Hello my replies are beneath your questions/comments.
>>How many of you have been bitten by your crocs/caimans??
Never a full on bite, a few nips. The name of the game IMHO is NOT to get bit. Getting bit is a sign of a mistake being made and is an error. Everytime I've come close to getting nailed it was because my head was were it shouldn't be, not much margin for error with the big ones.
>I am considering getting a dwarf caiman in a couple years.
If one musy get a crocodilian they are the smallest.
> I was wondering if getting bit was a common occurance, and how bad the bites are.
If you are not used to crocodilians you may get bit often, two weekends ago I watched a fella get bit multiple times by a young dwarf caiman, his handling was bad, his understanding of the animals behaviour was bad so he got nailed.......repeatedly.
Young caiman can tear a chuck out and produce alot of blood. An adult can mangle you pretty good. So IMO the bites are bad, the bigger the animal, the more damage done.
I currently have a large snapping turtle which i have never been bitten by, but he does try hard to get me!
Good, but in all honesty while a snapper can be a handful it is not even worthy of discussion in comparison to a caiman. Dwarf caiman in my experience can be very difficult to handle due to their armor, they also are very agile crocodilians.
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>>I know the snapper can easily remove my finger, how about a full grown dwarf caiman?
He may remove your hand, at the very least remove the fingers and crush a bone or 2. And they fingers would go much easier.
Dwarfs are great animals, but they are crocodilians. Adults are not 'small' animals just dwarf by croc standards. Make wise choices with these amazing animals.
CD
