First things first – I would like to express that I do not consider myself an expert on the subject matter at hand, and I am not the only individual who has bred and hatched out geckos such as Gekko gecko (Tokay Geckos) and their relatives within the genera. However, I can share with you what I’ve learned throughout my venture of attempting to breed the species and what it took to finally hatch out a few specimens and how some of this information can be applied to other similar gecko species, and trying to get a better understanding on why not all tactics or methods will work for every person trying to do the same. Breeding Tokays and other Gekkonidae species may be easier for some than it may be for others.
GAINING APPRECIATION FOR SUCH A MISREPRESENTED SPECIES
To really get the first stepping stones set to begin such a project, one must first gain appreciation for the species and try to understand what makes them tick. You have to put yourself in the gecko’s “shoes”, research the hell out of them, and find a general consensus on how to simulate their natural habitat. Only from there will you appreciate the species by watching the natural behaviors they exhibit.
Everyone is aware of the Tokay gecko – they have been known in the hobby for a long time as demonic little blue geckos that will rip your fingers apart. They without a doubt do have a defensive behavior, but sometimes you have to understand that being a small lizard isn’t easy by any means. Tokays are predators, but they are also prey. Snakes seem to be their main predators in the wild, and the defensive behavior of Tokay seems to stem from this predator-prey relationship. Tokays are small lizards, but they’re giant geckos. They have very strong jaws and sharp teeth – great for killing their favorite food and excellent in the defense department against animals trying to eat them.
From personal experience, despite their less-desirable nature, Tokay geckos and other species from the Gekko genus are incredibly intelligent geckos. Quite easily the most intelligent of all geckos that I’ve owned and worked with. With intelligence, comes the difficulty of trying to interact with them. This seems to be a strange rule within reptiles in general. The smarter they are, the harder it is to work with them and gain their trust. With Tokays, it’s more than possible. It takes a lot of patience, and some blood loss, but once you’ve befriended a Tokay, they can make the best pet geckos in my opinion.
Tokays are highly misunderstood, and humans like to work with reptiles that they virtually have to put very little effort into gaining trust and handling. But with the right patience and mindset, you can get a Tokay that’ll be one of the best pets you could ever have. The stigma that is attached to the species is highly undeserved. By gaining appreciation and understanding them, working with the species is so much easier.
SETTING UP THE STAGE FOR BREEDING
To get Tokay geckos to breed isn’t necessarily difficult, however getting their husbandry down pat can be difficult and varies by the regions that the keepers themselves inhabit. I’m from Maryland. It’s considered a part of the south, however we get brutal winters here. During the Spring and Fall I find it slightly easier to maintain temperatures and humidity. The bitter cold sucks the heat and humidity right out of my house, which becomes the most stressful time for my geckos and for myself. Winter is the roughest. Especially with tropical species like Gekko gecko. You have to adapt your knowledge of keeping the species and figuring out a system that works. That’s the difficult part.
Before introducing Tokays together, you have to make sure 100% of what their genders are. If you don’t do this, and introduce two males by accident, you’ll end up with one being severely injured. That is preventable and they can be easily sexed at the adult stage.
Tokays lack hemipenal bulges seen in other gecko species and it is mainly by observing femoral pores. They also exhibit some sexual dimorphism. Males have more pronounced pores, and the area where these pores are located feel waxy and sticky. They also have very wide noggin’s, and males generally are larger.
The average length of these geckos in captivity seem to be around 10-12 inches. Also, when introducing, make sure your Tokays are up to weight. Females are smaller; however, I have found despite weight, they will breed but a female should have some girth to her to allow her to bounce back better from laying eggs. Supplementation and diet variety is key. Tokays do well in a male-female communal set up, but during breeding make sure you are ramping up the nutritional needs for the female. Especially for calcium production and D3 synthesis.
Many people tend to separate the adults after laying the third clutch of eggs to prevent overbreeding. I have not done that, but I haven’t seen any ill-effects from not separating them. This may be due to me ensuring that the female is getting more than enough calcium to prevent any crashing people have spoken of. My Tokays don’t seem interested in breeding all year round as well. It seems more based on weather and seasonal triggers that initiate breeding. I notice my Tokays move more into breeding mode during rainy weather, and the barometric pressure change truly triggers them into that.
I started housing my pairs in 29-gallon aquariums that I had flipped and converted into arboreal enclosures. For where I live, these work the best to maintain humidity. But are much harder to heat, and you don’t get to utilize most products available at your disposal. Nowadays I prefer and find an 18x18x36 inch ZooMed Paludarium enclosure works really well.
Maintaining humidity is more difficult, however I utilize plastic wrap on most of the screen top to trap what I can within the enclosure without sacrificing too much air flow. You don’t want the air to become stagnant. I also find Tokays do best in bio-active enclosures and it gives them proper enrichment. This I find stimulates their natural behavior much more than simple “sterile” set-ups. In turn, I feel will give you better results with breeding.
Heat plays a huge part in breeding as well, and mainly just keeping Tokays. I utilize 25-watt halogen bulbs and fixtures manufactured by Zilla. They’re powerful and provide proper basking areas, and from separate sources I have found Halogen bulbs are more cost efficient and produce Infrared A-B, which is a much healthier form of heat. I also utilize UVB with one pair of Tokays as well.
My ambient room temps during the day are usually around 75-77 degrees, so within the tanks it is usually is about 82-86 degrees at the highest points and the gradient drops down to 72-75 at the bottom of the tank. I also allow the temps to drop down to 75-78 at night. Female Tokays will deposit their eggs where the temperature is just right for incubation. Humidity wise I try to maintain a 60-80% range throughout the day. I find a misting system works really well, and for people in drier climates I suggest one.
INCUBATING AND LEAVING THE YOUNG WITH PARENTS
The hard part of breeding is getting successful hatches and good solid eggs. Sometimes it takes the females time to really produce nice, viable eggs. Incubating them with patience is even more difficult. Tokay geckos do not bury their eggs, instead they adhere them to a surface within their enclosure.
They come out of the female’s cloaca as a soft, gooey gelatin-like ball. The female uses her back legs to form its shape and to stick it within a tube structure or to another surface. When the egg’s shell dries, it becomes hard and develops a super strong bond to whatever surface it is attached to. You’re not going to be able to remove them without destroying them. So, either you can leave them to hatch in situ, or remove the entire surface and incubate them at around 80-83 degrees.
It’s best to keep the temperature range in the high 70’s into the mid 80’s within the enclosure. The eggs may take longer to incubate, but you will have larger and stronger babies if they successfully hatch.
I leave the babies with the parents. Many new wave reptile hobbyists and keepers say this is a no-no, however many of them have not worked with the species nor do they know that Tokays have complex social relationships with each other. They are also a tough crowd to persuade and reason with at times, even with the most thorough evidence. Although their parental care isn’t on the same level of a mammal’s, the adults do protect and raise the young. The hatchlings mirror the parents in behavior and what the parents choose to eat. So, there is a sense of learning with this species.
My pair that is more tolerant of handling has a singular offspring that in turn is very tolerant of being interacted with. My other pair who has had more success in hatching offspring are flightier, and their offspring reflects that as well.
Bottom line, the parents do not tend to look at their offspring as food. If there have been any instances of filial cannibalism, it is usually an accident during feeding time or the keeper simply isn’t providing enough food for the communal set-up. It isn’t mandatory to keep them in this manner, and you can separate them and they will do fine as well. It’s merely up to the individual on how they plan to carry out their project and methods of husbandry.
CLOSURE
So, through my experience, Tokays are an interesting species to breed solely on the social abilities they possess. I don’t breed for morphs with any of my geckos, the more natural it is to me the more beautiful it is. Tokays alone are stunning to look at. The experience was difficult, and many eggs were lost before I actually managed to hatch my first one. A few had fallen off the surface they were adhered to, and I had incubated those which increased the chances and one hatched in situ.
I believe where I live geographically makes it more difficult for these geckos to breed and hatch successfully without some form of human intervention. But this may not always be the case with everyone. I have spoken with a few breeders that live in colder climates that have had very little issue with their projects. Climates like southern Florida are the most ideal for this species and probably are easier to keep there as well. It would make sense – Tokays are another invasive species found there.
It was a pleasure sharing my experiences and opinions, and remember, do what you think works best for your Tokay geckos. There’re multiple ways to achieve the proper husbandry needed for them. They can be kept successfully in communal set-ups, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it. Although I really would like to bury the misconceptions that unfortunately dampen this gecko species reputation and potential, and see more people trying to work with them down the road.
