Caiman lizard

[james.w]

Does anybody here have one of these? Also any breeder info would be appreciated.

 

[Guest]

I had a Caiman crocodile at one time . He lived in the basement in the winter and out side in the summer .. He lived for years and got about four feet long .. He lived in the laundry room where there was a shower that was left dripping for him . He ate what ever you would feed him .. and could pick up and really move if he wanted ... One day my mom messed with his water and he got scalded and it was down hill from there .. You used to be able to buy one for like six bucks but I haven't seen one in pet stores for years ..

 

[james.w]

The caiman lizard is quite a bit different from a caiman croc. The lizards go for about $500+ and are supposedly pretty hard to keep in captivity. They look somewhat like tegus though.

 

[Beazer]

We had a member on here with them, you might be able to track him down by the posts. From my understanding they are actually easy to care for despite their reputation. I think the part people found the hardest for them was supplying clean water and their diet (containing apple/mystery snails). People feed them canned catfood but imo thats pretty crappy. Go on youtube and check out set ups and stuff and it will give you a good idea on what they are like as far as care. Just know they need (or atleast should get) lots of room and beable to swim. Its pretty cruel not letting an animal adapted to swimming and such and not let it swim.

-Jon DeLong

 

[chelvis]

I was looking into getting one last season but my moving around is not great with that many reptiles in tow.

Go a fauna and there is a guy there by the name of Stingray, he's had Caimans for a while and is looking into breeding them. The farmed and captive breed animals will take other foods that are offered like cat food sadly, but inscets, turkey and rodents as well. Snails are not to hard to come by, asain markets sell them relativly cheep. They also will eat crawfish and shrimp (raw of course).

It can be hard to keep a 4 foot aquatic lizard, my set up for an adult was gonna be a 8'x3' with a 1/4 of it land and a nice size mesh filter. Add some snails and fish and have a nice indoor pound, if the lizard eats the fish i could just restock it.

Alot of the owners i've talked to said they are not that hard to keep, just like a turtle in maintance of the tank and similar to a monitor in food and time.

 

[james.w]

Yeah ive been doing some research, and seen the youtube videos and some other posts on other forums. I am quite a ways out from being able to get one but am very interested. I will probably try to build a 8x4x4 enclosure with around 3x4 being water. I will do the enclosure and make sure it can hold correct temps and humidity before buying one though.

 

[chelvis]

With aquatics i would worry more about temp then humidity. Think about it they get dry all they got to do is go swimming.

 

[chris allen]

I thought I just saw an add for both males and female babies, 400 each. Maybe it was Underground?

 

[chelvis]

Ya underground has them listed, Ben has a few going for $500 range along with scales and tails. It is becoming the season for them.

 

[Guest]

can keep an caimen croc and tame it at all? or is it just a look at pet?

 

[chelvis]

The corcodilian itself dont tame down very well plus they get 6 feet long so not great pets.

Caiman lizards i have heard and seen can be handled, they still have a good jaw on them though.

 

[james.w]

Hopefully a year from now there will be more people successfully breeding them in the states and I'll try to pick on up.