Part of this post is to show what happens when someone wants a crocodillian for that "cool factor", and also to help people who have thier current crocodillian to care for them better (I want to make it known that I am not questioning how current members care for thier crocodillians, but to help them take care of them better, after all....knowledge is power) I want to disuede every aquariust and reptile keeper from buying these magnificent saurians.
Crikey's Story.......
It all started one day at the petstore. I was getting some food for my animals and I over heard a woman saying that her daughter decided to dump off her american alligator on her. I walked over mainly because I had always loved crocodilians ever since I first saw them at the age of 5 on the discovery channel. So I asked her what she was going to do with it. She said she didn't know, but she said she felt like letting it go out side. I live in Ohio so there was no way the gator could live out here. Also Letting any Species of Crocodillian of any size and temperment is Illegal PERIOD! So I asked her i f I coud take it off her hands. We negotiated on 50$ for the gator,tank, filter, lights, and everything else. It seemed like a good deal. The sight I saw when I got to the appartment was downright terrible. The alligator was 18.5" long. The tank they kept it in was a 20 gallon long. He couldn't even turn around. There was a tiny submersible filter in the back right corner in the tank. As for lighting there was none. There was no heater in the water, and there was no place for him to clmb out on. Yes thats right no rocks, no driftwood, no nothing. The diet that this alligator was fed was purely feeder gold fish. Now before I get jumped by every one person who says "well alligators eat fish naturally in the southern united states, so it must be OK for them to eat feeder goldfish in captivity" ......well wrong. The alligators in the southern united states were ment to eat those specific fish species native to the southern united states. And while some people ma argue that gators do get into ornamental ponds in the south and eat goldfish and koi. I totaly agree, but the ammount of ornamental fish consumed is but a percent of 1 percent. So these arent a natural food source . This doesn't mean that once in a whle a feeder gold fish cant be used as a supplemental food source. The problem is when they are used as the main source of food. Part of this comes from the creator of the crocodillian captive care faq, who was also featured on the national geographic program Super Croc, Dr Adam Britton. Feeder goldfish have an enzyme in them called thyminase. This enzyme breaks down thymin a.k.a. vitiman B1. This vitiman is crucial to the development, and well being of all crocodillians. Crocodillians who are fed a diet exclusively on feeder goldfish get fatty blockages and cystlike objects on the walls of their internal organs. There are much better fish to supplement the crocodillians diet. one examle is the rosy red, another is the feeder guppy depending on the size of the crocodillian in question. Now getting back to rescuing the alligator... The alligator was kept in a 20 gallon long with out heat, light, ect. The minimal growth rate of american alligators in captivity is 1 foot per year. This means that in 8 years you have an 8 foot dinosaur that has the minimum bite force of over 1000, yes thats right a thousand pounds. The reason I say minimum, is becaues the highest bite force recorded on the planet so far of a crocodillian was from a 12 foot bull alligator at the St. Augusten Alligator Farm. This individual had a bite force over 2900 pounds. I say this because i dont know if the bite force of other crocodillians has been recorded, but I know that the bite force of say a 23 foot saltwater crocodile woud be mind blowing. What are yougoing to do with this thing, how will you house it ? So back to my story...I asked how old the gator was. The answer I got was shocking. The woman said nearly three years old. The gator should have been twice his size at least. He was stunted. This might sound cool but the problem lies with this...crcodillians organs grow differantly than thier out side. So ther organs grow at a normal rate, but the crocodillians body keeps trying to telling the organs to stop growing. this leads to organs growing at different sizes and rates. The woman told me how to take care of him and I just said yes and your right for the duration of being in thier appartment, even though what they said was total bull sh*t. Them being corrected was not at issue, I knew they wouldnt listen. the main goal was to get the gator and run. So I got out of there and went home. At Home I took one look at him and emembered all the crck Hunter Episodes that I watched and so I decided to name him "Crikey" after steve Irwins famous phrase. He went directly in to a 150 gallon with a large driftwood haul out, and a fluval 4 internal filter. He has a heater that keeps the water between 84-86 degrees farenheight. The heat lamps keep the haul out at 90 degrees the optimum basking temperature for crocodillians. His diet was immediately changed to pieces of raw chicken breast and dethawed feeder mice. I believe in feeding pre killed prey. Almost any one who says that they have to feed live food is talking out of their @$$, although once in ablue moon a snake will only take live prey. This is how I prepare dethawed mice for Crikey. I take a coffe mug out of the cubord. Then I put water in the mug. The mug gets put in the microwave for 90 seconds. I then transfer the microwaved water in to a cup specific for feeding crikey. I place the feeder mouse in the hot water for a couple minutes for it to dethaw. Then the fun Starts... I get out the tongs. Crickey has associated me and the tongs with food. This is one reason why people cant let alliagtors go back into florida, even though they are native there. They have the greatest memories of all reptiles, and they will remember associating people with food. So crikey gets excited and does his happy dance. This is basically a wiggle in the water when he knows his food is comming. Now many people have seen Bubba the "tame" alligator in Reptiles magazine. Some people say my crocodillian is tame. I have a problem with this immage of a tame crocodillian. First off crocodillians were on this earth 20 million years before the dinosaurs were. Modern Crocodillians have over 200 million years of instinct backing their behavior. They are survivors. Their aggression, tenacity, and way of live have kept them allive for all this time when humans have only been on this earth for a fraction of this time. Do you really think that they would give up thier way of life and just become "pets" ? Noway... these animals will never become true pets, we are just lucky enough to share our existance with them. I really stress this...Don't ever, ever turn your back on them, nomatter how tame they may seem. They will always wait to get their chance to zero in on the keepers weakness. Im not calling them killers waiting to strike, I am very passionate about crocodillian care and I dont want anyone to get hurt by their captives. One bad aspect of Crickey being abused is that he is super agressive. He launches himself at the glass and thinks nothing of hissing at me or anyone else who enters my room. He gaurds his territory with absolute power. He has a paradise now and will gaurd it to the death. So I respect his territory. He is Know about 20 inches long.
Many people reading this thread will ask what I plan To do with him when he gets bigger. My mom and dad will let me close in the two car garage for him. He will be getting an enclosure that has the outside dimension of 9' by 13' with inside dimensions of 8' by12'. When he out grows this hw will be in my own house with his cage connected to the living room with two lexan viewing pannels and an enlosure of 40 by 40' I plan on doing my living room in the rain forest and thiswill make an Ideal focal point. Thanks for looking at my post and if anyone has questions and or comments i will answer them on this post. Untill I see some fed back Crikey and ryan thank you
Crikey's Story.......
It all started one day at the petstore. I was getting some food for my animals and I over heard a woman saying that her daughter decided to dump off her american alligator on her. I walked over mainly because I had always loved crocodilians ever since I first saw them at the age of 5 on the discovery channel. So I asked her what she was going to do with it. She said she didn't know, but she said she felt like letting it go out side. I live in Ohio so there was no way the gator could live out here. Also Letting any Species of Crocodillian of any size and temperment is Illegal PERIOD! So I asked her i f I coud take it off her hands. We negotiated on 50$ for the gator,tank, filter, lights, and everything else. It seemed like a good deal. The sight I saw when I got to the appartment was downright terrible. The alligator was 18.5" long. The tank they kept it in was a 20 gallon long. He couldn't even turn around. There was a tiny submersible filter in the back right corner in the tank. As for lighting there was none. There was no heater in the water, and there was no place for him to clmb out on. Yes thats right no rocks, no driftwood, no nothing. The diet that this alligator was fed was purely feeder gold fish. Now before I get jumped by every one person who says "well alligators eat fish naturally in the southern united states, so it must be OK for them to eat feeder goldfish in captivity" ......well wrong. The alligators in the southern united states were ment to eat those specific fish species native to the southern united states. And while some people ma argue that gators do get into ornamental ponds in the south and eat goldfish and koi. I totaly agree, but the ammount of ornamental fish consumed is but a percent of 1 percent. So these arent a natural food source . This doesn't mean that once in a whle a feeder gold fish cant be used as a supplemental food source. The problem is when they are used as the main source of food. Part of this comes from the creator of the crocodillian captive care faq, who was also featured on the national geographic program Super Croc, Dr Adam Britton. Feeder goldfish have an enzyme in them called thyminase. This enzyme breaks down thymin a.k.a. vitiman B1. This vitiman is crucial to the development, and well being of all crocodillians. Crocodillians who are fed a diet exclusively on feeder goldfish get fatty blockages and cystlike objects on the walls of their internal organs. There are much better fish to supplement the crocodillians diet. one examle is the rosy red, another is the feeder guppy depending on the size of the crocodillian in question. Now getting back to rescuing the alligator... The alligator was kept in a 20 gallon long with out heat, light, ect. The minimal growth rate of american alligators in captivity is 1 foot per year. This means that in 8 years you have an 8 foot dinosaur that has the minimum bite force of over 1000, yes thats right a thousand pounds. The reason I say minimum, is becaues the highest bite force recorded on the planet so far of a crocodillian was from a 12 foot bull alligator at the St. Augusten Alligator Farm. This individual had a bite force over 2900 pounds. I say this because i dont know if the bite force of other crocodillians has been recorded, but I know that the bite force of say a 23 foot saltwater crocodile woud be mind blowing. What are yougoing to do with this thing, how will you house it ? So back to my story...I asked how old the gator was. The answer I got was shocking. The woman said nearly three years old. The gator should have been twice his size at least. He was stunted. This might sound cool but the problem lies with this...crcodillians organs grow differantly than thier out side. So ther organs grow at a normal rate, but the crocodillians body keeps trying to telling the organs to stop growing. this leads to organs growing at different sizes and rates. The woman told me how to take care of him and I just said yes and your right for the duration of being in thier appartment, even though what they said was total bull sh*t. Them being corrected was not at issue, I knew they wouldnt listen. the main goal was to get the gator and run. So I got out of there and went home. At Home I took one look at him and emembered all the crck Hunter Episodes that I watched and so I decided to name him "Crikey" after steve Irwins famous phrase. He went directly in to a 150 gallon with a large driftwood haul out, and a fluval 4 internal filter. He has a heater that keeps the water between 84-86 degrees farenheight. The heat lamps keep the haul out at 90 degrees the optimum basking temperature for crocodillians. His diet was immediately changed to pieces of raw chicken breast and dethawed feeder mice. I believe in feeding pre killed prey. Almost any one who says that they have to feed live food is talking out of their @$$, although once in ablue moon a snake will only take live prey. This is how I prepare dethawed mice for Crikey. I take a coffe mug out of the cubord. Then I put water in the mug. The mug gets put in the microwave for 90 seconds. I then transfer the microwaved water in to a cup specific for feeding crikey. I place the feeder mouse in the hot water for a couple minutes for it to dethaw. Then the fun Starts... I get out the tongs. Crickey has associated me and the tongs with food. This is one reason why people cant let alliagtors go back into florida, even though they are native there. They have the greatest memories of all reptiles, and they will remember associating people with food. So crikey gets excited and does his happy dance. This is basically a wiggle in the water when he knows his food is comming. Now many people have seen Bubba the "tame" alligator in Reptiles magazine. Some people say my crocodillian is tame. I have a problem with this immage of a tame crocodillian. First off crocodillians were on this earth 20 million years before the dinosaurs were. Modern Crocodillians have over 200 million years of instinct backing their behavior. They are survivors. Their aggression, tenacity, and way of live have kept them allive for all this time when humans have only been on this earth for a fraction of this time. Do you really think that they would give up thier way of life and just become "pets" ? Noway... these animals will never become true pets, we are just lucky enough to share our existance with them. I really stress this...Don't ever, ever turn your back on them, nomatter how tame they may seem. They will always wait to get their chance to zero in on the keepers weakness. Im not calling them killers waiting to strike, I am very passionate about crocodillian care and I dont want anyone to get hurt by their captives. One bad aspect of Crickey being abused is that he is super agressive. He launches himself at the glass and thinks nothing of hissing at me or anyone else who enters my room. He gaurds his territory with absolute power. He has a paradise now and will gaurd it to the death. So I respect his territory. He is Know about 20 inches long.
Many people reading this thread will ask what I plan To do with him when he gets bigger. My mom and dad will let me close in the two car garage for him. He will be getting an enclosure that has the outside dimension of 9' by 13' with inside dimensions of 8' by12'. When he out grows this hw will be in my own house with his cage connected to the living room with two lexan viewing pannels and an enlosure of 40 by 40' I plan on doing my living room in the rain forest and thiswill make an Ideal focal point. Thanks for looking at my post and if anyone has questions and or comments i will answer them on this post. Untill I see some fed back Crikey and ryan thank you
