Tokay Geckos

Note: I will no longer be breeding these geckos so that I can focus on terrestrial species. I still know a lot of breeders and importers however, so let me know if you're looking for one.

Tokays are difficult species to handle and are best kept as cage "eye candy". They are so beautiful it's hard for someone not to be amazed by them, but they'll bite if irritated, and it's hard not to irritate them. They tend to have a grumpy personality to begin with.

Tokays are an arboreal geckos that like a lot hiding places and branches up high in their cages. Females may grow up 8"-10" long while males may get as large as 14" inches. A tall twenty gallon aquarium is the smallest enclosure I'd recommend for a tokay. If you want to keep a male and female together for breeding you'll need at least a 55 gallon aquarium, these geckos can be territorial. In a big tank like this however you'll probably need more than one heat source to keep your geckos in the optimal temperature range of 80 to 84 degrees F.

Tokays are reknown for their 'feisty' disposition.  Most wild caught specimens immediately open their mouths in a defensive display when any attempt is made to handle or restrain them.  They may follow this with a "honk" or "bark" sound in combination with a mock lunge. No matter how often I see it, the lunge/bark still manages to startle me. If you get too close to the mouth, the lunge will be more than a mock threat, these guys WILL bite and it is very painful. They have tiny sharp teeth and have a bad habit of locking their jaws onto your finger and not letting go. A very painful experience, making it hard to keep yourself calm as you try to encourage the gecko to open it's mouth back up and free your injured digit.

Tokays need a healthy diet of insects that have been dusted and gut loaded prior to feeding. Adults may even take an occasional pinky mouse, but as you can't gut load these it's harder to supplement your geckos.

Males can't be housed together as they will fight to the death. One male can be safely housed with a female for breeding purposes, so long as the cage is large enough to give them each their own territory (55+ gallons). The female will lay one or two eggs every two to six weeks for p to six clutches. The eggs will start hatching after an incubation period of about 65 to 200 days at 80 to 84 degrees F. If you don't remove the eggs from the parent's cage than you'll need to put ventilated deli cups over them before they start to hatch or the parents may eat them. Hatching occurs after an incubation period of 65 - 200 days at 80 to 84 degrees F.