# Tiny Alligator never grows?



## Soli (Nov 9, 2011)

Hello, barely know anything about crocodilians and was wondering if someone could answer this question for me. At my school in the animal department they have this american alligator and he is only about 1.5 feet long (or less). I think he is about 7 years old (I first saw him about 5 years ago). I'm confused why he has not grown at all since I first saw him. I've only stopped by that room a few times so I dont know much about how he is cared for, except that he is in a very large black turtle tank type thing with running water etc. The only thing I know about his feding is that the people said he was not 'powerfed'. Very interested in knowing why he is so small. Thanks


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## blood and guts (May 30, 2007)

could they be replacing this gator every so often with a similar sized one?


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## Blake1990 (May 15, 2011)

blood and guts said:


> could they be replacing this gator every so often with a similar sized one?


Or it could be a dwarf caimen?


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## Soli (Nov 9, 2011)

I dont think they are replacing him as each time I see him he is exactly the same size and its kind of hard to get a hold of baby alligators around here. Also I dont think its a dwarf caimen, he looks almost exactly like this http://asnailpace.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/baby-alligator-2705.jpg

Think the people said something before about him being so small, they said something about how he was being fed but they didnt go into detail.


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## TEG (Feb 4, 2010)

Soli said:


> Hello, barely know anything about crocodilians and was wondering if someone could answer this question for me. At my school in the animal department they have this american alligator and he is only about 1.5 feet long (or less). I think he is about 7 years old (I first saw him about 5 years ago). I'm confused why he has not grown at all since I first saw him. I've only stopped by that room a few times so I dont know much about how he is cared for, except that he is in a very large black turtle tank type thing with running water etc. The only thing I know about his feding is that the people said he was not 'powerfed'. Very interested in knowing why he is so small. Thanks


All i could think is that they are only giving it enough food to sustain it not enough to allow normal growth, but i am confused by the size you say it is.
you believe it is 7 years old and you first saw it 5 years ago so when you first saw it it was 2 years old and it was almost 5 feet long??? normally a 2 year old gator would only be approx 2/3 feet long?? maybe they are changing it with other animals as it grows too big, or they are experimenting with growth hormones!!!! lol


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## Soli (Nov 9, 2011)

TEG said:


> All i could think is that they are only giving it enough food to sustain it not enough to allow normal growth, but i am confused by the size you say it is.
> you believe it is 7 years old and you first saw it 5 years ago so when you first saw it it was 2 years old and it was almost 5 feet long??? normally a 2 year old gator would only be approx 2/3 feet long?? maybe they are changing it with other animals as it grows too big, or they are experimenting with growth hormones!!!! lol


I don't believe I said it was ever 5 ft long, if I did my bad lol. When I first saw him he was 1.5 feet long, and since then has never grown. I was wondering the same thing about them not feeding him enough. Idunno always thought it was weird that hes so small and the people just talk about it likes its normal lol


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## TEG (Feb 4, 2010)

Soli said:


> I don't believe I said it was ever 5 ft long, if I did my bad lol. When I first saw him he was 1.5 feet long, and since then has never grown. I was wondering the same thing about them not feeding him enough. Idunno always thought it was weird that hes so small and the people just talk about it likes its normal lol


Holy c*** sorry i thought you meant 1.5 metres did'nt read correctly doh!
if it really has not grown and is only 11/2 feet that is odd !
on the up side however if they could breed a dwarf form of american alligator imagine how many people would want one!!


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