[aquamentus_11]

My 6 mo, male tokay was eating fine until the other night. I've watched him hunt without any problem in the past, but now he seems to be hyper-aware of me and will stop in mid-skulk to watch me if I move while he's hunting. This all started the night after he shed.

He had been doing so well, that I had been handling him more, but I never grab him and always back off when he seems like he's not receptive to the idea. I rarely get even a gape from him while doing this and he always calmly climbs onto my hand (with a little coaxing). His humidity is always at least 60% (just got a fogger), heat is within recommended limits with day and nighttime adjustments and his fecal came back negative.

I moved him last night out of the room where I study and into a darker corner and plan to just let him be for awhile. Even if he doesn't seemed stressed with handling, could he be? Has anyone else noticed this "watching" behavior in their tokays?

[Riverside Reptiles]

Of course it is stressful. This is a very shy species and, especially if wild caught, are simply not programmed to be a "pet". I know that some people here enjoy handling their tokays, but I still think that it does more harm than it does good. Just because they tolerate it, doesn't mean that they enjoy it. It's a little different with a hand raised captive bred baby. But I still don't personally encourage it. I think the fact that yours seems to be getting more shy shows that it's becoming more acclimated to it environment and displaying more natural behaviors, which IMO is a good thing.

[aquamentus_11]

Yeah, I tried to read up on them before I got him and never expected to be curling up with him at night. I'm a med student about to head into my rotations and just wanted something to take care of that won't stain the carpet when I'm gone all night. I'm fully behind respecting the untamed nature of the species (weirds me out a little to see the hand-raised ones flipped on their backs and dressed ridiculously, etc.), but do plan to let him climb around on me and had hoped that, with time and patience, I could get him used to the idea. I was thinking that the more I handled him early in life, the more accustomed to it he'd be down the road and mostly just want him to feel comfortable with being handled once in awhile. The fact that he was completely parasite-free makes me think he was captive bred, but I wouldn't assume hand-raised.

I was surprised at how intelligent he seems to be. The other reptiles that I've kept in the past (jeweled lizard, red-tailed boa) were never as aware of my intentions. My tokay (his name is Lurk) actually seems to anticipate my movements and I'd swear he looks me in the eye from across the room. I'm not saying that he's on par with my cat, but for a reptile I'm really impressed. Has anyone noticed this or am I just revealing my poorly-veiled infatuation?

[aquamentus_11]

I'm glad to hear you think he's doing well, Ethan. I've heard so many varying opinions on handling these guys: I just want to get him fat and happy.

[DeepSeaKitten]

Funny, I kind of have the same feeling about mine. I just got a male for my Female and they are so silly!!! Its entertaining and therapeutic.