Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If I were to live in tampa florida and wished to keep crocs outdoors would I need to heat the ponds? The avg temp in jan is about 60F, but it can drop down to as low as 20F. Heating seems like it would be very costly, if even possible.

If you think I will need to heat please give me some ideas on heating. I'm thinking a 20x20 pond I would need about a 100k BTU heater, which would cost alot to run all the time.

John

A few days ago I posted the plans for a heater that will easily keep a pond heated. If one heater isn't enough then you can build several. They are about $15 a piece minus the thermostat. If you need any help I can even build them for you. Hope this helps.
Chris

Hello -
I did see your posting on the heaters. The problem is the cost to run an electric heater is very high, espically when we start talking about very large ponds, cold temps, wind etc. A heat pump can give me about 5x the btu for the same kw/hr costs, but costs a lot to buy.
I'm really not sure how cold I can take crocs in the winter. Does 60F seem ok?

John

This is a good question that nobody really knows the answer to or nobody dares to find out. A couple of other breeders and I were talking about this very subject a couple of days ago.

We where talking about the lowest temps we ever had and the animals survive. I personaly have read temperatures around 56 degrees in 1 of my Nile ponds and 57 degrees in my Siamese pond when the well pump quit for a night last winter. It was quickly fixed and the temps brought back up and all are doing fine now but I was sweating it all summer.

Another breeder told me his Cuban pond got to 56 degrees and he thought they where dead. When he went to grab one out of the water it almost got him and they are fine now also.

I am D@#N sure not saying these temps are okay just that with my experiance I have found them to be able to survive in water that is in the mid to high 50's. Remember also that these were adult animals nothing under 6 foot so them being adults they might be able to stand the cooler water better than small ones.

I do know gator breeders who don't heat there water at all and they live north of me so I would say the gators are the most tolerent of the cooler water. In my experiance..

The bottom line being that I don't think anyone knows for sure that if the water gets below X degrees than all will die because nobody wants to find out what X is.

In my ponds I run the well in the winter and they seem to stay around 68 degrees, 65 degrees when it is in the 30's and I have no problems. If the water goes below 65 there is a problem and I scramble to get it back up as I personally don't feel confortable if the water gets below 65. I have way to much invested to risk loosing any.

If anyone else has some low temp stories why don't you share??

Hope this helped...

I am ashamed to admit this, but when I was about twelve years old, one of my Spectacled Caimans (about 26 inches in length at the time) survived 30 degree weather, as the heater in his little pool decided to malfunction overnight. This was in South Florida.

I was in junior high school, I remember, and when I went out early in the morning to check on him, he was nearly frozen. I ran him inside and started to slowly wet him with room temperature water. I cried my eyes out (LOL), and ran for the school bus. My parents monitored him that day while I was at school. By the next day, he was his feisty old self.

Ahh...memories.
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Israel Dupont
Winter Haven, FL

I know of a local person (KS) that keeps 2 adult gators in an outdoor pond year round.. They have an in bank den that they go in and don't come back out (atleast not viewed out) until it warms back up.. The temps here get well below freezing for extended periods of time so they obviously can survive a few winters if they are big enough and have a place to get to..

later.
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com

Busch Gardens in Tampa has various crocodilans. I think I had asked if any of their enclosures were heated and was told "no". If you're already in the area, I would suggest asking someone there for clarification.

Bush Gardens does heat there ponds. Actually they keep there water temps in the mid 70s year round. They use electric pool heaters, 1 for every pond. But then again they produce there own power so the cost of running the heaters is not a problem for them.

I checked my temps last night about 3 am and it was 28 degrees outside but not one of my ponds was under 68 degrees so running the well keeps them warm but you better have some where for all that extra water to go!!!

If anyone has any ideas that would keep ponds that are at least 25x30x10 at 70 degrees and the cost of running it is less than running a 18 amp well than PLEASE share!!!

About 20 years ago at Lion Country Safari near West Palm Beach, a pair of adult Spectacled Caimans (1.1) froze to death in their pool. The keepers had a practice of heating the crocodilian pools by keeping the the pumps operating, moving the water to keep the temperature up, if only minimally. It seems the weather was just too cold that night. They were stiff as logs in the morning.
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Israel Dupont
Winter Haven, FL

This is anexcellent topic for discussion and one that I have been looking into with some interest over the last few years. I have seen different results with different species--which is something you would expect.

I have found American alligators to be the most cold tolerant and this is not suprising as there are many documented reports of alligators surviving 'hard freezes'.

I have also found Nile crocodiles to be fairly toleran of lower temperatures so long as they are not exposed for extended period of time. I have also found that they can survive very cold temperatures( 35-45) as long as they can bask the next day. They seem to have the most trouble on overcast days with vry cold nights that prevent them from heating up after the core temperature dropped overnight.

Spectacled caiman do not, at least in my experience handle coooler temperatures well. I have lost one due to a power failure and once exposed to temps in the low 40's it quickly succumbed.

One species that has suprised me is the dwarf caiman. This species has consistently withstood cooler temperatures and MAINTAINED what I would consider seminormal behaviour as oppossed to the other mentioned species general torpor. Perhaps do to their habitat being cooler running streams?

In general I feel many crocodilians are quite capable of surviving cold periods as long as they are not of an extended nature and that they can bask the day away following cooler nights.

Just my 2 cents.

Merry Christmas gang.
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'