# This may be biased....BUT...Who do feel is the best Tegu breeder



## brenttos (Jan 30, 2013)

What i mean by that is, Ive heard A LOT of negativity about some breeders but for every negative experience there seems to be a positive to go along with it. Who do you feel is the BEST Tegu breeder and why?


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## TeguBuzz (Jan 30, 2013)

Johnny LaRocca has always been my go to breeder. AKA Tegu Terra. I've known him for several years and have never had a bad experience with him. He's always available whether it be through email or phone, and if he misses my call - I always hear back. Two years ago I would have vouched for Bobby Hill - but Johnny always came first. His prices are a little high but the stock is well worth it in the end. 

I can also vouch for Ty Park. I've never purchased a tegu from him but I have dealt with him in the past with other reptiles. I've seen the tegus he has produced in the past, and they all looked great. His prices are also very affordable.


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## bfb345 (Jan 30, 2013)

brenttos said:


> What i mean by that is, Ive heard A LOT of negativity about some breeders but for every negative experience there seems to be a positive to go along with it. Who do you feel is the BEST Tegu breeder and why?



i have heard so much stuff bad about bobby hill and his business but also i have heard so much good and he is always nice on the forum so what is it lol


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## Dubya (Jan 30, 2013)

I know people are pissed at him, but my "extreme" from Bobby Hill is great. Big, healthy, and absolutely no aggression issues.


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## TeguBuzz (Jan 30, 2013)

Dubya said:


> I know people are pissed at him, but my "extreme" from Bobby Hill is great. Big, healthy, and absolutely no aggression issues.



I'm sure Gwanji is a damn fine tegu. There is no doubt that Bobby produced some of the greatest stock out there, I personally had tegus from him in the past. I vouched for him on several occasions in the past, due to the fact that he was flat out great in every way. But now, having looked back at how he dealt with the 2011 season and 2012, I have lost respect for him as a business man. Dubya, I'm glad you're one of the handfuls that wasnt scammed by him. His stock was always great but I see no reason to vouch for him anymore. 

Lets see some new pics of Gwanji!


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## brenttos (Jan 30, 2013)

How do you guys feel about Underground Reptiles?


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## Dubya (Jan 30, 2013)

TeguBuzz said:


> Dubya said:
> 
> 
> > I know people are pissed at him, but my "extreme" from Bobby Hill is great. Big, healthy, and absolutely no aggression issues.
> ...



I agree. I will post a pic of Gwangi after he finishes his shed.


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## chitodadon (Jan 30, 2013)

Well it would be my breeder Greg Phillips aka lizardking Godzilla was perfect from day one and is a monster he has been sleep for the pasr 2 weels now 

from Samsung Galaxy S3


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## Rhetoric (Jan 30, 2013)

Wil and Ty also produce great tegus. I have never seen a complaint about either of them. Laura has had a few clutches here and there and hers also seem to be very healthy and well cared for.


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## Tegudude88 (Jan 30, 2013)

Bobby hill 
He may not be the best businessman but his tegus are amazing


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## Diablo (Jan 30, 2013)

He might have good tegu's but your chance of getting one or getting your money back is about less than 25% I'd say. Completely made up number but you get the point.

Johnny at Tegu Terra helped me with my Bobby situation and when I paid him the amount he asked for he sent me Yoshi the very next week. Excellent shipping, and he even included a little birth certificate stating the species and the hatch date which to me put the cherry on top. I will recommend him to anyone that wants a tegu. He is BOTH a great breeder and businessman. As for Bobby while his tegus were very good, his communication and the way he handled situations was piss poor. Not to mention he was not nice at all if you had any problem. I won't deny he had good service to some people but the majority of us were stolen from. I'm not posting to start this whole debate or argument about him again, instead I would just like to recommend Johnny as he helped me out and was very professional to me.


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## james.w (Jan 30, 2013)

Tegudude88 said:


> Bobby hill
> He may not be the best businessman but his tegus are amazing



Have you dealt with him?


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## Skeetzy (Jan 30, 2013)

Screw Bobby Hill. Simply put. Wasted my time and money with that scam artist. If you want more details, PM me and ill gladly share. My advice, do not even waste your time contacting him. 

Laura is an excellent breeder. My tegu arrived in great shape, his colors are fantastic, and he seemed very calm. Unfortunately he decided to hibernate the day I got him, so can't comment on much, since he still isn't up(almost 5 months now). His siblings all look absolutely fantastic though. Laura was VERY friendly, very quick with responses, and extremely helpful. In fact, I had my tegu in less than 48 hours after I decided to contact her about purchasing one. I'm actually glad I ended up with one from her instead of Bobby.


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## naleme (Jan 30, 2013)

Has anybody ordered from Underground Reptiles??


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## Tegudude88 (Jan 30, 2013)

Yes and he made me wait for 3 weeks past when I was supposed to get my little guy hardly answered his phone BUT my tegu is wonderful and healthy


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## james.w (Jan 30, 2013)

Tegudude88 said:


> Yes and he made me wait for 3 weeks past when I was supposed to get my little guy hardly answered his phone BUT my tegu is wonderful and healthy



So you think HE is the best breeder? 

OP - are you asking who is the best breeder as a person or who breeds the best tegus?


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## Tegudude88 (Jan 30, 2013)

Yes but he is horrible at selling and dealing with people who want his awesome animals


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## naleme (Jan 30, 2013)

How much did you pay for your tegu? Also around when did you order the tegu?


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## Deac77 (Jan 30, 2013)

I'd say Laura is a amazing breeder she was top notch held Kirby for me while I put together the cage and supplies sent frequent pics the whole week I waited and has shown a great interest in him since he's come to live with me 

Also Johnny at tegu terra has been helpful in the years before when I had questions


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## naleme (Jan 30, 2013)

What is the site Laura owns? i would like to check her site out


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## TeguBuzz (Jan 30, 2013)

Tegudude88 said:


> Yes but he is horrible at selling and dealing with people who want his awesome animals



Blablabla, quit misleading people. NOTE TO EVERYONE READING THIS: If you order from Bobby Hill - I am CERTAIN you will not receive a tegu. Don't waste your time, instead go with breeders who people would still back 100%.


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## naleme (Jan 30, 2013)

TeguBuzz said:


> Tegudude88 said:
> 
> 
> > Yes but he is horrible at selling and dealing with people who want his awesome animals
> ...



Who do you recommend personally? i was looking into Underground and Wil but i havent gotten a reply back yet


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## TeguBuzz (Jan 30, 2013)

naleme said:


> TeguBuzz said:
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> 
> > Tegudude88 said:
> ...



I would definitely go with Wil if he has anything available, he's a great guy and a moderator on this forum. Laura as well, she's got nice stock. Never dealt with either but I'd vouch for them based off of what I've seen from them and people have only said positive things. I would definitely go with Tegu Terra or Ty Park. Underground has some nice stuff, but I've never purchased a tegu from them, I have purchased a ball python from them and that went quite well.


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## naleme (Jan 30, 2013)

Okay! i contacted them all but what suprised me was that Ty replied after 5minutes on email! haha sadly he's all sold out so ill have to wait till june... I was hoping to get a juvenile then a hatchling


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## TeguBuzz (Jan 30, 2013)

naleme said:


> Okay! i contacted them all but what suprised me was that Ty replied after 5minutes on email! haha sadly he's all sold out so ill have to wait till june... I was hoping to get a juvenile then a hatchling



He's quick with responding because it all goes to his iPhone. If you have seen MacGyver the red tegu on YouTube, he came from Ty's stock. It'll be worth the wait.


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## Rhetoric (Jan 30, 2013)

naleme said:


> What is the site Laura owns? i would like to check her site out



I don't think she has a site. She is also a moderator on the forum, laurarfl. There are a couple threads people have started to keep track of the tegus she's sold, ill see if I can find any of them for you.


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## bfb345 (Jan 31, 2013)

Well sounds like a good thing that i didnt buy my first argentine from bobby this was years ago but i ended up getting a different tegu thank god haha the whole shipping thing is iffy so i bought one at a local show


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## Tegudude88 (Jan 31, 2013)

I'm not misleading anyone?I'm giving my opinion of who I think is good at BREEDING tegus..Jesus


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## TeguBuzz (Jan 31, 2013)

Tegudude88 said:


> I'm not misleading anyone?I'm giving my opinion of who I think is good at BREEDING tegus..Jesus



Your statement will make new people/members think it is still OK to buy from Bobby. All the listed breeders are "good" at breeding tegus, but that's not all one has to account for when purchasing a tegu. Being able to communicate with your customers openly is a key component in all this. Yes, he was good at breeding tegus - but so are Johnny, Ty, Laura, and Wil.


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## TeguBlake (Jan 31, 2013)

TeguBuzz said:


> Tegudude88 said:
> 
> 
> > I'm not misleading anyone?I'm giving my opinion of who I think is good at BREEDING tegus..Jesus
> ...



Bobby scammed us all, and if you even got A GU FROM HIM THIS YEAR, HE WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO WALK OR WOULD HAVE JUST DIED!!! so there you go. not my opinion. its a fact. Johny is a great guy and so are a lot of people but not bobby.


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## TeguBuzz (Jan 31, 2013)

TeguBlake said:


> TeguBuzz said:
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> 
> > Tegudude88 said:
> ...



Your "fact" is wrong. Are you saying everyone who got a tegu from Bobby this year ended up with a limp or dead tegu? Biggin and Gwanji are doing great last I heard. I don't know of any tegus people got from Bobby this year that ended up limp or dead other than that one guy who posted a vid on YouTube about it.


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## Tegudude88 (Jan 31, 2013)

Thank you^
My experience with him wasn't bad so how am I wrong for having my opinion of bobby?


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## TeguBlake (Jan 31, 2013)

Your not wrong for it, just I had a very bad one.


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## TegusRawsome80 (Jan 31, 2013)

Without reading all the garbage posted before this, I will say that it depends on what species you're looking for. I personally would purchase from Wil first as he is a great guy to deal with and breeds on a much smaller scale so he personally cares for all his animals which in my opinion is nice to see. Laura is also great to deal with and breeds on a smaller scale so I would buy from her next. If they both didn't have what I was looking for I would go to Ty Park, who is awesome to deal with but is a large scale breeder. Finally, I would consider purchasing from Johnny although I did not appreciate or condone the way he handled himself after Bobby's issues, ie talking himself up on a thread about Bobby etc. From what I've seen he has good looking stock but his actions rubbed me the wrong way. I think that with the exception of Laura, all of these people produce the three main types of tegus, blues, reds and B&Ws, but I don't think Wil produces Chacoans and I don't know if Ty does either. On a side note, anyone who still wants to purchase from Bobby has got to be either crazy or stupid and I'll leave it at that.


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## blokhedd (Jan 31, 2013)

Bobby hill stole from me and countless others he sux and his tegus if he ever had any are the same as everyone elses. im out $150 no phone number to call and wont respond to emails. Also one of his sites is officially down. Personally i cant believe some of you are still saying hes good show so effing solidarity for his victims does he really deserve anymore money???


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## TegusRawsome80 (Jan 31, 2013)

http://www.tegusforsale.com/contactus.htm
Phone number to call.


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## blokhedd (Jan 31, 2013)

we already established like to months ago he had that number disconnected so you should try the number yourself before posting falsely again. also i had a friend email him a week before xmas posing as an interested party and he got a response asking for a moneygram. bobby is a criminal.


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## Cassie (Jan 31, 2013)

blokhedd said:


> Bobby hill stole from me and countless others he sux and his tegus if he ever had any are the same as everyone elses. im out $150 no phone number to call and wont respond to emails. Also one of his sites is officially down. Personally i cant believe some of you are still saying hes good show so effing solidarity for his victims does he really deserve anymore money???



I keep reading that he's not answering emails so I figured I'd post here:
Before reading any BoI or doing any research into Bobby's recent failures I had contacted him about reserving a 2013 tegu. I had done this because back in 2011 I was going to do the same but things came up. So anyway, sent him an email asking how to go about reserving an...un-made tegu (being a breeder myself I'd never ever ever take pre-orders on eggs, so much can go wrong, a list of interested parties, however, would be a better way to do this. Make a list, in order of original contact date, and go down the list until all born, healthy animals are sold and then contact anyone left on the list and ask if they'd like to be moved to the top of next year's list, so on and so forth), and he replied pretty quickly with ordering information. And then I found the BOI on Fauna and ended all contact with him. So, he's answering emails IF you're interested in buying from him. It might be a good idea to start off that way (feign interest in a 2013 and get a few replies out of him) and then ask him if he plans on fulfilling your order from last year or the year before.
He ended up asking for a moneygram to reserve something that doesn't even exist and that was just no. Once you send a moneygram you can't get it back. At least with paypal there'd be a window of time to open a dispute and get a deposit or final payment back.

Also, someone's business transactions don't count for or against them having quality animals to sell. Someone can be a down right arse and still produce the best animals there are. But, when buying the quality should not be all that matters, that's why the Fauna BOI and similar areas exist, so we know who really deserves our money after all. Does Bobby have good animals? From my research years ago his were the best out there. Does that mean he deserves more money? Not in my opinion; I'd never buy from someone who's going to take my money and pocket it and then cut off all contact with me.

Anyway, as far as best breeders go I would not know! I'm still on the search for a tegu to add to my reptile family. In the past I've been a big supporter of the small scale breeders. Overall I tend to get better responses, people who are happy to answer questions any time of day, and perhaps even healthier animals. I also feel like that, by supporting smaller breeders, you're supporting the economy a little bit more. Larger businesses (like Ben Seigel Reptiles, Underground, LLL, Outback, Big Apple, etc.,) might be paying employees but their general profits are going towards buying more animals to sell whereas personal breeders are buying groceries or hardware or whatever with their profits and that's feeding the economy a little more than a big distributor buying imported animals. With that said, some of the larger shops (LLL for example) buy from breeders and give them a guaranteed sale and that's always good.

So, long post short, support the little guys more than the big businesses (meaning buy from the breeders and not the distributors), if you're going to buy from a distributor buy from one that gets its animals from breeders.

Also, I find this post really helpful becaaaause now I know who to go to for my tegu (if I'm patient enough to wait for baby season!).


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## TegusRawsome80 (Jan 31, 2013)

blokhedd said:


> we already established like to months ago he had that number disconnected so you should try the number yourself before posting falsely again. also i had a friend email him a week before xmas posing as an interested party and he got a response asking for a moneygram. bobby is a criminal.


I wasn't gullible enough to buy from him in the first place and I, as well as a few others, surely saw this coming after the season before lasts issues which were made fairly public. Due to this, I have no reason to read every update or follow whether he changes his phone number or not or to call him to ensure that it's an updated number. That's the last updated one I saw so I posted it. I didn't "falsely post" so you should calm down. I'm not supporting Bobby in case you didn't actually read my post.


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## Dubya (Jan 31, 2013)

When I put my deposit down for Gwangi, at the time I read a lot of good things about him. I heard the bad stuff while I was waiting. I consider myself lucky.


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## laurarfl (Jan 31, 2013)

Well, first, thank you for the compliments. Second, I'll chip in my two cents as well. As far as the best breeder, it is really difficult to say. Bobby produced excellent stock, I have had two gorgeous tegus from him. But with his actions in the previous years, I would never feel comfortable recommending him again. Sad to say that, really. So I would recommend Wil and Ty first, then Tegu Terra.


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## socks19 (Jan 31, 2013)

TeguBuzz said:


> Johnny LaRocca has always been my go to breeder. AKA Tegu Terra. I've known him for several years and have never had a bad experience with him. He's always available whether it be through email or phone, and if he misses my call - I always hear back. Two years ago I would have vouched for Bobby Hill - but Johnny always came first. His prices are a little high but the stock is well worth it in the end.
> 
> I can also vouch for Ty Park. I've never purchased a tegu from him but I have dealt with him in the past with other reptiles. I've seen the tegus he has produced in the past, and they all looked great. His prices are also very affordable.




what is ty park website ??


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## Cassie (Jan 31, 2013)

socks19 said:


> what is ty park website ??



http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tys-Lizards/188828187820956


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## Bubblz Calhoun (Feb 1, 2013)

_The original question is practically a mute point and should have been more specific. As is there is no best breeder, there's no set breeding standard to determine that. Everyone does things differently from setups and care to customer service, and some are better in one area than others.
Just because bobby had issues these last couple of years (and how he handled them) does that make him a bad breeder,.. no. Him breeding and his stock has nothing to do with customer service or lack of lately.

If you look long and hard enough you can find something negative or a disgruntled customer with just about anybody. After what you find it's up to you whether or not you want to take a chance and deal with that person or not.
Things happen and everyone handles each situation differently. It only takes one situation for anybody to fall from grace the same way bobby did. Especially since people in general are so fickle anyway. A lot of peoples animals breeders or not came from bobby anyway that includes tegu terra, they had their issues as well before people jumped on that band wagon.

Who has the best stock would have been a more specific question but even that response would vary from one to the next, since not everyone likes the same thing. On top of that personal experience and or hear say would cloud a lot of peoples opinions on that as well.
What's attractive to you or what you may look for in a tegu or anything else may not be the same for the next person.

Back to the Op for the question as is "who do you feel is the best tegu breeder" for me,.. just look at their stock. As a breeder their stock should speak for itself. Some people will breed anythng while others are more selective and it shows.

Hands down from black heads to extremes bobby has the best stock. They're the reason why he had the reputation he had. Especially where extremes, white heads, chacos or what ever you want to call them are concerned. I have yet to see one from another breeder that with them, compare to his. I would like to have seen what he could have done with blues.

Stock wise with Blue tegus it gets a little more complicated for me since few people have been around long enough breeding them. On top of that I haven't seen enough babies or adults from them to say one way or the other who I like better.

Which reminds me of the comedian Gary Owen, as he said " Anybody can make a pretty baby, impress me and make a pretty adult. For some people once their parents features kick in,.. it's over."
_


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## laurarfl (Feb 1, 2013)

Good post! I will always think of Bobby as the top breeder of tegus. I just think his business ethics bit the dust. I also think it is was a personal issue that he couldn't recover from. But I don't want to start another Bobby bashing thread. I liked Bobby because he picked out characteristics he liked and bred selectively. To me, that is indicative of a good breeder. Someone who wants to improve the animal rather than turn a quick buck. Of course people need to make a profit to breed, but breeding whatever you have on hand for sheer profit isn't really "breeding" per se.


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## Tosh10 (Feb 2, 2013)

For any Canadians out there, I recently received a Tegu from Tegu Topia. The Tegu I received is very healthy and the breeder is extremely knowledgeable. This is my first Tegu ever so I can't offer too much of an opinion but you will not be disappointed as far as I am concerned


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