5.1.1 What important points must I consider to house my caiman?

Appropriate housing is perhaps the most difficult part of keeping a crocodilian such as a caiman. You must consider several factors, including the size of the enclosure, how to divide it into land and water areas, heating both water and air, and how to best keep the water clean. Do not overlook the long-term cost of housing a crocodilian, not to mention the size of the area you will need. Be in no doubt, most crocodilians including caimans grow rapidly to large adult sizes. How are you going to deal with a 7 foot caiman which needs an enclosure several times its own body length?

When designing the enclosure, it must contain a water area and a land area. Crocodilians are semi-aquatic creatures. With their streamlined bodies and powerful tails, nearly all species are most at home in the water and this is where they will spend the majority of their time. However, they also require a land area to dry off and bask. You must ensure that the enclosure is spacious, both in terms of the amount of water and land. Within reason, you can’t make the enclosure too large. Hatchlings only require a relatively small area, but this expands considerably as the animal grows. Also, other crocodilian species prefer different amounts of water and land in their habitat, so be prepared to experiment if necessary. Details of how large to make your enclosure, and how to set up the water and land areas are given later in this section.

You must also set up the right environment for your animal. Caimans require fairly warm temperatures to be maintained at all times, and both land and water heaters will be required. It is important to understand a reptile’s thermoregulatory requirements as you design the enclosure. Unlike so-called "warm blooded" birds and mammals, reptiles such as caimans do not produce much body heat from metabolic processes (by burning stored energy) - they rely instead upon external sources of heat to warm up. A warm and toasty caiman is still warm blooded, but it didn’t expend very much of its own energy reserves to become so. Reptiles have a range of temperatures that they like to reach, and these are called the preferred body temperatures (PBT). In many crocodilian species, the PBT ranges from around 29 to 34 degrees Celsius (84 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit). If a crocodilian’s actual body temperature rises above this range, it will seek out a means of cooling down. If it falls below this range, it will usually make efforts to warm itself up again. So, your enclosure design needs to have areas where the caiman can either warm up or cool down depending on how warm it feels. In effect, you need to create what’s called a "thermal gradient" - a range of temperatures from, say, 26 C (80 F) to 36 C (97 F), with enough space so that your caiman can move into a cooler or warmer area. In the wild, most crocodilians warm up by basking in direct sunlight on land, and then cool off by moving into a shaded area, or back into the water. Conversely, at night crocodilians stay warm in the water as temperatures on the land drop. Details on how to set up a thermal gradient and warm both land and water area are discussed later in this section.



5.1.2 How large does the enclosure need to be?

The answer to this question will depend upon the size of your animal, but you must also plan ahead and consider how quickly it will grow. Above all, your animal needs space. Space is important for several reasons. Your caiman may start off small as a hatchling, but growth is rapid. Despite what you might have heard, crocodilians do not stop growing when they reach the size of their enclosure, and their health and lifespan will be compromised if you don’t enlarge it to keep up. Your caiman needs enough space to move around comfortably - to submerge and swim in the water, and walk around on the land. In addition to considering the amount of space your caiman requires, don’t forget that every time you need to replace the enclosure with a bigger one, it’s going to cost you money. Plan ahead - ensure that the enclosure will last for at least 12 months. Check the growth charts earlier in this document to find out how fast your animal could grow in a year or two.

But how much space does a certain sized animal actually need? As an absolute minimum, the enclosure width and depth should be 3 to 4 times the animal’s total length, but larger sizes are preferable. In fact at least one country, Germany, will soon introduce quite specific requirements on the minimum size of an enclosure for a crocodilian. These apply to everyone in Germany, from private keepers to zoos, so they provide some guidelines to everyone. For a pair of crocodiles, minimum land area must be 3 times the largest animal’s SVL (snout-vent length) wide and 4 times long. The minimum water area must be 4 times the largest animal’s SVL wide and 5 times long, and minimum depth must be 0.3 times SVL. So, a pair of animals with a SVL of 1 metre (3.3 ft) - adult caiman size - would require a land area of 12 square metres (39.3 square feet) and a water area of 20 square metres (65.6 square feet) to a depth of 30 cm (12 inches). These German rules are intended for all species, although some species (like caimans) prefer a lot more water. Other countries, such as the US, may not have such minimum requirements (although check with your state’s wildlife office), but these rules illustrate the kind of enclosure size you would ideally be looking at. More animals will require a larger space - under German rules for example, add 10% more land area and 20% more water area for each additional animal. Still think that crocodilians are easy to accommodate?

Plenty of space enables your crocodilian to walk or swim around comfortably, with the ability to bask and submerge if necessary. Space also makes it easier to set up a thermal gradient in the enclosure - with a range of temperatures that the animal can choose if it wants to warm or cool itself. Lack of space leads to inactivity, increased stress, and poor health.