Tokays

[Gaherp]

I used to breed tokays, and honestly it was one of my favorite projects. The investment price was crazy, and the drop in value was even crazier, but I enjoyed working with them anyway. Here are some of the males that I had worked with.
Powderblue male(initially buying price was over 1500 now worth about 600 I believe, but to me one of the most stunning)

Caramel albino Nerd line( the most expensive and I never proved out one gene with it. I bought him since he was also het for powder blue which is why he had a 5000 dollar price tag. Now I think they are worth around 900 or so)

psychedelic tokay(I got this one in a trade for some of my australian knobtails so do not remember the total value)

Needless to say do not get into a project for the money side of it, because most of the time you will not make your money back, but honestly it was a very fun project. My wife and I still own a couple of tokays, but mostly calico(W/C line) and high reds) which all are very handleable. Got to say out of all the gecko specie I have bred(trust me more then a few) these are the most personable to me. Through the years of breeding reptiles and other critters I have found that chasing the market is one thing that will burn you out fast as heck. These days we breed only animals that give us enjoyment, and if customers happen to buy the resulting young that's just icing on the cake.

 

[Niffarious]

Unless you are able to launch a project like this, it seems like money will always be lost...so you are right, better to do it just for the love of them!

I have to say, I would LOVE to own CB tokays...I've never known anyone near me raising them, which is a shame. The calico and high-red are actually my personal favourites as well - but your pictures are of very gorgeous animals, I must say.

 

[Gaherp]

They did sell very well for a few years, but honestly when the craze hit my production could no way keep up with all the W/C morphs that were coming in. So we downsized to the ones we really just could not part with and have not regretted it. It is a shame that people don't look at them other then a wall crawling crocodile because honestly if they spent just five minutes with any in my collection it would change those views. That was the one thing that bummed me out was if people would just spend the right amount of time with even a fresh W/C they would end up with a puppy dog tame tokay. I always hate seeing the pics of people holding them with welding gloves or grabbing them behind the neck all they are doing is making the situation a whole lot worse.

Leucistic (five minutes out of the box when I got it. Unfortunately he died a year ago, this was my baby and it did hurt losing him he had a mouth deformity so he was a non-breeder)

Big red (my wife's favorite male we still have him and always will, he is a little bigger now.)

 

[RockinOutAmber]

I've always loved Tokays! Maybe someday I'll have the time and resources to own one. They are so beautiful.

 

[wayne the pain]

Dont like morphs to be honest, they are good enough for me as natural, but got to admitt that big red is gorgeous.

 

[stingray]

Great looking tokays! I wish my big male would let me hold him. I have tried a little, but I am to chicken chit to really try. He will definately cause you to get stitches.

 

[Gaherp]

I have scars I would be lying if I said I did not take a few real good bites from tokays, but honestly once they get over the fear of you(yes they freak out about that big meat hook invading it's space) they tend to not even bat an eye. I usually start with letting them just walk on me or hand feeding. Then once the get accustomed to that its usually no problem for them to just hang on your shoulder or be petted with no blood or gore involved You'd be amazed what a fat and happy tokay will let you do with it once its used to the handling. My wife will literally clean the whole living room or reptile room with one sitting on her shoulder.

 

[stingray]

Mine is very use to me. But as soon as I get to close he lets me know about it everytime.

 

[Tarac]

I had no idea there were so many morphs of these around! I kept a couple as a kid, collected from the Banyans in Miami. They are still there in the same Banyan. Fun to hear them calling in the evenings and early morning. They were there looooooonnng before the green iguana invasion and have always conjured fond memories. Can't say that mine were ever that tame though lol. I also didn't realize there was a way to get around that serious bite so mine were simply observational pets.