|
1-10 of 15 messages
|
Page 1 of 2
Next
|
|
Any Alligator experts??? Please Help!
|
Reply
|
|
by tatersnake on May 26, 2007
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I have a juvenile (He is three ft. long) american alligator that I recently adopted. I am having a very hard time getting him to eat anything. Ive had him for 2 months now and hes only eaten twice. I have been trying to feed him frozen mice. I leave them in his water at night and if they are still there the next afternoon then I take them out. Ive also tried chicken livers with no luck. Is there a good way to force feed or anything like that? Im not a gator expert at all, but Im sure he should have eaten more than 2 mice in two months. He is starting to lose weight and Im getting worried. The guy I took him from said hes a real heathy eater but was just coming off his winter cool down and hadnt been eating much. Temps are high now and I think he should be eating. So, any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks.
-J.R. Bob Dobbs
P.s.- a picture of the lil guy is in my profile if you wanna check him out!
|
| |
|
RE: Any Alligator experts??? Please Help!
|
Reply
|
|
by Cro on May 26, 2007
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
J. R., Mice are not a very good food source for an alligator, as the fur can cause intestinal blockages.
You could try foods like Chickan Gizzards, Live Fish, Frogs, Baby Quail and Chicks, and Live Rat Pups.
Leaving food in a water bowl makes it cold and covers up the scent of the food. You would do better offering the food warm on a paper plate on the cage floor.
Think about it, what would you want to eat, a cold dead mouse soaked in water, or a nice warm live meal?
Also, aligators need to be kept warm, and like basking in the sun. Is your alligator getting any sunlight, and how warm are you keeping him ?
Another thing is how often you handle the alligator. If you are often picking it up like in your photo, you are probably scaring the alligator, which will not help it in feeding.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards JohnZ
|
| |
|
RE: Any Alligator experts??? Please Help!
|
Reply
|
|
by tatersnake on May 26, 2007
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Thanks Cro, also how serious is it that hes eaten so little in the past 2 months that I have had him? Should this be something I should be immediatly worried about and take him to a vet or something or should I try some of these other food ideas and wait a while to see how things go? As I said before, he is visibly losing wait. He was living in a garage when I got him and I just want to make sure hes as healthy and happy as he can be in captivity. Thanks again.
J.R. Bob Dobbs
|
| |
|
RE: Any Alligator experts??? Please Help!
|
Reply
|
|
by Cro on May 26, 2007
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
J.R., I do not think that you would need to take the gator to a vet yet, just work with different food offerings and see what he likes. It is good that he did eat in the past, as he would have gotten some energy from those meals. Get some Chicken Gizzards at Walmart and warm up a couple of them. Have you tried offering him food with a set of forceps? Will he bite at something like that? If he will, you could release the Gizzard when he grabs onto it, and then step back. Hopefully, he will like the taste of it and go ahead and swallow it. You could also just place one in his mouth when it is open, and he will probably chomp down on it and hopefully swallow it then. Try to give him a chance to bask some, but make sure there is shade also, so he can pick a spot between sun and shade that he likes. If you can not get natural sunlight for him, then set up a heat lamp that will create a warm basking area in part of his cage. Having his temperature warmer will defenatly help him to want to eat. Let us know how he does with the other food types.
Best Regards JohnZ
|
| |
|
RE: Any Alligator experts??? Please Help!
|
Reply
|
|
by LarryDFishel on May 26, 2007
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Can you describe what kind of setup you have him in (or better yet a picture)? Also. what are the temperatures like?
The fact that you say you leave the food in the water makes me wonder... One mistake a lot of people make with gators (and turtles, and water snakes) is to give them a completely aquatic enclosure with little or no room to get out of the water. Make sure he has a place to get out and get some sun or get under the heat lamp.
|
| |
|
RE: Any Alligator experts??? Please Help!
|
Reply
|
|
by AquaHerp on May 26, 2007
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
At that size, alligators (and all crocodilians) are still quite "movement" oriented whereas the movement of small items stimulates the predator instinct to feed. Try feeder goldfish in the water to get him kicked in, frogs, or even live hopper mice. As far as mice go, I don't normally push live prey, yet for the smaller crocodilians this is not usually a problem as they are a little more durable than the snakes and most lizards.
Try the feeder fish first, my guess is that this will kick in his feed response and you can build off of that with offering food from forceps.
DH
|
| |
|
RE: Any Alligator experts??? Please Help!
|
Reply
|
|
by GREGLONGHURST on May 26, 2007
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Like Larry, I am curious about the enclosure set-up. The animal needs enough water to submerge, but also needs enough land to haul out & bask. All the crocodilians I have kept have been in outdoor pit type enclosures. If yours is set up like that, try dropping a piece of food right next to its mouth. If that is not the type set-up you have, you may want to redesign your enclosure.
~~Greg~~
|
| |
|
RE: Any Alligator experts??? Please Help!
|
Reply
|
|
by tatersnake on May 26, 2007
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Thanks everyone. I framed a 3 ft wall blocking off an area that is approx. 6ft. wide and 12 ft. long in my basement and put down astro turf. In one end of the enclosure he has a large tank of water that he can lay in and fully submerge in. There are 2 windows above the area that let in natural light during the day and I put two clamp lamps approx. 1 ft off the ground for him to bask under. He also has a large tupperware box that I flipped over and cut a door in that he can and does use as a hide. Like I said before Im very new to crocodilians, does this sound like a decent set up for a gator this size? I thought he had plenty of room.
J.R. Bob Dobbs
|
| |
|
RE: Any Alligator experts??? Please Help!
|
Reply
|
|
by Cro on May 26, 2007
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
J R, it does sound like he has enough room. I am a bit concerned about the temperatures of a basemet though. Try to take the temperature of the basement air and ground temp in cage, and also under the heat lamps and let us know the temps. Does he spend a lot of time under the heat lamps ?
You should defenatly try the different food items and see what his reaction to them is.
Best Regards JohnZ
|
| |
|
RE: Any Alligator experts??? Please Help!
|
Reply
|
|
by tatersnake on May 26, 2007
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I have a digital thermometer in my Herp room upstairs. Ill put it down with Archie (the gator) today and see what the temps are in the room and under the lamps. Ill also try feeding some gold fish and let you all know what I find out later this weekend. This is a great place to learn, thank you again for everyones help.
J.R. Bob Dobbs
|
| |
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this topic.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
Check our help page for help using
, or send questions, comments, or suggestions to the
Manager.
|
