Nice Dwarf Caimen picture, and a red eyed box turtle pic!!

[Scales Zoo]

I just wanted to share these 2 pictures that I took through glass. These were 2 of 16 exhibits at an educational display with school presentations in Tisdale Sept, 23, 24, 25 that I just got home from.


I really like how this one turned out, I think I may submit this one a few places, and do something with it.





I included this inferior picture, just to show how red the eyes of a 2 year old male Eastern Box turtle get!





I hope you liked the dwarf caimen picture.

Ryan

[BoidKeeper]

Sweet! Man I would love to have a species of crocdilian some day. What is the absolute smallest species or crocodilian and is it readily available?
Cheers,
Trevor

[Scales Zoo]

Dwarf caimens top out around 4' long, and I think are considered the smallest. They also have a really cool prehistoric look to them, I beleive ours is a trig.

Little bugger bit me last night. My mother, who accompanied me on this trip, and I stopped at friends in Saskatoon last night to crash. All of their young adult kids, and girlfriends / husbands - and friends, were at the house waiting for us to show up with reptiles. The next hour was show and tell. The 6 year old boy wanted to see the "baby crocodile", his favorite, and as I was showing him the normally tame dwarf caimen, it bit me on the side of the finger. I bled much more from the anaconda bite, but that is another story.

Ryan

[BoidKeeper]

LOL! How many do you have now and what does the avarage 4' caimen enclosure consist of?
Trevor

[Scales Zoo]

We have only 3 caimens at the moment. 2 small ones housed in aquariums with rock ledges and hides.

The 4' spectacled is kept in the basement, in a 4x8' enclosure with heat lights, a basking spot, and a large black pond built in to the plywood land area which measures about 6' x 3.75'. We also keep a Nile monitor, an Argus / Goulds monitor, a big assed water monitor, a 35 lb common snapper and 2 box turtles down there.

I've only kept monitors, tegus, crocodillians and turtles for about 3.5 years - and I like them as much or more than snakes, which I have kept for much longer. Their intelegence and personality is more easily seen when they have eyelids, and legs - I guess.

Ryan

[BoidKeeper]

So if some one got one of those big back yard hardware store ponds Laguna or some thing like that is what they are called I think, and built it into an enclosure or part of a room they would be ok with that as a water source? What do you do, filter the water? What kind of care info is out there for these guys?
Do you have any pics of your set ups Ryan?
Now I'm very curiouse about them. What do they cost?
Cheers,
Trevor

[lostwithin]

Very nice pics, I wish my dwarf hadn't passed away.

Devon

[Scales Zoo]

Trevor, I can take some pictures of the caimen set ups.

As far as care is concerned, lots of water at 78-84 F seasonally, a dry area with nice hot basking spot, a way to hide, and rats, mice and fish (the dwarf only eats fish) for food.

Caimens range from $75 - $400 depending on type and size.

I prefer Alligators to caimens, none of our caimens are tame.

Ryan

[Scales Zoo]

Oh, and we don't have filters on any of our water ponds, we just use a sump pump and hose to clean, drain and refill. Usually every 14 - 21 days, or more often as needed.

Ryan

[BoidKeeper]

Would a filter work?
Thanks,
Trevor

[Colonel_SB]

Sweet Caiman how big is the little guy?

[Big_V]

Originally posted by BoidKeeper
Would a filter work?
Thanks,
Trevor

Ive used a filter before when setting up some tanks for friends I know with caimens. The only problem with it is they seem to like to play with it a bit. You have to make sure they cant get their toes stuck in the input part of the filter, but consequently the filter has to be big enough not to clog every second day which can happen sometimes especially if your feeding fish. They tend to disintegrate a bit.

Check out the crocodilians fact page. So much info there its incredible. http://crocodilian.com/crocfaq/