Tokay rate of growth in the wild?
- Thread starter tombo46
- Start date
Riverside Reptiles
Administrator (HMFIC)
It depends on what you mean by "adult"? Do you mean "old enough to breed"? Or do you mean "fully grown in size"?
Well I suppose both : )
The reason I ask is earlier this year I purchased 3 double het tokay's that had been "ticked over". They were about the size of a properly grown 4 month old I'd say. They have grown fast but seemed to have slowed down considerably. I'm worried they aren't going to reach full size. They are around 2 1/2 years old now. They are a decent size but not quite there yet.
What would you say the difference in size is between "full adult" and "breeding size" in females?
Cheers
Tom
Riverside Reptiles
Administrator (HMFIC)
Tokays can vary a ton in size. Some get that big bulky look. Others are much more petite. Likely due to variations in locale or possible sub species. So you may just have some that are simply not going to get huge. Or, you may be just worrying over nothing. In the wild, there's a ton of variables that affect growth...diet, weather, etc. My advice would be to simply feed them a high quality gut loaded diet, and let them grow to whatever they naturally want to grow to. You say that they're good sized but not "quite there". So it's only natural that they'd start slowing down in growth if they're almost full grown.
daggekko
New member
I've seen tokays (and leopard geckos-mainly these) get to be breeding size fairly fast(within a year) but not the full grown thick look that you see over time. It seems as they become more like 4+ years old they stop growing so much length wise and start putting on weight(stocky/thick!) I could just be crazy too, but it seems that with time they get thicker to me
Thank's for the info. Im more worried that they have stopped growing and are stunted in some way. I'll try and get some pictures up of their full size to see people's opinions. This is my first time growing them to adulthood so it might just be normal or they might indeed be big enough for breeding. I'm going to take a look at their calcium sacks later and see how well developed they are.
daggekko
New member
As I was saying about how it takes time for them to get to that big bulky size, I just read over the thread again. Yours are about 2.5 years old and are a decent size, yours will probably get to what your looking for in the next couple years. As riverside said, all animals can vary in size some, so yours might just be small, but since you've never raised one all the way up before your probably just worrying for no reason! Definately get some photos up of their size. That will help the rest of us I've you a better answer to yours in particular.
Sorry for the delay people. This is one of the females...
Calcium sacks...
So what's everyones take on it? Maybe I'm just not noticing them growing. I rarely weigh them due to Tokay's nature! My plan's are to breed this one back to dad but I'm unsure of the size she should be before I do this. Can anyone who is working on proving these gene's out give me some insight in to what sort of size/weight they need to be?
Thanks again for the help
Tom
Calcium sacks...
So what's everyones take on it? Maybe I'm just not noticing them growing. I rarely weigh them due to Tokay's nature! My plan's are to breed this one back to dad but I'm unsure of the size she should be before I do this. Can anyone who is working on proving these gene's out give me some insight in to what sort of size/weight they need to be?
Thanks again for the help
Tom
daggekko
New member
Hey, she looks pretty good size for 2.5 years. You won't notice the growth because you take care of them! If you only saw them once a month you'd notice size differences much better.
As far as breeding goes I know a lot of people wait until the female has laid a set of dud eggs (CB animals) to make sure the individual is ready for breeding. I also know that Tokays can be raised in the tank with the parents, so I don't know when a young girl should go in for breeding. As with most geckos, they are usually ready to breed anywhere from 6 months old to 2 years, so I think you should be ok to put her in with him. Just watch for aggression. The only time I have bred Gekko sp. is with WC adults, so they just went in together when I bought them. Hopefully someone that breeds Tokays will give their 2 cents on age.
As far as breeding goes I know a lot of people wait until the female has laid a set of dud eggs (CB animals) to make sure the individual is ready for breeding. I also know that Tokays can be raised in the tank with the parents, so I don't know when a young girl should go in for breeding. As with most geckos, they are usually ready to breed anywhere from 6 months old to 2 years, so I think you should be ok to put her in with him. Just watch for aggression. The only time I have bred Gekko sp. is with WC adults, so they just went in together when I bought them. Hopefully someone that breeds Tokays will give their 2 cents on age.
Riverside Reptiles
Administrator (HMFIC)
Weighing your animals on a regular basis will take a LOT of guess work and worry away. It's not hard, even with tokays. Buy a gladware type container that the tokay will fit in. Weigh the container and lid empty. Then put the gecko in the container with the lid on. Then weigh the container with the gecko in it and subtract the weight of the container when it was empty. If you do that once a month, you will be able to track exactly how well your animal really is growing. And you'll be quickly aware if there's a problem and your animal has lost weight.
I have weighed them all and they are all around the 60g mark give or take a couple of grams. They can't be anywhere near ready for breeding at this weight. I'm in no rush to breed them, my only concern is that they have become stunted from being grown on so slowly. This is why I asked what the growth rate was in the wild, so I could get a clear indication of whether or not they will reach a breedable size.
Ethan, how heavy were yours before you bred them back to mum/dad?
Ethan, how heavy were yours before you bred them back to mum/dad?
daggekko
New member
I know captivity doesn't give you a good idea about wild conditions, but my Tokay Gecko argued with me about being weighed, but I won in the end:biggrin:
Mine is roughly 14 months old and weighs 82 grams. Don't know if this is really heavy or not(before this thread I'd never thought to weigh a Tokay Gecko. I am including a picture to show size compared to tape measure. The tape is 1" wide as well.
Hope this is somewhat helpful. And I don't care to get bit, so I never actually touched him!!!
Mine is roughly 14 months old and weighs 82 grams. Don't know if this is really heavy or not(before this thread I'd never thought to weigh a Tokay Gecko. I am including a picture to show size compared to tape measure. The tape is 1" wide as well.
Hope this is somewhat helpful. And I don't care to get bit, so I never actually touched him!!!