Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any information on the "Diamond Caimens" (Hybrid yacare caimen X spectacled caimen)? Are they really tamer than other caimens? What about adult size, etc.?
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I know a few people that keep them and they say they are pretty nasty. We have even had few people wanting to send them to us as rescues. I won't take them because the parks we work with will not take them. I would recommend just a dwarf caiman. For your other post. Chinese alligators aren't for sale on the market. All the chinese in the US are owned by the bronx zoo. Ronnie
WEBSITE

Thanks for the info.

i have had good and bad experiences with diamond caimans. in 2003 i bought a hatchling and raised it in my room in a cut out pond. i still have this caiman to this day and she is fantastic. not aggressive at all, very food aggressive but not aggressive in general. she is a little over 3ft now and my favorite herp, she is really great. on the other hand a few months ago i aquired a yearling diamond caiman that is meaner than hell. just as aggressive as a normal dwarf. still a very nice animal but just has a very bad temper. i guess the temperment varies from animal to animal as do other species. just hope you get lucky and get one of thenice ones. hope this helps.
Bob McLoughlin

Wow, I wish I could get one like your first one. I don't want to take a chance on getting one of the aggressive ones that grows to 7ft long. I'm leaning more towards one of the dwarfs at this point. I know they are much less likely to be "tame" but at least I can deal with that as long as they don't get too big. I'm still in the research/planning phase so no decisions yet. Thanks for sharing your experiences though!

There is no such thing as a "tame" crocodilian. Crocodilians are for the most part hands off animals. Ronnie
WEBSITE

Time will tell on diamond caimens.no insults intended.i respect and admire anyone involved in breeding animals we can still own. I do think they will get rather large.

Ronnie,

The Cincinnati Zoo here in Ohio has 5 adult Chinese alligators and the Toledo Zoo has 2 Chinese alligator yearlings.

Chris

>>I know a few people that keep them and they say they are pretty nasty. We have even had few people wanting to send them to us as rescues. I won't take them because the parks we work with will not take them. I would recommend just a dwarf caiman. For your other post. Chinese alligators aren't for sale on the market. All the chinese in the US are owned by the bronx zoo. Ronnie
>>WEBSITE
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My Website
www.herpfanatic.com

Ronnie is correct, all sinensis in the US belong to WCS (bronx zoo), sure there are tons of chinese scattered around the USA in zoo's, educational facilities, and so forth but they all are on loan and all in the end belong to the WCS/Bronx Zoo.

there are only a small number of founding animals with viable genetics, the rest are surplus animals not suitable for breeding.

I might add that there are quit a few people that claim there are sinensis in the USA that dont belong to WCS/Bronx

There are also some people/facilities with sinensis that belong to WCS/Bronx but(either by direct loan directly from WCS or on loan by another facility that originally received them on loan from WCS)these people/facilities seem to think the animals belong to them but in fact they dont.

Any Chinese alligator in the USA that doesnt belong to WCS/Bronx Zoo was either smuggled or back doored from SSP surplus sinensis

Anyone care to prove me wrong? Because I would love to know who owns sinensis in the USA other than WCS.

All chinese are owned by the Bronx zoo. They are just on loans. Ronnie
WEBSITE

My apologies for the misunderstanding. My response was based on what zoos currently HAVE sinensis. You are correct on them technically being owned by the Bronx Zoo, but I misunderstood as I thought you were saying that the Bronx Zoo was the only zoo that has them within their collection.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Chris
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My Website
www.herpfanatic.com