Hand training a Tokay - and he needs it

[Fallout32]

Somehow he still looks cute even when he's chomping down on you

[bsd13]

Here's some pictures from about 20 minutes ago. He's come a long way compared to what he was when I started this thread.



Sorry the pictures aren't better. Was taking with the wrong hand and the camera was upside down in order not to block the lens.



And here's his new girlfriend I got the other day. I'm not sure how prolific tokay's are when it comes to breeding, but they're sure practicing a lot.

[LaFilleClochette]

wow thats a drastic improvement...how much time a day did you spend hand training him? I wanna try with my Tokay...read an article in "Reptiles" magazine that got me really interested in doing that

[bsd13]

wow thats a drastic improvement...how much time a day did you spend hand training him? I wanna try with my Tokay...read an article in "Reptiles" magazine that got me really interested in doing that

I've started handling them both about 15 to 20 minutes every other day. Each 15 to 20 minutes. He'll still nail me if I try to restrain him. If I let him run around as he likes on me he doesn't mind. Picking him up to take him out and getting a hold of him to put him back has left me with a few bloody knuckles. The female just runs like hell but rarely bites.

[rabernet]

If you ever get a chance to meet with Kevin, he LOVES to talk tokays, and he has a way with them, for sure. When he was showing us how he tames them, he actually gently strokes them under their tail and they seem to calm right down. He was just reaching into the cages, picking up tokays left and right and none of them were biting him. He really IS the tokay whisperer!

[bsd13]

If you ever get a chance to meet with Kevin, he LOVES to talk tokays, and he has a way with them, for sure. When he was showing us how he tames them, he actually gently strokes them under their tail and they seem to calm right down. He was just reaching into the cages, picking up tokays left and right and none of them were biting him. He really IS the tokay whisperer!

Actually if you're talking about Kevin McCurley of NERD that's where I got both of mine. They're "just" normals but it was after taking one of their tours and Kevin showed up and started gushing over the tokays I decided I had to look into them. Didn't really talk to him other than a few brief questions/answers but his passion for them had me convinced.