Care Sheet for Alligators and CrocodilesAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 4.86 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 11/07/2005 |
Main Category: | Aquatic/Land |
Sub Category: | Alligators and Crocodiles |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | 89vision |
Years Experience: | 10 to 15 Years |
Species: | Amercican Alligators and Croc Hybrids |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | Most reasonably large crocodillians (NOT crocodiles) |
Sexing and Characteristics: | Don’t try it unless you are a pro; you might really hurt your crocodillian if you start probing around blindly. |
Mostly Active During: | Both |
Substrate and Water Needs: | I use sterilized play sand and river rocks. Tap water is fine, but you should probably treat it to remove impurities like chlorine. These guys need good quality water for part of their diet. It’s a good idea to get some kind of bog moss growing in your water for dietary reasons. |
Lighting and UVB: | UV light from a hanging lamp or natural sunlight as long as you can control algae growth in your water. Algae can kill your reptile by growing into its nostils and sinuses. |
Temperatures and Humidity: | You want a very humid environment, a large swimming area and a decent sized basking area. If you set it up properly, misting is unnecessary; the animal needs to be able to fully submerge itself and then dry out completely. If you don’t provide both, your animal will suffer some nasty disorders and most likely die. |
Heating and Equipment: | I’ve found that the mid 80’s are best. You should use a submersible heater made for large tanks (like 55-200 gallon deals). For an adult or sub adult indoor enclosure, you will probably need to get a space heater for the winter if you live somewhere where the winters get rough (like where I live for instance). Gators will tolerate colder conditions than most, but that doesn’t mean that they should be subjected to them. Hanging some high output heat lamps above your setup is also a good idea; you can buy full spectrum heater lights that cover UV and give a fair amount of heat as well. |
Caging Provided: | Ok, here’s the skinny; If you search around Home Depots and Walmarts near the beginning of the summer, you can find really really big kiddy pools (around 500 gallons). These pools are a thick plastic and have a large "waterslide" built into them. I bought two of these ($85) and connected them by cutting the side off of one and apoxying it to the second like a figure 8 shape. Next, I cut several holes along the tope rim of the pools and placed 4 foot sections of PCB piping in them in order to create a fence skeleton. I used some galvanized wood and some pieces of caging from an old dog kennel and built two decks off of the led provided by the "waterslide". I covered the bottom of the pools with bog moss, then sloped the "waterslide" bottom with smooth riverrocks (for traction). You might also want to cut yourself some plugs in the bottom of the pool for draining water. The deck area is also the basking area, and I covered this with ZooMed Reptimoss, althought it’s really the same as the moss that you can get at the craft store (AS LONG AS YOU USE PERFUME AND DYE FREE!!), and I planted some long grass in little planters here and there (gators dig long grass). After I installed a couple of canister filters and water heaters in the pools, I secured the enclosure with chicken wire (remember the chicken wire?) by wiring it to the PCB pipes and creating a pyramid type thing based on a leopard cage that is on display at the Pittsburgh Zoo. The cage is accessable by rolling back a section of chicken wire, but if you use my idea, you can always build a gate into the fence. |
Diet: | Carnivorous |
Description of Diet: | I recommend starting with live healthy goldfish or minnows, because your baby gator will definitely eat them. Once it accepts food, you can add crickets and floating Tetra Repti Sticks to the diet. Gators use a lot of protein in their first couple years, but you don’t want to overdo any one mineral or vitamin. Try a variety of foods, but try to keep your animal away from live meals or you are kind of asking for it. Remember that this animal naturally links movement with food, and it has a hard time distinguishing shapes. Thus, the movement in question might be your hand trying to hand it a cricket. (You can see how this situation will get much worse when you have a 6 footer on your hands; watching a little gator eat a pinky mouse is much more fun than watching an adult eat your leg). As your animal gets larger, your best bet is to order a supply of gator chow from a breeder, and supplement this with the occasional chicken or rabbit. |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | Make sure the animal gets at least some bone meal in its diet. This means you have to feed whole animals once in a while or attempt to find some kind of carnivore chow with a high bone meal content and a low amount of nitrates. This can be hard to find in a traditional market, but there are a lot of feed sites and gator farm links where you can buy gator chow. Of course, I knew someone that raised an adult on nothing but Ol’ Roy, and his gator is just fine, so who knows. |
Maintenance: | Keep your enclosure clean. Don’t let feces build up on the land area or your animal will smear it all over itself and its setup. Trust me; gator crap smells baaaaaad. The water will need to be changed like an aquariums would, especially if you are feeding live fish that will live in the water for a while (goldfish dump off a ton of ammonia and other nasty stuff). Some live plants and moss in the water will help water quality considerably. |
Some Words on this Species: | In a word, please don’t buy one of these animals if you aren’t a serious and highly devoted collector. A gator’s growth depends on the amount of food that it takes in; the more food, the faster the growth rate. HOWEVER, you can slow growth, but you can’t avoid the inevitable. These animals will get large at some point, and if you starve your gator, it will always be kind of angry because it is hungry. Yea, hunger breeds aggression...imagine that! If you hold your gator a lot, it will get used to you and may even grow affectionate. The more time that you spend with a juvenile, the better. Try to spend time holding it, talking to it, carrying it around, and supervising it as it explores your yard / house. If the animal gives a distress call by chirping, respond quickly by scooping it up and holding it close to your stomach. Make sure that your gator locks eyes with you a lot, and try to stroke under its ears and chin while holding. You want the gator to look at you as a source of security and warmth, not as a threat. I also recommend trying to get food into the enclosure without using your hands, ie. use a net or a hook. It’s much better if the animal associates a tool with food rather than your nice fleshy little hands. Gators can definitely learn to recognize your voice and even their name, so speak to your animal often and consistently. With all this said, good luck and have fun; these guys are not for everyone, but if you are cool to them you’ll wind up with a really impressive but manageable herp. Cheers. |
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