Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello croc keepers hey please dont think im crazy for sayin this but i had a 3 1/2 ft nile croc madagascar locality he jumped outa the water one day grabbed my hand an let go i was bleeding pretty bad an still have a couple a scars on my fingers but he did not lacerate anything the funny thing is most people who i have talked to told me that if i took a hit from a nile croc i would be goin to the hospital i just bandaged up my hand an its fine any advice on this from expernienced croc keepers would be great thanks Justin

The bite itself is usually not a problem. I have a 3.5ft alligator and have been bitten by him before. The bite was not bad at all. That size nile is not going to be much if any different. The problem lies with the bacteria that is in their mouths. If the place where it is kept is coninuously clean and their water is changed frequently, then you dont have too much to worry about. Alcohol should be used to clean it out unless it is a really nasty environment, and then I was informed that bleach is your best option.

Dont underestimate its bite just because of that one incident. He bit and let go. That is usually a quick bite and release, which doesn't do much damage at all. However, when he grabs and locks and starts thrashing around, going into death rolls, etc. that's where he can do damage. Donot EVER underestimate them. You were lucky with this incident. If he wanted to make that worse he very well could have.

You were fortunate. When they are intent on injuring something, even a small one can do a good job.

The one that did the damage in this photo (also on the croc faq) caused this 21 yo woman to take 8 or 9 stitches, three or four of which were internal. She also lost feeling in her index finger due to a severed nerve. She will also have a nasty scar for the rest of her life.

The spectacled caiman that did this was less than three feet long.

I know the whole story as I supplied the photo to the web site.

Never take them for granted or underestimate them!

Bill

Years back I had a group of small maybe yearling Nile Crocodiles (madagascar locality)all about the same size, 1 of these little guys was VERY aggressive, anyway I remember having to pull out the aggressive one as he was really beating on the others, I pulled him out and he was just going crazy trying to grab me, I remember my wife was standing there watching and she was like oh my god he is going to bite you, I was saying even if he did it wont even hurt because of its small size.

Then just after I said that, the little bugger grabed a hold of 1 of my fingers and started trashing and trying to roll ... he didnt do much damage but I swear that bite REALLY hurt and I had little feeling in the tip of that finger for quit some time.

Other than that I got nailed by a 5ft Dwarf Croc but it bite and released very little damage or pain (lucky)

But ill tell you that bite from that little Nile Croc REALLY hurt!!

Same here...got a nice infection after being bitten by a 2 ft Chinese Alligator. And yes....it hurted...