Hi everybody, As some of you may know, I absolutely loooovvveeee crocodiles, gators, caimans, and gharials. I want to own one but my state is way to tight on the rules on exotic pets. I know they do not make good pets but i have been in love with em ever since i was 3 years old and have recently gained a LOT of knowledge bout em. In the beginning, i was planning on saving enough money to buy a permit and all the stuff that i would need to house one, but my state's wildlife dept. requires me to make a resume and i need a driver license. Sadly, i am only a young teenager. My parents aren't too keen on me opening my own gator farm and becoming a breeder but i did not listen to em and decided to follow my dream. Unfortunately, i have no idea on how to start. I want to gain enough experience handling and interacting with em ,however, all of the zoos require me to be 18+. It brings me down when they say this but i still pursue my dream. is there anybody who owns or has dealt with them ever since you were a young boy/girl? If so, plz reply on how i can gain some experience. Thanks.
I know how you feel, your best bet is calling around all your local reptile shops/breeders etc. One of them may offer some sort of volunteer work. Try calling your DEM/Wildlife dept. and seeing if they offer anything. I've not had much experience with croc, but if you write up a report, or something to prove your knowledge of the animal, maybe your local zoo(s) will consider you if you can get your parents to give consent/sign a waiver of some sort. I wish you the best of luck, keep us posted.
i would wait a few more years before trying to own a gator. you are young and will go off to college soon. plus college biology and genetics classes will help alot if you are wanting to own or work at a gator farm. at the moment you should try to volunteer at a place that has gators even if you dont get to work with them at least you will be near them everyday. at the zoo i used to volunteer at you had to be at least 18 to have a job there to work with the reptiles and larger animals but you could volunteer at 13 and just deal with the guests or work the touch tank. i still got to do alot of the behind the scenes stuff and got to watch my favorite cotton mouth grow up
Thanks!! I will definitely do that Shanna66. Badger711 i will make sure to keep u updated on what will happen. Once again, if u have any suggestions, plz comment! I love this forum cuz ppl actually try to help u and won't tell u what u can't do.
When your still living at home, its a sure thing you will be leaving at some point, whether you go to college, get your own place, or whatever. Having an animal like that means basically they will need a room wherever you end up. Suddenly the practicality of it comes into play. You may have room for it when living in your parents house... but that will change. That brings me to my next point... to have an animal like an alligator, EVERYONE in the house needs to be on board. If not, then no dice.
I am going to add something to this forum. I heard this way to see if your ready for hots, and this might apply here. First off, get the meanest, most aggressive snake you could find. For four years, see if you can go without getting bit. Each time you get bit, consider yourself dead and start all over again. I dont know if your parents would be on board with an aggressive snake either, so just wait a little bit. Do you have any other reptiles? It doesnt hurt to have a little bit of expierience with them. If not, here is a forum I made that might help you choose a first pet. Any one of them would be more favorable than a crocodilian, and getting one would help you get more expierience with reptiles because crocs not only have a bad reputation (which I find especially true with caimans), but need a large enclosure, year round heating since they would most likely live outside, and large amounts of expensive food. Well, here is the link: http://www.reptileboards.com/threads/best-pet-herps-for-beginners.64988/
Thanks for the suggestion Karlee. i do have a good amount of experience dealing with reptiles. I don't have any snakes though and i am not too interested in em. I will not back down and will pursue my dream. No matter what it takes. I know how difficult they are to take care of. I have done plenty of research cuz when i take an interest in any kind of pet, i make sure that i gain enough knowledge before purchasing any kind of animal. So... if any of guys/girls r reading this msg and want to try to persuade me not to get one. u'll fail cuz i have set up my mind.
I wasnt trying to disuade you, just prepare and suggest. I think its wonderful your so passionate about crocs, they are very unique and I love that they have a four-chambered heart than three and how they can see in both color and at night. Trust me, I love crocodiles to, I was simply trying to inform you and make a suggestion to help you know when your ready to care for one. I want to keep hots, I live with my parents, and I know a lot abou their care, yet I am not getting one right now becasuse I am not good in certain areas that could mean death for either me or the snake. No one can dissuade me from getting a hot, but you have to know when is the right time to get one and when isnt. Like, financialy, or you are going to have to move out one day, right? Imagine how hard and stressful it would be for that crocodile. And college dorms wont allow it on school grounds and you parents wont take care of it while your gone, so just wait a bit, OK??? BTW, I am a bit curious, what species do you plan on keeping? I am asking this out of strict curiousity cause I have this nature to where I dont know something, I have been shamed on by every one.
Yea i know u were just trying to help. I just wanted to let everybody, that is reading this thread, know that there is absolutely no way that u can persuade me to NOT get a crocodilian. I am planning to get a baby Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman. They are pretty small compared to most other crocs except for the african dwarf croc. I know that i will go to college in a few years.. it's gonna be a long road ahead for me. Ah well, that doesn't rlly bug me.... the only thing that does is the fact that i'll have to wait for quite some time before i finally get to own one....
I have my perference over Indo Pacific Crocs, caimans ave a nasty reputation even though they have a smaller size (reminds me of Chihuahuas). Really pretty crocs. Yeah, well I am planning on going to a college up in Maine and I live down in Tx, imagine how long I will be bored watching a highway. I dont even like driving down to get gas, let alone across the country. Yeah, and trust me, I am feeling exactly like that. I want to get a cotton mouth so badly and I have to live with the fact it will be a while since it wouldnt be a good idea to live alone with ANY hot, let alone one that is so aggressive. It doesnt bug me as much when I plan and plan. I plan everything. The perferred gender, the perferred age, perferred temperment, the cage, the food I would feed it, the plants I put in, the water, the cage size, how much land to water, how much lighting, the name I want to name it (I like humorous names, like I named my chinese water dragon Jimmety Cricket). It just gives me something to do and it helps me be more prepared for one. I would also look up on videos of people who have them. I would try to literally shove it in my face so I wouldnt be concentrated on how long it would be until I get one.
yea that croc looks absolutely stunning. I know a guy who is going to get a nile crocodile soon. Also, crocodiles have a much nastier personality than caimans. The saltwater crocodile is a very good example. It is true that most caimans are pretty aggressive too but I know for a fact that the Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman is not mean and nasty at all. For the most part, they are calm and quite well behaved. alligators are much calmer than any of the crocodilians.
Seriously? I heard that even though caimans dont need as much room as a nile, that they have a much worse aggression than any other crocodilian. I havent studied how to care for one so I am a bit ill-informed about their care and aggression. I know the anotomy and physiology, just not anything that would concern them being pets.
We have them in area but I can not tell difference between crocs and gators but do know they jump and have seen them jump to grab igunas on low hanging tree branch's which over hang water. I fear them and never go in their areas. People here take stupid risks with their pet dogs and every year countless dogs are taken by them. http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/23/2710281_keys-crocodile-swoops-pet-dog.html
"alligators are much calmer than any of the crocodilians. " How true , I have no idea what a gator looks like compared to croc but when you go fishing during the day time by canals the biggest gators (have been told they are gators) will take off if you even get within 20 feet of them but at night it becomes a very different animal .
Crocs aren't native to FL, other than the very far reaches of the everglades, I believe. I'm no expert on crocodilians.
there is one croc native to Florida and that's the American Crocodile. They are an endangered species. Alligators generally have a wider head than crocs and truly do have a lot better attitude than them. Most of the time, gators are fat and lazy. Lol
ive heard caimens are a bit nastier than most croc species, nile crocs are suposed to have a real bad temper from what ive read. american gators are suposed to be the easiest crocadilian to "tame", one of the reasons they are my favorite species. still wouldnt recomend going for a midnight swim with any of them though lol
I heard they are in area but I can't tell the difference between crocs and gators. To me they all look the same. Considering so many want to kill them and often do when no one around I suspect if a few in area they are on borrowed time. When ever a gator or in this case a croc takes a dog or hangs around house canals it is killed not by FWC and gator catchers but by self appointed law breaking killers . "Attack on dog shows crocs have no place in the Keys' http://www.keysnet.com/2012/03/28/434296/attack-on-dog-shows-crocs-have.html This is I guess a croc in saltwater by Key Largo. I was told by area fisherman that they swim saltwater and wind up in diff areas of keys but again I can't tell them apart so who knows.
Do you ever watch "Fatal attraction" ? They have interesting episodes and though they do try to show us reptile owners as crazy weird people, the gator/croc episodes are interesting.
ive seen a few episodes but i dont like the show. they make all exotic animal owners look like nuts and all exotic animals look like killers. ive seen one with a man swimming with his pet croc which i found amazing. i love it when people can form such close bonds with their nondomestic animals. the amount of trust he and the croc have for each other is amazing. it seems to be a new thing now, to interact with your pet crocodilian instead of just tieing it up whenever you need to get near it. seems less stressful for the animal at least but i dont know if i have the guts to try it with a large croc
