How do alligators feed their babies

How to Feed Baby Alligators

By Laura Bramble | Updated November 01, 2017

Warnings

Do not go near baby alligators in the wild. Mothers will stay with their young for up to two years, so a mother alligator could be nearby and think you are threatening her young. In this case, she will attack you.

Keep pets and any other kinds of food away from your hatchling and young gator. Alligators are not overly particular about what they eat and will eat whatever is handy.

Do not put small pebbles in your hatchling enclosure; use only larger natural rocks that have been sterilized by boiling. Your baby alligator will probably eat some and they could get lodged in her digestive system, which could result in illness or death.

Feeding a baby alligator in the wild is not recommended.

Caring for baby alligators, or hatchlings, requires special knowledge, and you must carefully consider what will happen to your pet once it reaches an unmanageable size. Because alligators grow about a foot a year until they reach maturity, it will not be long until you have a pet that is able to do significant damage to you, your family and your home. It is illegal to keep alligators as pets in many states, and many of those where it is legal require you to have the proper permits or licenses. You can successfully feed your pet baby alligator by using common sense and following a few important guidelines.

Choose foods such as small fish, insects, crawfish, small mice and frogs. Alligators eat whole food in the wild, so do not feed your hatchling a steady diet of meat pieces. They need the calcium and other nutrients found in whole food.

Use unfrozen, raw and preferably live food to feed your hatchling or young gator. They have sensitive digestive systems and cannot handle cooked or frozen foods. Thaw any frozen or partially frozen food first before feeding it to the hatchling.

Feed your hatchling every other day; juveniles every three or four days. Alligators will eat as much and as often as you let them, so keep to a strict schedule. Overfeeding will lead to gout.

Use a utensil to feed your hatchling so that both you and the baby get used to not associating your hands with food. This will help prevent confusion, which could be deadly later on.

Set up a feeding routine and schedule. Feed your hatchling at the same time of day, using the same method and in the same location. While you cannot “train” an alligator, you can keep him calm by keeping things predictable.

References

Care Sheet for Alligators and Crocodiles
Crocodilian Captive Care F.A.Q’s
Louisiana Alligator Advisory Council

Tips

Keep pets and any other kinds of food away from your hatchling and young gator. Alligators are not overly particular about what they eat and will eat whatever is handy.
Do not put small pebbles in your hatchling enclosure; use only larger natural rocks that have been sterilized by boiling. Your baby alligator will probably eat some and they could get lodged in her digestive system, which could result in illness or death.
Feeding a baby alligator in the wild is not recommended.

Warnings

Do not go near baby alligators in the wild. Mothers will stay with their young for up to two years, so a mother alligator could be nearby and think you are threatening her young. In this case, she will attack you.

Photo Credits

Crocodiles Feeding Their Young – St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park

Crocodilians feeding their young?: More and more we are realizing how closely birds and crocodilians are related. They have many similar adaptations and behaviors. However one distinct difference is that crocodilians are not known to feed their young. Unlike most birds, hatchling crocodiles are ready to feed on their own soon after hatching. In spite of this, there have been occasional observations that may suggest that some parent crocodilians provide a little extra help to their offspring.

McIlhenny, in his 1935 book, claimed to have seen American Alligators feeding their young on eight different occasions. A private individual in Florida claims to have seen his broad-snouted caiman, Caiman latirostristearing pieces of meat from a large feeder rat and feeing the smaller pieces to their hatchlings. Blohm, in 1982, said that he witnessed an adult Orinoco crocodile, Crocodylus intermedius offering food to hatchling animals.

On two occasions, we have witnessed our adult female Siamese crocodile allowing her hatchlings to eat meat from her mouth. This has only happened twice in almost two years, and did not occur until the hatchlings were more than a year old. The adult Siamese crocodiles are shifted off exhibit when they are fed. This gives the keepers a chance to count the hatchlings, clean the exhibit, and trim the plants. Both adults usually swallow their food almost immediately. However, on these two occasions the female still had a large piece of nutria in her mouth when she was released from the shift cage. The female sat for more than an hour with the meat protruding out of her mouth, allowing the hatchlings to tear off small pieces of meat. The adult male attempted to take the meat away from the female, but she just got up and walked away. Once, she even got in the pool to avoid the male’s attempts, but she crawled right back on the bank and held the meat in her jaws until the hatchlings began feeding again.

Many people have read my account of this event, and there are many skeptics that think I might be exaggerating what I saw. However, once they see the event captured on video, there is no doubt that the female allowed the hatchlings to feed from the meat in her mouth. I do not pretend to know what this means. I am not assuming that all crocodilians feed their young, or even that this particular female intended to feed her young. I can only say that she did not mind the hatchlings eating her meal. It is entirely possible that she was just not hungry, and decided to hold the meat for later.

The adult male in this exhibit has been a great father to the hatchlings; he is protective and cautions around them. He is also very food motivated and has never been seen attempting to share his meals with the hatchlings. In addition to attempting to steal meals from the female, I have even seen him try to take the occasional large piece of meat from the hatchlings. He is very gentle about it; trying to only get a hold of the meat without touching a hatchling, even to the point of quickly pulling his head back if a hatchling was accidentally in the way. To prove his good intentions, I have seen him basking with his mouth open just after eating. Hatchlings have crawled in his mouth looking for the meat that they can still smell. One even tried to bite his tongue. The male is very patient, but really does not like the young crocodiles in his mouth, and he gently turns his head and shakes them out.

Watch video of Siamese Crocodile feeding her young

CONCLUSION

Crocodilian behavior is often overlooked because we tend to think of them as prehistoric, and therefore too primitive to have complicated behavior. We have also been quick to dismiss all of a particular author’s writings, because they were not completely accurate in everything they wrote. I am not the first to suggest that crocodilians swallow under water or that they may feed their young, but other authors have often been ignored because of errors elsewhere in their observations or because so few others have witnessed these behaviors for themselves. It is my assertion that crocodilian behavior deserves a more in depth look, as I am confident they have much more to teach us.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am very grateful to the animal staff at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm for being so observant. This paper is made up of observations that cold have very easily been overlooked if it were not for their diligence and dedication. This to the Reptile department: Shannon Chapman, Jim Darlington, David Kledzik, Thomas Rexroad, and Shelly Triplett. I would also like to thank David Drysdale for his continued support of our efforts. Lastly, I would like to thank my mentor, Dr. Kent Vliet for his knowledge, insight, and encouragement.

LITERATURE CITED

ADAMS, R. A and Shiver C. 1993. The St. Augustine Alligator Farm A Centennial History Southern Press, St. Augustine, Florida 38p. (Alligator Farm History)
BLOHM, T. 1982. Husbandry of Orinoco crocodiles (Crocodylus intermedius) in Venezuela. Pp. 267-285 in Crocodiles. Proceedings of the 5th Working Meeting of the Crocodile Specialist Group, IUCN – The World Conservation Union, Gland, Switzerland. ISBN 2-8032-209-X. 409 pp. (Orinoco adult feeding Young)

DAVIS, et al. 2001 Multiple paternity and Mating Patterns in the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). Molecular Ecology April 2001.
DELANY M. F., 1986. American Alligator Food Habits in North central Florida. J. Wildl. Manage. 50(2): 1986. (Plants in Alligator’s stomachs)
HEDGES, S. B. 1994. Molecular evidence for the origin of birds. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 91 (7):261-2624(Birds and Crocodilians are closely related)

MCILHENNY, E. A. 1935. the Alligator’s Life History. Christopher Publishing House, Boston, Mass. 117p. (American Alligators feeding their young, Alligators swallowing under water)
NEILL, W. T. 1971 The last of the Ruling Reptiles Columbia University Press, New York and London 486p. (Accidental and Secondary ingestion, Plant material in alligator stomachs, alligators as cannibals and parents)

The truth about alligators: they almost never kill people

Melissa Hogenboom
BBC Earth

21 June 2016

Image copyright Getty

Alligators are dangerous predators and they do attack people. However, as columnist found out BBC Earth , it rarely ends in a fatality.

On June 15, 2016, a two-year-old boy was dragged underwater by an alligator in Orlando, Florida.

Approximately 18 hours later, the boy's body "almost undamaged" was found in the water near the scene.

At a press conference, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said this was the first such incident in the region.

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After the tragedy, many began to think about how dangerous alligators are and whether it is worth visiting the places where they live.

We asked experts in the field to help assess the risks.

Photo credit, Robert Burton US Fish Wildlife Service

Image caption,

Every year, about 7,000 alligators that pose a danger to the public are shot

There are only two types of alligators: the Chinese alligator, which usually does not exceed 1. 5 meters in length, and the American alligator, which can be considerably longer.

We don't know the size of the alligator that attacked a child in Florida. According to eyewitnesses, it could be from 1.2 to 2 meters in length, that is, relatively small.

The largest American alligator was discovered in Alabama in 2014. Its length was almost 4.5 meters.

Florida is home to a huge number of alligators. Thanks to the conservation program, their number has reached one million.

American alligators live in all 67 counties of Florida, as well as in other states - Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina.

Ecologist Lucas Nell of the University of Georgia in Athens, USA, has been observing alligators for many years. According to him, it is logical to assume that alligators can live in any body of water in Florida.

Indeed, these predators are found in most swamps and rivers.

But, despite their myriad of them, they very rarely attack people.

Photo credit: Steve Hillebrand US Fish Wildlife Service

Image caption:

Alligators were on the verge of extinction, but now their numbers have increased significantly

Lucas Nell explains that alligators are afraid of people. "They have been hunted since the arrival of Europeans in America, and they were on the verge of extinction," he says.

In 2010, a survey was conducted of all alligator attacks from 1928 to 2009.

It turned out that over such a long period in the United States, only 24 people died from alligator teeth, and most of them - in Florida.

Only a few fatal cases have been reported when an alligator tried to eat a victim.

However, "it is not known whether the attack took place: a person could first drown, and only then get into the teeth of a predator," says author Rick Langley of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

During this period, Langley counted 567 "dangerous encounters" with predators, as a result of which people received bites.

About 260 victims needed serious medical attention, while the rest escaped with minor injuries.

However, considering the total population of this alligator-infested county, it appears that there are only 0.06 attacks per 100,000 people per year. This is surprisingly low.

Photo credit, Robert Burton US Fish Wildlife Service

Image caption,

Nearly five unprovoked alligator bites are reported each year in Florida

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Crocodile Research Group notes that out of twenty-three crocodile species, only eight prone to unprovoked attacks on people.

These aggressive species include American alligators (which belong to the order of crocodiles, but differ in appearance - Rev. ).

However, according to the IUCN, American alligator attacks are only 6% fatal.

Thus, the risk of dying from alligator teeth is very low, especially compared to the bloodthirsty Nile crocodile (63%) and the combed crocodile (25-50%).

According to a database called CrocBITE, which records almost all cases of crocodile attacks in the world, about 1,000 people are killed every year, with the vast majority of these deaths occurring in Africa.

Alligators are often less dangerous than crocodiles because they are more selective about their prey.

Photo credit, US Fish Wildlife Service

Photo caption,

Alligators rarely attack humans

Researcher at Burbeck College, University of London, Simon Pooley, who works with the IUCN Crocodile Study Group, says crocodiles eat anything moves, including large mammals.

Alligators, on the other hand, rarely attack humans, as they feed mainly on fish, birds, other reptiles, and small mammals.

Unfortunately, children are often about the same size as small mammals and can therefore fall prey to the alligator.

However, an alligator attack on a child is quite rare. As of 2010, attacks on children account for only 13.1%.

At the same time, Langley believes that alligator attacks could increase as "both population and alligator populations grow."

In many coastal areas, people encroach on the natural habitat of alligators, and therefore the paths of these two species of living creatures inevitably cross.

Photo credit: Steve Hillebrand US Fish Wildlife Service

Image caption:

Alligators feed on small animals and birds

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission receives about 16,000 alligator complaints each year.

An alligator that is a nuisance to the local community can be caught if it is over 1.2 meters in size and "poses a threat to people, pets, or property."

Smaller alligators are content with small prey and are not dangerous unless provoked by humans.

In 2015, 7513 alligators were captured by the Commission. According to a 2014 report, 66% of nuisance alligators have been eradicated "by lethal means".

Small alligators, as a rule, are simply taken to another place.

Both Bullet and Nell are confident that these attacks are easy to prevent. But this means that you need to clearly understand all the risks and follow the simple rules developed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Photo copyright Steve Hillebrand US Fish Wildlife Service

Photo caption

Alligators live in most swamps, rivers and lakes in Florida

Nell believes people can live safely around alligators if they use common sense.

"In order to coexist with large and dangerous predators, we need to understand their behavior and be extremely vigilant when in close proximity to them," Pooley says.

Everyone should know the rules, especially visitors and tourists. This means giving people as much information as possible.

"I think people just don't know how widespread alligators are in this area, especially now," Pooley says. "Alligators are especially active this time of year."

Read The original of this article in English can be found on the website BBC Earth.

Crocodile breeding

Procreation is the main purpose of all living beings. Crocodiles take this very seriously. The motor activity of animals increases, males become aggressive. If a relative-alien suddenly descends into the possessions of the male owner, then a cruel and bloody battle ensues, in which the rivals inflict terrible wounds on each other, even break their jaws.

With the help of a well-developed voice, males declare their rights and attract the attention of females. For example, the male mager, or swamp crocodile (Crocodylus palustris), during the mating season beats his jaws on the water and growls. The male Indian gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) has a special knobby extension at the end of the muzzle that turns the inviting hiss into loud sounds that attract females. This fleshy appendage is somewhat reminiscent of the Indian clay pot - ghara, hence the name of the species.

The most studied mating and nesting behavior of the Mississippian alligator (Alligator missisippiensis). Archie Carr describes it this way: “The mating season of the alligators is noisy and stormy. Males at this time roar, and the glands located on their throats and near the cloaca secrete a musky secret. At the sight of a female, a pair of males begin to frantically rush around her, scaring away the fish and raising a high wave, from which the reed walks with a shake. The frogs immediately fall silent, and the excited waterfowl begin to scream heart-rendingly. Approaching each other, the rivals forcefully release air from their nostrils under water, after which they violently attack one another.

The female builds a nest on her territory not far from the water from rotting vegetation and mud, busily fussing around it. She brings tufts of grass and clods of dirt in her teeth and puts them in a heap, forming a meter-high mound, the diameter of which at the base is 1. 5-2 meters. At the top of the mound, the female makes a depression in which she lays 20-60 (sometimes up to 80) oval eggs covered with calcareous shells. The nest of the combed crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is somewhat more solid in size: it is a meter-high mound of leaves, reaching a diameter of about 7 meters. From year to year, the female occupies the same place for laying, but every year she builds a new nest.

Whatever the set of protective devices in adult reptiles, they would hardly have survived and mastered the land without being thoroughly protected at the embryonic stage. Compared to the rather simple eggs of fish and amphibians, which they lay in the water and fertilize there, the reptile egg is called amniotic and is an amazing formation. It is the result of a long evolutionary development that began from the moment when the amphibian ancestors of reptiles switched to internal fertilization. The embryo located in the center of the egg is connected by the umbilical cord to the yolk sac, which performs the function of the primary food reserve, and is surrounded by the amnion, a cavity whose liquid medium washes the embryo and protects it from mechanical damage, like an airbag. The amnion and the yolk sac are surrounded by another embryonic formation, the allantois, which serves as the embryonic bladder, where the nitrogenous waste products of the embryo (ammonia, urea) accumulate. In addition, allantois performs the function of gas exchange (oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide removal). The outer shell - the chorion - is a dense elastic layer closely associated with the shell.

For the successful development of the embryo, the amniotic egg must be in a warm and not too dry place; however, it cannot be kept under water for a long time. In an egg laid on land, under a hard calcareous shell, a peculiar tiny reservoir is preserved, in which a delicate embryo of reptiles passes through all vulnerable stages of development, being, in essence, in the same environment in which its ancestors lived. In other words, being itself a terrestrial adaptation, the amniotic egg serves as a refuge for an aquatic animal.

Having laid eggs, a caring female covers the masonry with material taken from the edges, levels it and goes on “duty” to the so-called “crocodile pit” located nearby. There she vigilantly guards future cubs from all sorts of encroachments, attacking anyone who disturbs her peace. Crocodiles use the energy of the sun and the heat released during the decomposition of organic nesting material: by splashing her tail on the water, the female sprays the nest so that the vegetation continues to rot. This maintains the constant temperature required for successful incubation.

Studying the breeding characteristics of the Mississippi alligator, scientists have found that the external temperature determines the sex of future cubs. At a temperature in the nest within 31-32 ° C, after 100 days, females are born, and if the temperature mark exceeds 33.5 ° C, after 64 days the entire brood will be male. When maintaining the temperature regime within 32-33.5 ° C, heterosexual individuals appear. This phenomenon is called temperature-dependent sexual determination. In an alligator nest, one side of which is closer to the water and the other is under the hot sun, "boys" appear on the warm side, and "girls" on the cool side. When studying the oviposition of other species of crocodiles, other data were obtained.

A few days before birth, the female hears the croaking voices of the cubs through the egg shell. The sounds are getting louder, more insistent - the kids are asking to be free. And then the mother decides: the time has come. With webbed paws, she carefully digs up the masonry, sometimes even breaks the shell, helping the children to get out of the eggs, if they did not do it themselves with the help of a special horn outgrowth located at the tip of the muzzle. The female crushes the shell of each egg separately, and then goes to the water, carefully holding the egg in her mouth, and, as it were, rinses its contents, contributing to the release of newborns. Reptile cubs are born fully formed, capable of active movement, nutrition, and may well fend for themselves. In swampy areas where alligators usually breed, the "crocodile pit" located near the nest serves as a very convenient refuge for the hatched cubs.

Usually, the arrival of newborns is timed to coincide with the rise in water levels after the rainy season, so that babies can easily find both saving water and food. Quite often they travel to a new place of residence in their mother's mouth. One can observe a stunning picture of how a huge lizard-like creature with indescribable tenderness raises its tiny descendants one by one and with slow caution carries them to the water between frightening fangs, and sometimes simply hides them under the tongue. Loyal mothers protect their cubs for a few more months in the "nursery" - in quiet shallow pools, warm and rich in food. Some mothers bring their offspring there and leave in the care of another female. Guardianship of babies lasts 2-3 months. The cubs try to stick together and in case of danger they scream so loudly that the call is heard by the mother fifty meters away. In some species of crocodiles, such as the mater (Crocodylus palustris), the males take turns with the female on duty at the nest, help the offspring to get out of the eggs and look after them for some time.

Despite active parental care, only a small percentage of newborn cubs reach sexual maturity. Babies often fall prey to birds of prey (marabou), hyenas, large lizards, which are not averse to eating crocodile eggs. It is common for crocodiles to eat their relatives, especially when living conditions become unfavorable (drought) and a large number of animals of different ages accumulate in one reservoir.

Crocodile caimans (Caiman crocodylus) inhabit a vast territory in Central and South America. The characteristic feature of young animals to travel on floating islands from aquatic vegetation contributes to the wide distribution of this species. These unusual green islands ("mats") can be large - up to 1 sq. km. As a refuge for young caimans, houseboats take them on an involuntary swim down the river for quite long distances.

The coloration of young reptiles often differs significantly from the parent. So, for example, the upper side of the body of the Mississippi alligator (Alligator missisippiensis) is dull dark green, the lower side is light yellow. Young crocodiles have an almost black back with bright yellow transverse stripes.

Tiny crocodiles feed on various invertebrates that inhabit the reservoir and coastal areas: insects, mollusks, crustaceans, and worms. Growing up, young predators prefer larger food: lizards, frogs, fish and water birds. They grow quite quickly: young alligators in the first 3 years of life reach one and a half meters in length. However, crocodiles grow throughout their lives, but in old age they add only 1-2 cm per year. These reptiles reach sexual maturity by 6-8 years, and live up to 80-100 years. True, such a life expectancy has been noted in captivity; in natural conditions today it is very rare to find animals over 50 years old. "Old men" are distinguished by darker skin, a relief massive skull and sparse teeth. Zoologists point out that it is possible to establish the exact age of a crocodile only by cutting a bone, counting annual rings (kaku trees). The largest Mississippi alligator was killed in 1890 in Louisiana.