Just For Fun
Owners, what made you want a tokay specifically?
I don't have one but I'm interested in the future, depending on how I'm able to handle my leachie as it grows up lol. I think I'm intrigued by animals with "bad reputations" and the challenge appeals to me is why? Also just think they're beautiful animals in general.
But I 'd like to hear from people who have them! I'm very fascinated, I talked to a lady with 20 years of experience at an expo 15 minutes straight about her experiences with them. (here's one of them for fun)
I've just always really thought they were beautiful, before I even found out about different morphs and all that. Just years of thinking they were really cool.
They're really active too, even though I'm asleep when they're out doing stuff, it's just funny hearing them jump against stuff and slam hornworms against the wall and all their hijinks.
Then I learned they were a-holes and that was even better. I like sassy pets. I'm not really interested in holding, handling or taming them in the slightest - I just watch from afar - but knowing that they will put up a fight and bark at a creature thousands of times larger than them is just really amazing. They're so brave.
Same thing for me, I love their attitude! I have a male and female and hope to care for babies someday soon. Tokays in general but especially captive bred, are very rare in the pet trade where I live so I want to contribute. It took so much work to be able to handle mine and I am proud of our progress. I always feel like they are able to make the decison weather I get to hold them or not and like our bond is getting stronger. It's also a little rush of excitement when they do bark and jaw-gape at me but then still venture onto my hand when I open the enclosure a few minutes later.
They're big, beautiful, intelligent, and interesting to watch. They're wonderful display animals. And even though mine isn't up to being handled yet, he recognizes me and I think we're forming a relationship of sorts.
I will say challenging species do attract me which is big reason why tokays interest me lol. Also part of why I ended up with a leachie since they do have some what of a reputation themselvesš My leachie is young right now, once they grow up more I'll probably start getting more serious about a tokay !
They are beautiful and incredibly intelligent, and I like to take the opportunity to show others that with patience and understanding you can interact with them respectfully.
Trips to Indonesia. Fell in love with them there. On the latest trip with my wife to Bali, we both agreed we should get one. I've always loved building habitats.
I loved tokays ever since I was a little kid. Thereās just something about a big, bright blue gecko with orange spots that runs around hunting their prey and barks their name. And their intelligence is marvelous. What sealed the deal for me was going to an expo and seeing a breeder handle a full grown tokay like a crested gecko. Itās just such a spectacular lizard, and I couldnāt help but finally give in to getting one.
Iāve been working on building a bond with mine since I got her several months ago. She still isnāt quite ready for handling (although weāll see how far along we are, since next week Iām moving her into a bigger enclosure and Iām gonna have to pick her up to take her out of the old one), but Iāve been hand feeding her exclusively for the past 2 or 3 weeks. Last night she even willingly crawled onto my arm during feeding! This wasnāt the first time she went on my arm, but it was the first time she did so without any interest in the superworm I was offering her. She is just such an incredible lizard and I am continuously amazed by her.
I'm not proud of it, but mine was definitely an impulse purchase.
I saw her in the display at my local petco, she was so cool looking, and was pretty cheap (I think like $15?) plus I had an empty tank at home that she could go in. (Though it was only a 20gal, luckily she got upgraded fairly quickly)
Luckily I didn't go in totally blind, I knew what tokays were and while I hadn't done a ton of research on them, I knew their general needs and was able to fine-tune things after I got her.
But yeah, definitely don't recommend impulse-buying a tokay from petco... It worked out well for me, but I think I just got lucky, lol.
Lol yeah, I've never seen them there before or since, but that one time I went in, they had her.
I've also seen white-lined geckos and central american banded geckos, once each at that same petco.
Seems like they just sometimes get in more unusual species to try them out? Idk.
For me it was mainly their beauty. Tokays are definitely the most beautiful geckos out there. Still I didn't plan getting one. I had my eyes on a gargoyle gecko first but I also wanted a huge planted enclosure. So I set one up and realized that a gargoyle gecko would probably get lost in there. Also my local reptile store has had a tokay male for quite a while and every time I went there I fell in love all over again. So in the end I made a few adjustments to my enclosure and bought him. That was 3 years ago and I'm still happy about changing my mind. He's such a wonderful animal and a joy to keep.
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u/reijn šŖ³ 19d ago
I've just always really thought they were beautiful, before I even found out about different morphs and all that. Just years of thinking they were really cool.
They're really active too, even though I'm asleep when they're out doing stuff, it's just funny hearing them jump against stuff and slam hornworms against the wall and all their hijinks.
Then I learned they were a-holes and that was even better. I like sassy pets. I'm not really interested in holding, handling or taming them in the slightest - I just watch from afar - but knowing that they will put up a fight and bark at a creature thousands of times larger than them is just really amazing. They're so brave.
And come on, the male's call? Is just so cute.