A big gecko with a big appetite
Tokay geckos are among the largest geckos in the pet trade, and their feeding schedule reflects that build. Juveniles should be offered insects daily while they are growing toward adult size. Adults do well fed every other day, or on a pattern of three to four feeding sessions spread across the week. At each session, offer as many suitable insects as the gecko will actively hunt in roughly ten to fifteen minutes, then remove what is left.
Tokays are nocturnal ambush hunters. Feed in the evening when the lights go down and the gecko begins barking, moving, and watching from the glass or bark. Insects released into the enclosure in the morning often hide, die, or lose their supplement dusting before the gecko ever wakes up.
Sizing and rotating the prey
Individual insects should be no wider than the space between the gecko's eyes as a working guide, though a bold adult tokay can manage prey at the larger end of that range. Staple insects such as crickets, dubia roaches, and black soldier fly larvae carry most of the diet. Waxworms and hornworms belong in the treat category: useful for variety or for winning trust, but too rich or too watery to anchor a schedule.
Dust staple insects with calcium at nearly every feeding and use a reptile multivitamin on a rotating basis, because a tokay eating plain, undusted crickets night after night is quietly running a mineral deficit. Gut-loading the insects on vegetables and greens during the day before the feed raises the value of every bite.
Using the tail and belly as your gauges
A tokay stores reserves in his tail, which makes condition easy to read. The tail base should be plump and rounded, the body muscular, and the belly firm when he flattens against the glass. A tail that thins to a point, visible ribs, or a sharp ridge along the back means the sessions need to be more frequent or more generous. A pendulous belly, fat folds behind the front legs, and a gecko who waits at the dish instead of hunting suggest the opposite adjustment.
Weighing a tokay is possible for a calm individual but handling a defensive one purely for a number is rarely worth the stress. Photograph him monthly from the same angle on the glass instead; the comparison makes slow gains and losses obvious without a wrestling match.
When a tokay stops eating
A healthy adult may skip a session or two around a shed or during a cool spell, and males can be distracted in breeding condition. Refusal becomes a husbandry question quickly in this species: check the warm-side temperature, confirm the enclosure is tall and planted enough for a shy hunter to feel hidden, and look for insects that were offered but never actually eaten hiding in the substrate.
Several days of refusal in a juvenile, visible weight loss, sunken eyes, trembling limbs, or a soft jaw that feels rubbery all warrant a reptile veterinarian promptly, since calcium problems advance fast in growing geckos. Bring notes on what was fed, how often, and how supplements were used.
Sharing a near-daily job
Every-other-day feeding with dusting, gut-loaded insects, and leftovers removed is a chain of small steps that falls apart when two people each assume the other handled it. A written rotation, with the supplement used noted beside each session, keeps the chain intact. On KinsLe, Care Teams assigns each feeding session for this tokay to a named person and records its completion time, so the next keeper can see at a glance whether tonight is a calcium night, a vitamin night, or a night off.