How I acquire my Tokay Gecko | Interesting Stories | Filipino will relate.

I just want to tell a simple story on how I acquired my two Tokay Gecko hatchling and the very surreal story behind it.

So some context first, in the Philippines there are so many superstitions that most elders believed in and I mean a lot. One of them is having a Tokay Gecko or known in the Philippines as "Tuko", which usually found on trees and sometimes on the roof of the houses, that feeds on insects and bugs.

They say if you have one in your house, the house has higher chance of getting hit by a lightning. Also, if there is a pregnant person on your house, don't kill the Tokay Gecko if you have one, because the baby would die too. That`s what most of the elders believed in.

One night I received a message from a friend of mine saying, if I could take care the Tokay Gecko he caught in their house because his mom doesn`t want it living on their roof, and his mom believe in superstitions . I said, why not released it on the wild? The place they're staying, all the house are all close to each other, literally wall to wall and there are no trees nearby, to release the Tokay Gecko.

One of the reason that my friend asked me is, he known me as a "Keeper" or a person that loves to have different kinds of pets, including the unusual one (Exotics). I gladly accepted the Tokay Gecko because if he released it somewhere randomly with no high ground such as trees and not in her natural habitat, most likely it would die from the ground predators.

The first thing I did is find an enclosure for it. I remember that I have a 50 gallons Aquarium that are meant for the Flower Horn fish that I would get in just few weeks but I though this is much important right now. As you can see the Tokay Gecko is thin because there is not much food for her on the rural area. I also bought some Coco Peat or Coconut fiber and drift wood where he can stay and a hide.

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I kept of the Tokay gecko for 4 months trying to tame it but it`s too wild, so I just try to take care of it. I fed her some Superworms and Dubia (Different species of cockroaches, high in proteins) which I also breed for the foods of my other exotic pets.

Also some of you might thought that, why not just release it on the wild right? The thing is, that time people are capturing Tokay Gecko to sell it to Chinese people. They believe that Tokay Gecko parts and saliva can cure Aids, Cancer and other illnesses, that is why it fetched a high price, they say it even worth millions depends on the size and weight.

So people starting to capture Tokay Gecko that is huge enough and weighing 300 to 400 grams and above. That`s why I decided to keep it, until the rumors are gone or proven wrong because it might get hunted down if I released it on the wild. You can search it also on the internet on what I`m talking about.

Now this is her after 4 months of taking care of it. Been eating regularly and less wild compare before.

The rumors about the Tokay Gecko starting to disappear, also the law got involved and banned the capturing of Tokay Gecko.

After that, I already trying to make a decision to release it on the wild. Outside of our subdivision has a lot of high trees also a lot of open areas that still untouched and full of tall grasses, where most if Tokay Gecko could thrive.

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I decided to release the Tokay Gecko on the wild to the near open area with a lot of trees, at first I`m hesitant because she may not adapt easily to her new environment or habitat and might just die.

Then a month has passed after I released the Tokay Gecko on the wild. The unexpected happened, one night I heard a chirp from a Tokay Gecko and it made me smile. My initial thought at first, it might be just coincidental that a random Tokay Gecko might just passing around and I didn`t really pay attention.

Then every now and then, almost every night, I hear a Tokay Gecko chirp and now I got really curious and checked it. I got really surprised on what I saw, she`s back to my place and it made me so happy. So I decided just leave her wherever she want to live or maybe just visits me every now and then.

You might though that this is the end story, but there is more. Now I hear her every night making her sound and my parents actually don`t mind it, although they are superstitious too but it's okay for them.

Another month has passed and it`s like already normal that we have Tokay Gecko behind our house. Which also great, because Tokay Gecko eat insects, bugs also unwanted cockroaches, it's like give and take, we gave her a place and at the same time she keep the place insects free as much as possible.

Then one morning, it`s the time of the week to clean all my enclosure of my pets, then I saw two eggs near outside the cage of my African love birds. At first I'm confused, how the eggs of my African Lovebirds got outside?

But looking closely, it`s too big to be an egg of an African Lovebird, so I took it because it is placed in an open area, expose to rain and sunlight. I already had a hint that it might be from her, the Tokay Gecko I took care of.

I research about on how to take care an egg and how to prepare if ever it hatch, based on my research it takes 3-4 months before a Tokay Gecko egg hatch. So I put both of the egg on the container and placed it on a dark area and has a warm temperature.

The reason that I know that the egg is fertile because I also do a candling on my African Lovebirds egg to check if its fertile or not. If the egg show veins and slowly showing darkening yellow on the candling, it means it`s fertile.

Three months has passed and the moment we all been waiting for has happened, the two egg has hatched. Too bad the memory card that I used to store the photos I captured at those moment got corrupted and I was so sad.

But yeah, I decided to release them too in the wild. I took care of them just for a month, just to make sure they are big enough to at least survive on their own. A part of me as a keeper, wants to keep one of them to tame, this would be a perfect time to tame something like Tokay Gecko but decided not because it`s actually endangered also it help the environment around us to keep the insects and bugs in checked.

This are the photos I took while I had them.

That`s all, until up to date she is still around, the Tokay Gecko I took cared of years ago. Although some nights she's not there but still sometimes she is making her regular sound or chirp, if that what they called it. But in the Philippines we heard it as Tukooo... Tukooo.. Tukooo.. Tukooo. That is why it is called "Tuko."

I'm just so happy that, all goes well for her and for us. Luckily, the lighting still not struck us, as the superstitions or beliefs that elders believed in. LOL

Anyways thank you so much for reading my story, I hope you enjoyed it. Just wanted to tell this unbelievable story that has happened and to me, and at least for my perspective a friendship has been made.