Pet Crocodile

There are some adventure loving people who enjoy keeping a pet crocodile for fun and adventure. Owning a crocodile at home requires lots of attention and care. Crocodiles are quite dangerous animals therefore keeping them as a pet involves lots of risk and adventure. They are a member of crocodylidae family. Crocodylidae family includes four members – crocodile, alligators, caiman and gharials.

Crocodiles are large aquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Abundantly crocodiles are found in freshwater habitats such as – rivers, lakes, wetlands and brackish water. Although they might look old, but still people have obsession to keep a pet crocodile.

Crocodiles are quite different from other reptiles as they have four chambered heart, diaphragms and cerebral cortex. They have a huge body that makes them perilous. Their streamlined body and tucked feed enables them to swim faster. Crocodiles can work well both inside and outside the water. They have huge jaws and a sharp tooth that helps them to crush bones of smaller animals. The size of a crocodile varies from species to species. Maximum length that a crocodile can reach over is 5 to 6 meters and maximum weight that they can gain is 1200 kilograms. One can easily measure the age of their pet crocodile by measuring lamellar growth rings in bones and teeth. Mostly each ring occurs once a year between dry and wet season.

Crocodile are dangerous reptiles which usually wait for animals or people to come nearer, so that it can attack on it. People must think before keeping a crocodile as a pet. One needs to take certain safety measures to keep a crocodile as a pet. One should not pet other animals if they are keeping crocodile as a pet. It is because it is quite aggressive and can eat other animals easily. They usually attack other animals in their environment. So it’s recommended to keep other animals at a certain distance from the crocodile. They mostly eat both vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates feed such as – fish, reptiles, and mammals. Invertebrates feed such as – mollusks and crustaceans.

Breeding of Crocodile:

Crocodile are mostly bred during January to May. Males attain the sexual maturity when they are 3 meters long, while females attain the sexual maturity when they are 2 – 2.5 meters long. A crocodile takes 10 years to reach at the stage of sexual maturity. Throughout the crocodile mating process, male crocodile tends to come closer to female crocodile by bellowing, slapping their snouts in the water, blowing water out of their nose and by making different sounds. Both male and female crocodile will rib and warble the underside of their jaws together. After the mating process female crocodile will lay 20 to 40 eggs. These eggs should be covered with leaves and other vegetation as this will help in keeping the eggs warm. The egg should be kept at a temperature of 28° - 32° C for at least 80 days. After the eggs get hatched, female crocodile carries the baby crocodile to the water. The baby crocodile should be fed on shrimps, crabs and insects.

Large crocodiles can be dangerous for human beings therefore; one should prefer small crocodiles as a pet. Owning a large crocodile involves high risk and threat.