Tokay Gecko

[fbsmith3]

My wife is from Thailand, so she has some life experiences different then mine. She says when she was growing up she had freinds that had pet Tokay Geckos that were freindly.

I love the look of Tokay Geckos and a lizard that makes noise is so cool to me, but every reference I find says Tokay Geckos are always very agressive. I know there are different personalities within a species, but several.

Has anyone had a freindly Tokay Gecko?
Could she be confusing a Tokay Gecko with another type of Large Colorful Gecko?

 

[yagyujubei]

I seem to remember a friend of mine had a handleable tokay, when I was a kid. Their call is unmistakable. When I was in Vietnam, we could hear them call every evening. We called them "F U lizards" They"re like the T rex of the geckos. Their coloration is pretty unmistakable.

 

[bikerchicspain]

I have had lots of tokay gekos, and I have yet to find a friendly one, they are difficult to get mixed up though, because their name originates front th sound they make, if you listen when they make their little noises it sounds like they are saying tokay!

 

[EricIvins]

Tokays can be worked with, and they can be tolerant of Human interaction........

 

[Weda737]

I miss mine. I've been looking for some captive bred ones.

 

[jackrat]

Never had a freindly tokay.

 

[fbsmith3]

I will go to every reptile Expo my area and find this elusive tame Tokay Gecko.

 

[Stephanie]

I actually did know of a friendly Tokay that one of my friends had (well, friendly for a Tokay- it didn't bite, for example). I was terrified to hold it, but my friend insisted. I was not bitten, no aggression, etc. but that was a long time ago, and again, only once.
I strongly believe Tokays can be trained to tolerate human interaction, as Eric stated before. I can't see one snuggling up to an owner, but I'm not saying it couldn't ever happen. Anything is possible

 

[Tom]

I've got four of them. One will take food from some long forceps. The others want nothing to do with me. I've never seen a tame one. That would be neat. I still like them, even if they are not all that personable.

 

[reneereichert]

Mine seemed to be nice, until I got close to him, I think he use to bark..cool looking guys though.

 

[Floof]

I have heard of tame tokays. There's a tokay breeder, on another reptile community (I believe it was iHerp.com), that has very tame tokays. When she goes to reptile expos, she'll take a few of her breeding adults along and have one out on the table to be pet and handled. So, it can happen, with enough work... Probably the best bet would be to start with a healthy CB baby and just work with it consistently.

 

[froghaven5]

The one we had was beautiful and my son handled him as much as he could be he would draw blood more often than not.

 

[AnthonyC]

I had a few of them years ago, but they were always skittish and flighty. They would let me get only so close to them before they would take off. I had a room strictly for reptiles, and what I would do is just turn them loose to eat up any crickets that escaped from my chameleon cages. I did have a friend who claimed his Tokay was tame, but I never saw it with my own 2 eyes.

 

[jeffbens0n]

Is their bite harmful? Can it cause significant damage?

 

[AnthonyC]

I don't think so, but it hurts like hell & they don't like to let go either!

Is their bite harmful? Can it cause significant damage?

 

[Floof]

Here's the iHerp thread I was thinking of: http://iherp.com/Public/Blog/Detail.aspx?uid=65158... If you scroll down through the pics, you can see this breeder's "Pet a Tokay" display, as well as a couple of kids handling two of her adults. Here's the "Tokay" page on that same breeder's website; it touches very briefly on how she manages to tame them: http://spottedscales.com/tokays.html

Jeff--Never been bit by a Tokay, but my adult bearded dragon got me once (just a bite-and-release, not a bite-and-hold like Tokays seem to be known for) and that hurt like HELL. Cut right through the fingernail, left a surprisingly deep cut on the pad of my finger, but both grew out/healed very quickly and there wasn't any significant, long-term damage... But, holy crap, I'm glad beardies are tame, because it's so not something I'd want to go through again. Anyway, point is, a lizard bite hurts like crazy and can do some surprising damage... But I'm pretty sure you aren't going to get any significant, long-term damage from a Tokay. (Disclaimer: I've never actually been bitten by a tokay... This conclusion is based largely on the assumption that a tokay's bite would be comparable in power to a similarly sized beardie.)