we also can ship to the nearest FedEx Hub to your location for pickup. We arrange USA shipments every 1 to 2 months, to economize International Shipping costs for our customers. For orders outside of North America, please contact us getting your shipment to your door.
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I live in the USA. Why does it cost so much for you to ship our gecko to us in the USA? We get geckos shipped to us all the time for a lot less.
We get asked all the time if we can offer a deal on shipping. We want to explain why $75 USD (this price hasn’t changed in 20 years) is a GREAT deal. Our business is located in Canada. For Northern Gecko to be able to offer live animal shipping to the USA, we need to maintain a US Fish & Wildlife (USFW) Permit with an annual fee of $100 USD. We also need to pay a USFW Inspection Fee every time we enter the USA with a shipment of geckos, which is currently costs $185 USD. If it is a CITES species the price is much higher. Along with that we need to pay about $350 USD in brokerage fees to have your live animals cleared through US Customs.
We personally drive you animals from Toronto, Canada to Buffalo, NY to save you from these fees and this entire process. This is a two hour drive each way, so tack on the price of gas and the time of one entire day spent shipping out geckos. Then let’s not forget the cost to ship the live animals out from Buffalo, NY to your nearest FedEx Hub for first AM FedEx delivery in the USA. That ALONE is often $75 USD or more to some far parts of the USA like Florida and California. Did we even mention the IATA Certified Shipping container and shippign supplies? This is the very reason we wait to pool orders (ship to multiple customers at once) so we can offer you the price of $75 USD for shipping, but in the end we FOR SURE pay for some of your shipping fees. So, overall, $75 USD seems like a surprisingly good deal to get a foreign bloodline animal into your country. We take the extra time and effort to do everything for you.
This is how Northern Gecko goes the extra mile for you to bring geckos to your country. So, please consider this when you ask us if you can get a better deal on shipping. You are already getting the BEST deal possible, while we take care of all the international shipping hassles for you.
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WHAT FORMS OF PAYMENT DO YOU ACCEPT?
Canadian methods of payment:
ALL CANADIAN ORDERS ARE PAID IN CANADIAN DOLLARS (CAD).
- MasterCard or VISA over the telephone. Please call us at 416-630-0063 to process your payment. If you are in North America, you can call us Toll-free at 1-855-GECKOIN’ (432-5646).
- Electronic Money Transfer (Interac EMT) to eft@northerngecko.net. This email is set up for auto-deposit but, if you are required to enter a security question, please make the answer to your security question: geckoin
- Cash in person Sales Tax will apply.
- Personal Cheques (please note we will require two weeks for a personal cheque to clear before we will ship).
- Bank Wire Transfer (please contact us for this information).
- In person at trade shows we accept Cash, Interac, VISA & MasterCard as acceptable forms of payment.
- We no long except PayPal as a form of payment. Why? PayPal does not support our industry so we will not support them.
International methods of payment:
ALL INTERNATIONAL ORDERS ARE TO BE PAID IN US DOLLARS (USD).
- Bank Wire Transfer (please contact us for this information).
- Payment via MasterCard or VISA over the telephone. Please call us at 416-630-0063 to process your payment. (European Union Countries and USA ONLY)
- We no long except PayPal as a form of payment. Why? PayPal does not support our industry so we will not support them.
*All pricing on animals and dry goods quoted on our site DO NOT include applicable Provincial or Federal Sales Taxes. These will be calculated at checkout.
Export orders (outside of Canada) are exempt from these taxes however your country may require you to pay import taxes based on the value of the goods. Check with your local government.
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DO YOU OFFER A LIVE ARRIVAL GUARANTEE?
Every gecko WE sell is backed by a 100% live arrival guarantee; however, it is important that you are aware of the conditions in which Northern Gecko WILL NOT offer a live arrival guarantee:
If outdoor temperatures are lower than 1°C (34°F) or greater than 25°C (77°F) we cannot guarantee live arrival as New Caledonian geckos are very sensitive to extreme temperatures (especially extreme heat). We will not put your animal(s) at risk by shipping outside of these temperatures, however if you insist that we ship your reptile(s) against our recommendation the buyer shall assume all responsibility and our live arrival guarantee will be null and void. Please make sure that you are aware of local weather forecasts in your city on the day of shipping. You can check weather forecasts here.
Since COVID-19 has caused many delays, most live shipping is now sent directly to the FedEx Depot as HOLD FOR PICKUP as this is the safest option. This avoids any temperature control issues or mishaps on delivery trucks to your door. Your reptile(s) will arrive early in the AM at the closest FedEx Depot to your location and remain indoors in a temperature-controlled environment until you pick up. As long as you pick up your reptile(s) on the same day they are available at the Depot, then our live arrival guarantee will apply. Should you choose to request arrival to your door (we do not recommend this option) then it will be at our discretion if a live arrival guarantee will apply depending on your location. We will make you aware beforehand if you choose this option. -
DO YOU OFFER A HEALTH, COLOUR or SEX GUARANTEE?
7-Day Health Guarantee
We guarantee that all our reptiles are 100% healthy animals when they leave our facility. For this reason, we are willing to extend a 7-day health guarantee on all our stock. If you are having problems with a newly acquired gecko that you purchased from us it is essential that you to contact us as soon as possible so that we can offer suggestions to remedy the situation. If you contact us after your gecko has expired there are no suggestions we can offer at that point. Adjusting to a new enclosure and new surroundings can sometimes be a stressful period for a gecko. For this reason, it is important to keep an eye on your new gecko(s) for the first week or so. Beyond the seven-day period I am unable to offer a health guarantee as we have no control over how the geckos will be looked after or to what diseases or parasites they might be exposed. This policy is also open to interpretation at OUR sole discretion. This means that if we feel something has gone wrong that we could have avoided, we will make it right, even if this is beyond the 7-day period. We are very reasonable.
Sexing Policy
If we specify that a gecko is male or female, then we make a 100% guarantee that it is sexed correctly. If we specify that a gecko is 95% female this means that there is a 5% chance that the assumption is erroneous, and it may in fact become male. Since all geckos look like females from birth and do not show any signs of being male until a certain size (usually 10-15 grams) I am not able to make a 100% guarantee on sex for animals quoted as such. There is always a chance, no matter how slim, that male organs can begin to develop. These geckos are not offered as 100% guaranteed sexable animals for this reason. Unsexed animals are offered with no promise of what sex they might become as there have yet to display any signs of sexual maturity. In the unlikely event that a gecko has been sexed incorrectly and my 100% sexing guarantee applies then the gecko will be replaced with one of the correct sex or a credit will be issued at our discretion.
Gecko Tails
Geckos can drop their tails as a self-defence mechanism or for no apparent reason at all. I have personally witnessed this on several occasions, and it can leave even the most avid hobbyist scratching their head. Some species regrow their tails while others will not. In the wild, many geckos will drop their tail to escape a predator and will live a long and normal life without it. It is for this reason that a lost tail is not considered to be a defect. This being the case, I cannot be held responsible if a gecko loses its tail during shipping. This has never happened to date but it is important that I state this policy as it is within the realm of possibility.
Gecko Colour
Northern Gecko has spent thousands of dollars on high-end lighting, camera equipment and software to represent my geckos as accurately as possible. Regardless of the quality of camera and lighting equipment used, colours will always look just a little bit different on each individual monitor. I have several monitors in my home I know that even from one computer to the next colours can appear slightly different. In fact, it is virtually impossible to make every picture look the same on every person’s monitor. However, you can rest assured that the only modifications ever made to our photographs are resizing (shrinking), cropping and white balance adjustments (if the gecko comes out too red, too blue, or too green). We will never modify a picture to make a gecko seem brighter or more high contrast then it is.
There are many factors that affect a gecko’s colouration, such as the presence of food, level of stress and environmental factors like humidity. I photograph my geckos in a state when they are “fired up,” meaning that they are showing some of their finest colours. However, no matter how hard you try to get them in this state the geckos do not always cooperate. It is for this reason that I have often heard that the gecko ended up arriving looking “much nicer than it does in pictures.” To date, I have never had a single customer complain that the gecko they received had colouration that was misrepresented by its picture. In fact, I hear allot of the opposite as many people often tell me the picture did not do the gecko justice. With this in mind, please be aware that I cannot offer refunds based on a lack of or misrepresentation of colour.
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WHEN CAN I EXPECT TO RECEIVE MY GECKO(S)?
We DO NOT ship out automatically after we receive payment for live animals as we need to know that you will be available to pick them up/receive them. After you have paid for your animals, we will mutually arrange a shipping day and destination address to receive your animal(s).Â
For animals shipping to the USA, we consolidate your shipment with other geckos headed to the USA. It is for this reason we typically will have a shipment going to the USA every 1-2 months when weather permits. If you live in the USA, please do check in with us on when our next USA shipment date will be occurring to avoid any disappointment regarding when your gecko(s) will be sent out. If you do not have any specific arrival considerations, then you will be notified via email as soon as the next delivery date to the USA has been determined.
For destinations other than the USA and Canada, please contact us to see when and if we can get a live animal shipment to your destination.
We are more than happy to hold your animals for you (free of charge) until we can find the right day to ship (for you, us, and the geckos). Your geckos will be treated and cared for just like any other gecko in our facility until it is safe to ship. We would rather keep the geckos safe at our facility for a longer duration then risk their welfare by shipping during less-than-optimal weather conditions (please see our Terms & Guarantees for further details regarding weather conditions).
Shipping must be scheduled a minimum of 24 hours in advance and will only be scheduled after payment has been made in full. For example, we cannot schedule a shipment contingent upon payment being made that day.
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WILL YOU KEEP MY INFORMATION PRIVATE?
Absolutely. Not only is our website equipped with an email and SSL encryption, but we guarantee that we will not share, sell or make public, any information obtained from transactions that occur between you and Northern Gecko. -
DO YOU SHIP INTERNATIONALLY?
We are in Toronto, Canada and YES! we ship to the USA and other international destinations. US customers can get some great Canadian Bloodline geckos delivered to their door without international shipping hassles. We ship out to the USA every 1 -2 months, weather permitting. We do this to gather enough orders to send them out at once to keep delivery fees minimal as there are a LOT of fees involved in importing animals into the USA. We can have any number of geckos delivered to your door for only $75 USD.
For further information about shipments to the USA and details regarding overseas shipping to HAMM and other destinations, please see our International Shipping page located in Terms & Guarantees section of the site.
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I AM A BREEDER / RETAILER IN CANADA. HOW CAN I BECOME AN AUTHORIZED REPASHY SUPERFOODS RESELLER?
If you are interested in becoming a Repashy Superfoods Authorized Retailer in Canada, or if you want to sell many of the other brands we offer to Canadians, please Contact Us. We will send you an application for a wholesale account with Northern Gecko Inc.Â