New GATOR! (pic inside)

[Wooly]

We got this new gator of craigslist tonight, seems to be in good shape too. Its actually very tame so far for a gator, but obviously keeping in mind its a gator haha.

Sorry for the bad picture quality, it was taken with my phone. I'll prob add a few more pictures within a few days with my camera.

 

[ashesc212]

Oh my goodness, he is adorable. -but where will you keep him?

 

[laurarfl]

Wait until he gets settled into his enclosure...the tameness will disappear!

Although out of all the crocodilians, alligators are the most docile.

 

[DaRealJoker]

Yikes You will want an outdoor pond large enough for it to get some swimming in. And food cost for those must be enormous. Nice looking gator tho. What's your plans for it? Good luck.

 

[Wooly]

Haha yeah, we are building an indoor enclosure for this badboy, then we will end up making an outside enclosure for summers. He won't reach the huge size by the time my brother moves into his house.

 

[Beasty]

So...you wanna Gator eh?

This is from an email I got today from our HR girl.

This picture was taken by a KTBS helicopter flying over Lake Wiessabout , 90 miles north of Birmingham , Alabama !(my home town)

The helicopter pilot and the game warden were in communication via radio's......... here is a transcript of their conversation.

'Air1 have you a visual on the gator, over'

'Approaching inlet now, over'

'Roger Air1'

'Gator sighted.. Looks like it has a small animal in its mouth.. moving in, over'

'Roger Air1'

'Holy Crap it's a Deer!'

'confirm Air1.. did you say Deer?, Over'

'Roger.. a Deer in its mouth.. looks like a full sized buck.. that's a ! ! big g ator, were gonna need more men, Over'

'Roger Air1..can you give me a idea on size of animal, over'

'Its big, 25 feet at least, please advise Gator is heading to inlet.. do I pursue?, over'

That has to be a HUGE gator to have a whole deer in its mouth! The deer was later found to be a mature Stag and was measured at 11 feet!

Are you ready to go skiing on Lake Wiess ?! If you ski at the west end of the lake -- try not to fall.

This alligator was found between Centre and Leesburg , Alabama near a house! Game wardens were forced to shoot the alligator - guess he wouldn't cooperate...

Anita and Charlie Rogers could hear the bellowing in the night. Their neighbors had been telling them that they had seen a mammoth alligator in the waterway that runs behind their house, but! ! they dismissed the stories as exaggerations.

'I didn't believe it,' Charles Rogers said, but they realized the stories were, if anything, understated.

Alabama Parks and Wildlife game wardens had to shoot the beast. Joe Goff, 6'5' tall, a game warden, walks past the 28-foot, 1-inch alligator (8.5 metres) he shot and killed in their back yard.

:wnw
Oh great lizard of awe..
Damn the rednecks that killed it for being!

 

[PinkPunisher]

I've been told that the last image is photoshopped and it looks like it to me. Look at the head compared to the body, the head is much lighter in colour and is on a incredibly strange angle if its being picked up by the neck in my opinion.

I've also NEVER heard of a Alligator getting to 20' long let alone 28'. Considering the largest crocodile ever found was was 23' to my knowledge and that was a Salty which get even bigger then there freshwater brothers. Also Crocodiles do get larger then Alligators although from those pictures from above I would say that does look like a Alligator by the jaw shape.

To the OP, neat, keep us updated on how it goes. Like everyone else said though, how do you plan on caring for it when its older? start taking fresh road kill?

Spencer

EDIT: Sorry if that came off rude, didn't mean for it to be! If you have any reliable proof of a alligator over 16' even I would love to read it. One more thing, I assume you know the whole don't believe everything read/hear? Like for example "This is true, it happened to me!? if you don't send this message to 10 more people in 5 minutes you'll see a dead little girl at the end of your bed at 12:01 AM tonight"

 

[Mvskokee]

it does look photoshopped

 

[Beasty]

I hear ya guys. Thought I would share though. My point was, what on Earth will you do with a grown Gator?!

 

[PinkPunisher]

I hear ya guys. Thought I would share though. My point was, what on Earth will you do with a grown Gator?!

Like I said I'm not knocking you in anyway or at least mean to be I think we're all wondering the same thing as well, maybe give it to a gator farm or zoo?

Spencer

 

[Wooly]

The gator was more of a craigslist save. They had him in a tank about 40x12x30. He was mainly sitting in dirty water with bad filters. As far as his future with me, I'll give him a home for as long as possible. I can make most of the adequate demands of having a gator. If it gets to big or to much trouble I would look into donating him to a zoo, the portland zoo doesn't have many gators of size, or possibly someone that would be more interested in keeping a larger gator.

 

[laurarfl]

Here are the snopes links for those photos if you're curious. They've been around for years. plus, if you look at the bottom shot, the shadows are all wrong for the ranger, crane, and the truck. Plus, look at the size of the man and the crane, then look at the truck tailgate. How short is he, lol?

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/gatordeer.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/gatordeer.asp</a><!-- m -->
And they were marveling at a 12-13 ft gator, which is pretty huge in the wild nowadays.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/wcgator.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/wcgator.asp</a><!-- m -->
Apparently it was really a 13 footer and I can see how perspective makes the head look bigger, but it all looks photoshopped to me!

 

[VARNYARD]

Alligators are found only in the southeastern United States, mostly in Florida and coastal portions of Louisiana. The species is also found in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Georgia, and North and South Carolina.

A large adult alligator can weigh as much as 1000 pounds (455 kg) and may live to be 30 years old. The longest alligator of record was killed deep in a Louisiana swamp by E. A. McLlhenny in the early 1900Ã?¢ââ??‰â??¢s. The beast was too big to get out of the swamp so he estimated the animalÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢s length using his rifle; it measured about 584 cm (19.1 ft). The record for Florida is a 531 cm (17.2 ft) alligator killed at Lake Apoka in 1956.

The largest size saltwater crocodiles can reach is the subject of considerable controversy. The longest crocodile ever measured snout-to-tail and verified was the skin of a deceased crocodile, which was 6.2 metres (20 ft) long. Since skins tend to shrink slightly after removal from the carcass, this crocodile's living length was estimated at 6.3 metres (21 ft) and it probably weighed well over 1,200 kilograms (2,600 lb).[6] Incomplete remains (the skull of a crocodile shot in Orissa[7]) have been claimed to come from a 7.6 metres (25 ft) crocodile, but scholarly examination suggested a length no greater than 7 metres (23 ft).[6] There have been numerous claims of crocodiles in the 9 metres (30 ft) range: the individual shot in the Bay of Bengal in 1840, reported at 10 metres (33 ft); another killed in 1823 at Jala Jala on Luzon reported at 8.2 metres (27 ft); a reported 7.6 metres (25 ft) crocodile killed in the Hooghly River in the Alipore District of Calcutta. However, examinations of these animals' skulls actually indicated animals ranging from 6 to 6.6 metres (20Ã?¢ââ??‰â?¬Å?22 ft).[5]

With recent restoration in saltwater crocodile habitat and reduced poaching, it is possible that 7 metres (23 ft) or larger crocodiles are alive today.[8] Guinness has accepted a claim of a 7 metres (23 ft) male saltwater crocodile, with an estimated weigh of 1,360 kilograms (3,000 lb), living within Bhitarkanika Park in the state of Orissa, India,[7][9] although, due the near impossible task of taping and weighing a very large, live crocodile, the accuracy of these dimension has not been verified.

A crocodile shot in Queensland in 1957 was reported to be 8.5 metres (28 ft) long, but no verified measurements were made and no remains of this crocodile exist. A "replica" of this crocodile has been made as a tourist attraction.[10][11][12] Many other unconfirmed reports of 8+ metres (26+ ft) crocodiles have been made[13][14] but these are highly suspect.[6]

 

[VARNYARD]

Gomek was captured by George Craig in Papua New Guinea and sold to St. Augustine Alligator Farm in Florida. George also captured an even larger crocodile, Oscar, who currently lives on Green Island in Queensland where George Craig now lives. After many years, Gomek unfortunately died of heart disease in February 1997. By this stage, he was a very old crocodile. In this photograph, Gomek is fed nutria (a large rodent) by his keeper, and his size is obvious. When he died, he was 17.9 feet (5.5 m) long - as confirmed by St. Augustine Alligator Farm - and probably between 70 and 80 years old. You can see a tribute to Gomek, including Gomek himself, at St. Augustine Alligator Farm.

Gomek:

 

[Markie]

Aww, what a cutie! Makes me miss the caiman I used to look after.. They do actually have pretty nice temperaments (compared to other crocodilians, of course). Keeping him shouldn't be too hard. Just make sure to either heat his pool or have an indoor enclosure for him in the winters.. if they get below a certain temperature, they can lose their equilibrium and drown.

Feeding him won't really break the bank either. The guy I worked with owned around 50 crocodilians, around (or over) 30 of them being Nile crocs and he isn't close to being broke (and he's on a teacher's salary ).

 

[Harveysherps]

Most captive gators get stunted and don't grow off really big anyway. But it will still get big enough to hurt someone. They are cool when they are small but eventually it will need a big spot. They normally grow 1 ft. a year until they reach 8 to 10 ft. Then they slow down and grow more slowly. So depending on how it is fed it's hole life depends on the size when grown. Most captive one get stunted and they do good to reach 8 to 10 foot. I've kept several over the years. Most all mine are in a pond on my dads place now. We feed them chicken from the chicken houses. All are males the fence keeps them from roaming but sometimes they will be just about anywhere on our 60 acre farm. They will travel over land for quite a distance. The neighbors freak sometimes when they get close to the fence. I tell them to move if they don't like it. LOL They are illegal to keep her in Alabama. So I try to keep their where abouts secret as much as possible. They are relatively tame . But you still don't want to turn your back on them.
The Aligator in the pic is doctored. You can check it out at Snopes. There is no such thing as a 28 ft. alligator. That pic is doctor. The head is way too big for the body also. Some one is trying to pull a fast one with that.

 

[laurarfl]

As far as feeding economically, I found Mazuri croc chow to be pretty good. The Mazuri is widely used, but pretty messy as it is left uneaten or passes through. I buy the small pellets in small quantities and supplement with rodents, chicks, etc. When he was little I supplemented with insects and turkey meatballs. I met a guy locally here that does wildlife rescue and he said he was so glad to get his gator off Mazuri and onto hotdogs. :yik :bs :rant I couldn't think of anymore appropriate emoticons, but I guess that pretty much sums up my opinion of hot dogs!

 

[Wooly]

Hey laurarfl do you happen to have some pics of your gator and enclosure? How do you like your gator after it got so big?