Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a baby alligator that I got about a week ago, I feed him a fish everyday. Every time I try to change his water he gets really snippy and tries to bite and hisses at me. What can I do so that he trusts me?

nothing...its a alligator..there always gonna be somewhat mean...if you wanted a cudly little pet you should of gotten a hamster...

one more thing...dont feed him only fish...he will die.. feed him crickets ,chicken, pork, pinkie mice, and some fish but DEFFINITLY NOT FEEDER GOLDFISH FROM THE PET STORE..those are not healthy at all..

You must not have much experience with hamsters ; ). I'd say 8 out of 10 of them are nasty, vindictive creatures with sharp teeth. That, and they're stinky.
Just trying to dispel the myth of hamsters as sweet children's pets.

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I am not an expert bye no means but I will try to help a bit.

First- Just like g8tor8 said try not to feed him just fish this is not good for the little guy. Also Feeder fish from a petstore is not good at all. When He/She gets bigger there will be this urge to feed live to them. I am a big snake person but I also have a 4 foot gator. Feed pre killed items. The last thing you whant is a gator with an injury do to a live animal you are trying to feed it.

second- The most common thing I see people do when the show me there reptiles is go tap on the cage. This is on of the most stressful things for him. I am not saying you do it just letting you know not to let it happen. But this really is a rule of thumb for any animal is a cage.

Third-You will never fully tame your gator but you will get it to tolerate being handled. But the first time you do not respect your alligator is the time he dicides it is time to let you know he is still incharge. If you can take your Gator out of its encloser when cleaning it. This will get him used to you handling him and also cut down on the stress of something tearing apart his home.

forth-Try to keep your gator in a quiet area of the house. I have seen lots of people put there gator next to the TV with soround sound at full blast. This is real stressful on an animal. And try not to put his cage in a high traffic area. People walking by his cage every 5 minutes and looking in at him tapping on the glass is no good either.

I hope I have helped a bit. There are many people on this board that know alot more then me. And I am sure the will point pout anything I have missed. LOL