kevs reptile house

keeping tokay geckos

Tokay geckos are from the tropical rain forests of asia, india, burma, thailand, philipines. They are an arboreal lizard which means they spend most of their time up high in trees. They often inhabbit homes and buildings living up in the rafters.They are nocturnal and are only usually seen or heard and night. Tokay geckos are one of the largest geckos ranging from 8" to 14" in length and have a life span of around 7 to 10 years. They are very aggressive lizards and will make a loud croaking noise if approached and will readily bite which can be a very painful experience. They are an attractive gecko with a base colour of gray / blue and covered in orange/ red spots. they eat a wide variety of insects including crickets, locusts, moths, and even eating small mice.

a tokay in it's natural habitat a tree!

and here in the rafters of a house

captive care

As these are arboreal lizards they need a tall enclosure so they can climb and feel safe. The enclosure should be decorated with plants and branches to make them feel at home though they will probably spend most of thier time on the wall of the enclosure. The substrate of the enclosure can basicly be anything as they very rarely go onto the floor. I use bark chippings for a substrate. The enclosure should be around 24" x 36" x at least 36" high, The higher the better! these geckos can fit into suprisingly small spaces considering their size so make sure that there are no gaps in the enclosure which the gecko could get out of !!

the normal possition of a tokay gecko!

heating , lighting and humidity

The temperature of the enclosure should be around 80F with a basking area of around 90F and a drop of 15F at night. This is best achieved with a heat lamp, heat mats are of no use in a tokay gecko enclosure. Humidity needs to be high for these lizards at 70% to 90% and should never be lower then 50%. this can be achieved by spraying the enclosure 2 to 3 times a day , or by using an automatic mister but these can be quite expensive, and use up more electric on top of your heat sources. being nocturnal means tokay gecko do not need uv lights or any other type of light in their enclosure, unless you use real plants in the enclosure which will benefit from the light. If you dont use real plants dont use lights, not even for aesthetic purposes because if the light is on you wont see the gecko as it will hide away until the light goes off.

feeding

Tokay geckos are easy to feed as they are not fussy eaters. You can offer them crickets, hoppers, locusts, cock roaches, meal worms, wax worms, even pinky mice. if it moves and they can fit it into their mouths then they will eat it!! Never feed too many meal worms at one time as the shell of the worm cant be digested properly and this can bloat the lizard and cause it to be unwell. remember variety is the key other plenty of different food items with cricket as the main basis of the diet. Tokays will eat pretty much as much as you give them so only feed every other day and keep a watch of their size, if they start getting too fat decrease the amount of food. Dust the insects with a multi vitamin / mineral powder before offering them to the gecko. Tokay geckos  will very rarely drink from a bowl and get most of their needed moisture from the insects they eat but will also drink the droplets of water created from spraying the enclosure.

tokay gecko hunting down it prey ( crickets )

handling

 If you want a pet/ lizard that you can handle then this isn't the one for you!! tokays are very aggressive and dont usually become tame although some do and this is not the norm! If you attempt to pick a tokay up it will puff it's body up open it's mouth fully and even hiss and croak at you. If you dont take heed to this and still try to pick it up then it will bite and it has a powerful and painful bite!! To hear a tokay gecko croak go to videos and click on the first tokay video.

young hatchling tokay gecko different colour and pattern then adults

and much easier to handle!

tokay geckos are now being bred for different colour and patterns see the picturse below for the new varieties.