My first Tokay!

[fenrisswolf]

I had generally though I'd pass on keeping any tokays, since their aggressive temperament and slightly odd proportions generally made them seem a little unattractive to me.

However, after seeing a well fed adult being kept by a friend and fellow herper here in town, and some of the pictures here in the forum of what other healthy tokays are actually supposed to look like, I realized that most of the ones I had seen in pet stores where a bit on the skinny side, to try to put it kindly.

So last weekend, I was at Petsmart for my semi-weekly browse through and pet supply run, when I saw a hand-written "Manager's special" price on the tokay cage. It was the last one left, and after being about a month in the store, and at least a few weeks by itself, it no longer looked half starved.

So almost needless to say, I am now a brand new Tokay keeper, and I'm actually pretty happy about that.

Here's the first picture I managed to take of him(/her?) tonight. Unfortunately my camera's battery died shortly after that, so I couldn't take a close-up of the vent to make sexing a little more definite. The tail has regenerated at least once (altough I suspect maybe twice, as the overall color and pattern is a shade darker than the rest of the body, from behind the regenerated, dark, tip, to near the base.) Dorsal color is blue-green, with reddish spots.
I hope to have better pictures later, after I've recharged the camera's batteries, and as I get the chance to take them.

 

[cliff_f]

Congrats on the tokay. They are very fun and neat geckos to keep, especially when you have a pair and watch them interact. I would make sure you start giving it plenty of calcium and vitamins (you know the pet store didnt) when you get them nice and healthy they have beautiful colors.

 

[fenrisswolf]

Will do, thanks!

One of the reasons I got him was his nice color, it's a little more bluish than green, and he has some nice reds on him, too. I'll have to try and get some good dorsal shots to show him off at some point in the near future. (That and as a reference point, too.) Having a set of clear "before" and "after" reference points never hurts, particularly when trying to judge husbandry success for a "new" species.

 

[cliff_f]

I always like taking pictures of a animal when I first get them and a few months down the road take another and compare the pictures. It is always neat looking at pictures to see how much they have grown.