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Day and night, a tokay's life

artamir Oct 04, 2003 02:42 AM

Hy guys, here's another question about tokay. I'v got her 8 days ago. After an acclimatization period of two or three days, she eated a great meal and at the end of the day she discovered the lair i predisposed for her. She didn't came out for two days (and a night, i think). Last night, finally, she come out to drink and little exploring. But she immediately come back home et the sunshine. In my cage lightning is so predisposed:

07 am - 08 am: sunrise light (a faint blue neon tube light is turned on);
08 am - 08 pm: day light (blue neon turned off, the twice full spectrum neon tube turned on; in addition, 11 am - 04 pm: a thermostat spot bulb is turned on to take on 30°C)
08 pm - 11 pm: sunset and evening light (day lightning turned off, the blue neon tube above turned on)
11 pm - 07 am: full night. The tokay take her head out of the lair, take a drink, look for something interesting happening in the external word, and so on.

So the question is: i love animals in them natural conditions and i dont'n wanna take her into a nude cage (i have a classical wood one) to be in the position to see her. But sould the tokay be a little less shy, with time? Otherwise, how can i feed her? Thanks to everyone

Replies (7)

antonm Oct 04, 2003 01:48 PM

Wow you really went all out on this gecko. Good job most people dont do the things you would. I personally built a couple of hide-outs for my tokay so he could variate where he was as he pleased. I can associate with your situation because I got a female about a week back and provided her with a 1 way hollow bamboo. She sat in it day and night for like 5 days straight. This wasnt good. Armed with a sock on my hand I extracted her out of it and took the bamboo out. At that point she started exploring and so forth. I never saw her eat, but I think I heard it. There was a whole lot of calling during this time though, I dont believe she responded. In any case, I would like to give you a conclusion to her adaptation but she ran away 2 days ago so I'm back to sqare one. She was not in the best shape so she may have been scared to venture out of the hole. She looked wild caught so maybe that was part of the problem (my male is CB, totaly friendy too...). In any case, I say give it 7 more days since you say she's exploring and so forth already and maybe take some of those plants out. Dump some crickets in and maybe some slow worms so she can eat something. Try and make it so the crickets cant hide so its easier to hunt. When she fattens up and feels more comfortable, put some more of the natural stuff back in. Good luck.

antonm Oct 04, 2003 01:50 PM

Oh a quick question, are those real rocks? I was planning on doing something similar to that maybe even a waterfall running down but rocks like that always seemed like they would crack the glass on the bottom.

artamir Oct 06, 2003 03:08 AM

Yes, i used real rocks: flat sedimentary (i think) rocks, slate-like, measuring up to 30x40 cm, locked by silicone. Real rocks are heavy ones, but i don't mind of it because of my tank is an old aquarium, wich can tolerate great pressures. I have a waterfall too, if you take a look to my pictures you can see something about it. Tank for your long and detailed reply!

artamir Oct 06, 2003 03:12 AM

what does it means 'BC' and 'WC' animal? I'm new to this forum and don't know about those abbreviations.

nasr_36 Oct 06, 2003 11:36 AM

im not sure what BC is, unless you mean CB? CB = Captive Bred (bred in captivity, not in the wild)

WC = wild caught (caught from the wild, and imported)

M.N

artamir Oct 06, 2003 11:40 AM

Thank you, M.N.!

ingo Oct 06, 2003 01:38 AM

I already told you that your tank does not look like the best Tokay setup.

But besides that, tokays need long to acclimatize.
Can sometimes take a year or more, especially for WC animals.
Some even stay skittish and hidden life long.
But you have to be patient anyway. A few months are nothing in a tokays live.

Ci@o

Ingo

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