Hey everyone, how's it going? It's been a while...
This place looks dead now...geeze!
Anyway, I've been noticing a lot of questions regarding tokay care, handling, taming, etc and I used to always post replies to this before I was banned from here a while back. I finally got unbanned as you can see!!! =D Don't ask for details on here please. I think I'm gonna try to put my response to everything I can into this post. All of this will be based upon my own experience and what I've read by many of the old regulars around here (IE. Ingo, imtokay, Arokh, anyone else I missed).
For those of you who need info on care, here you go.
This caresheet was made by imtokay I think (if not him, then Arokh...lol) and I think it is excellent.
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Captive Care of Tokay Geckos
by Joshua Fast
Introduction
Tokay Geckos originate from northeastern India through southern China to Indonesia. They are one of the larger species of geckos, it is not uncommon to find them over 14” in length. They are truly colorful species in both personality and scale tone. They have extraordinary colors that can range from a sky blue to a deep purple with bright orange spots sprinkled in. Their personalities reflect a deep range of timidness to a ferocity unmatched by most other species.
Acquisition
Choosing a tokay should not be done under an impulse, they require a lot of space and are not great pets for the beginner gecko keeper. I would highly recommend you buy a captive bred tokay from a reputable breeder. This way you are insuring you have purchased the highest quality animal. I do not recommend you buy a tokay from a pet store or on a table of a reptile show. These tokays generally are imported and need specific meds to rid them of parasites. If you absolutely want to buy a pet store tokay then take the time to examine it first. Ask to pick it up (at your own risk) A healthy tokay will struggle when you are holding it. Look for injuries and missing digits, look at the vent to check for smeared feces (a very good sign of parasites). Examine the skin looking for depressed or projecting areas around the torso, indicating broken ribs. Check for protruding hip or back bones, a sign of malnourishment, make sure it has good weight to it and a decent size tail. Make sure there are no signs of external parasites. The tokay will probably gape at you, which is a typical threat display. Use this time to check the inside of the mouth. Make sure there are no white lumpy areas around the gum line, or packets of mucous anywhere in the mouth. If everything checks out and you still would like to make the purchase, make sure you have an enclosure for him already set up. You are going to want to keep him in a separate room away from any other herps in a quarantine setup. Use minimal cage furnishings and butcher paper or paper towels to line the bottom. Any tools used for the care of the reptile should not leave the room until disinfected with a 10% bleach/water solution. Work the quarantine room after you have taken care of all of your other reptiles. Make sure you use latex gloves and practice good hygiene when working in this room. You should establish quarantine for a minimum of 90 days. Use this time for observation, checking for further weight loss and/or runny feces. You should also find a reputable exotic animal veterinarian and get a fecal sample in to be tested for internal parasites. If the fecal turns out negative and your gecko is eating well, then you may introduce him into his permanent caging in your reptile room.
Housing
One of the tokays biggest needs is space. I recommend, as a minimum, a 65 gallon aquarium for a single tokay or 100 gallon for a pair. You have several different options when searching for an enclosure. Just keep a couple things in mind. The first is that tokays prefer vertical space to horizontal space, as they are arboreal geckos. Next make sure that it has ample ventilation, but enough closure to where it will maintain humidity. This is why using caging such as reptariums and other mesh caging is not recommended due to its inability to hold humidity. Substrate should be something that will hold humidity well such as crushed coconut fiber or pure, clean soil. Please do not confuse this with potting soil, which contains perlite and fertilizers. Do not use substrates such as bark, sand, or gravel, they are dangerous to your tokay because of their risk of impaction, not to mention they will not hold humidity as well. Enclosures should be well planted with either live or artificial plants, and have plenty of vertical orientated hiding spots for them to rest in during the day. Vines, for example hung along the top provide something they can get behind during the day but still allowing them to still be high in their enclosure. Wood and rock can also be provided to allow them some climbing furniture although don’t be surprised if they prefer to hang out on the glass. As a side note never house tokay geckos with any other species of reptile. Mixing species will just result in competition for either territory or food and one or more of the species will inevitably end up being bullied or eaten. On the same lines do not house males together because tokays are highly territorial they will likely fight to the death.
Environmental Requirements
For the purpose of the good health of your tokays a few needs need to be met on a daily basis. Temperature should be between 75 – 86 degrees during the day with up to a 10 degree drop at night. Make sure that bulbs or heat emitters are not exposed or set directly on the screen top of the cage. Geckos can walk on the top and without knowing can give themselves nasty burns. DO NOT USE HEAT ROCKS. They have been known to severely burn reptiles and tokays don’t like coming to the floor to warm up anyway. Tokay geckos are nocturnal so UV lighting is not required but may be beneficial; as recent studies have found that nocturnal species may bask in the sun in early dawn and late dusk. Humidity should be maintained at 40 - 80% although higher is always better. Humidity is important in their shedding process. Regularly check for unshed skin especially around the toes and tail. If your tokay is having problems shedding soak them in lukewarm water and gently remove the skin. If it doesn’t come off easily then soak them a little longer. If the problem is around the head or neck use a moistened cotton swab and lightly apply moisture. If this happens periodically chances are you need to increase the relative humidity in the cage. Spray the cage down 2 – 3 times a day with purified water to maintain this. It’s important to use purified water for two reasons. Your gecko does not drink out of a bowl, although it is not a bad idea to supply one. They drink by lapping water off of leaves and the glass. Using purified water prevents them from ingesting harmful chemicals or water born parasites and bacteria. The second reason is cosmetic, purified water lacks the minerals that leave spotting on the glass making it easier to view. Make sure you keep the enclosure clean. Spot clean feces every day and thoroughly clean the enclosure once a month, changing out the substrate each time this is done. This is necessary for the health and well being of your animals.
Feeding
Tokays are great eaters and are not known for being picky. They will eat crickets, superworms, roaches, waxworm moths, and grasshoppers. Pinkie mice can also be offered to females during breeding season and as an occasional treat. Try to vary their diet as much as possible, its important for them to get a well-rounded balance of nutrition. Also try making feeding times unpredictable to keep them interested, for example feed them two days in a row and skip a day, feed them three days in a row and skip a day, feed them for one day and skip two days etc. This always keeps them excited when they see food. Feed them as much as they can eat in 15 minutes. Make sure you dust hatchling’s prey with a calcium/D3 supplement such as Repcal every feeding, and a vitamin supplement such as Herptivite once a week. Adult’s prey should be dusted with calcium/D3, three times a week and once a week with a vitamin supplement. Remember, what goes into your feeders goes into your geckos so make sure you are gut-loading your feeders 24 hours prior to feeding them to your geckos. To gut-load provide them with a variety of vegetables and fruits to eat as well as oats and bran cereal.
Taming
The most common misconception is that all tokays are mean, that is the farthest from the truth. Captive bred tokays can be quite tame and tolerate handling very well. It is mostly imported tokays that seem to have bad tempers. The reason for this is that they are generally stressed out, severely dehydrated, emaciated, and have a high parasite load. These tokays are harder to tame but it is not impossible. Patience and persistence will pay off in long run. To hold your tokay pin it with your hand, and gently close your fingers around its neck and body, and hold its head and neck area loosely between your thumb and index finger. Make sure you gently lift it from the surface being careful not to damage its toe pads. Your goal as comical as it sounds should be to not get bitten. Being bitten is very painful and is potentially hazardous to the tokay. They can break teeth, and hurt their jaws from repeated biting, not to mention the additional stress it causes them.
Breeding
There will come a time in a lot of tokay owners’ lives where breeding is considered. This is fairly easy with the proper conditions. First make sure your geckos meet the following prerequisites. Make sure they have good weight, a breeding season will take a lot out of even the heaviest female. Make sure they have a clean bill of health, in other words do not attempt to breed newly acquired animals. Next you need to determine the sex of your tokays. Male tokays have more pronounced pre-anal pores and are heavier, possessing a wider head and thicker body than the females. After verifying the gender of your geckos, all it takes is placing them in the same enclosure together. It is recommended that you put the male into the female’s enclosure, or place them both into a neutral enclosure to prevent a possible territorial dispute. When it becomes close to breeding time, you will here the famous call that everyone associates to the tokay gecko. Breeding will occur soon after. Approximately thirty days after courtship the female will lay one or two large white eggs on a chosen surface of the enclosure. This may be a piece of wood, rock, or the wall of the enclosure itself. After the eggs have been laid, do not under any circumstance try to remove the eggs from the wall. Tokays are “egg-gluers” meaning after the eggs are laid, the eggs are permanently attached to whatever they were laid on. If you are worried that the eggs might be damaged by the adults, then a deli-cup with 1/8” holes punched in the side can be cut to fit over them. Duct tape seems to hold best under the humidity requirements. This will make it easier to remove the hatchlings after they are out as well. The parents won’t typically eat the hatchling but will make it very difficult for you to remove it. However if you are housing more than one female in an enclosure the unrelated female may eat the smaller tokay. If the eggs were laid on something removable such as a piece of wood then it can be removed and incubated artificially at 80 – 84 degrees. After the eggs are laid do not be surprised if the male spends most of his time guarding the eggs until they are hatched. It is during this time that they will be most likely to bite. Incubation times can range anywhere from 65 – 200 days if the eggs are fertile. When the hatchling has emerged from the egg remove him and place him in his own separate 10 gallon enclosure. The female will then ingest what is left of the shell and leave no trace of it behind.
Final Note
Tokays are very rewarding geckos to keep, but you will quickly realize that you will get out of them what you put in. Each individual has a personality all its own and you will never run into two of them who are identical. They are colorful, vocal, and active making them a great animal to observe and study. If you would like to further read on tokay geckos I suggest you get the book General Care and Related and Maintenance of Tokay Geckos Species by Sean McKeown and Jim Zaworski, the source for quite a few facts from this caresheet.
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Handling and taming I'll put into one section...
I have kept a few tokays now and based on my experiences, adults have been the easiest to tame down being that babies have the greater natural instinct to be scared of us humans. I use the term "tame" very loosely as most people do since reptiles are by no means ever FULLY tame. When you get your tokay, you should NEVER handle it any more than is absolutely necessary. After it's had a chance to settle in, start out by getting it out of its cage and holding it for a few minutes at a time. The big thing here is just to get used to being caught and then placed back inside its cage. After it's gotten used to this start getting it out for longer periods of time...like most of the people here say, sit and watch tv with it. Eventually it will get used to your presence and it will settle down to some extent (if you're lucky). I usually sit with mine and chat on the computer or something. Make sure it's semi-used to handling first though cuz you're obviously making quite a bit of movement while typing. Also keep in mind that tokays are very nervous... don't move too quickly around them, but DO NOT move very slowly either. When you creep up on them, they feel more threatened than when you just lunge for them and they'll start gaping and biting at you. I also prefer not to use gloves. If you haven't a giant, that probably wouldn't be a smart idea, but I have found that they bite harder with gloves and they also aren't nearly as willing to let go. I have had a tokay bite a gloved hand and two hours after removing the glove, the tokay STILL hadn't let go. When they bite my fingers, they usually will go for the "bite and run" technique.
Well, there's a lil info for you all...
I'm down to one tokay now. I had just recently got me a new male for my female and it was sick when I got it, and died within a few days. I'm pretty sure it had a severe case of mouthrot. I can't say for certain since that was the first time I've ever seen mouthrot. If anyone here can hook me up with a cheap adult male tokay, it'd be cool too... 
Anyway, I'm outta here...if anyone has any questions, shoot em. If I can't answer em, I guess someone else will. lol.
Josh
(formerly GB2000)
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Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel was just a freight train coming your way...
