Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if it was normal for a caiman to sleep a lot. For the last couple of days I have noticed everytime I looked over at him hes been sleeping. He does wake up for a couple minutes but then hes back out. Anyone have any idea's of why?
Thanks

Please post a picture of your animal as well as your set up
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Archie Bottoms

I dont thik he´s sleeping... he´s very stressed... do you have a hide for him??

dwarfs stress very easy.... handling, change water every day, try to force him to eat, you to watch him all time... al those things stress little caimans a lot...

he migth stop eating and get sick

leave him alone for some time... have some fish in his tank, so he can eat them

cheers

rick

Thanks for the help. He is eating normally, he likes his food. I do try and leave him alone. I just figured he was sleeping because of the skin over his eyes, looks like there closed.

Thanks again

o and yah i do have somewhere for him to hide, I biult up some weeds in the corner for him to get under, thats where he spends all of his time. I just feel bad for him, he doesnt look happy

he/she is probably fine, they do tend to just chill in the water or lay around and sleep, execpt when it dinner time.

but like everyone told you, palps and trigs stress real easy and there a bit of a fragile species (in my opinion), just give it lots of places to hide: plants, logs, rocks, etc.. and dont bother it to much.

Also, if you post pics of your set up and let us know the temps .. or even just what size light bulb your using and how many hours a day it runs ... if your using a water heater and what its set at, etc.. we can help you out further.

I have palps that "sun bath" on land a lot so there are exceptions to the rule, and I have seen many palps and trigs sun bath but these 2 species normally prefer to be in water hidding during the day and venture on land at night.

They also prefer a bit cooler water, I wouldnt go below mid 70's though .. maybe the water in your enclosure is to cold or to warm so its spending a lot of time on land? Does it seem slugish?
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Great Lakes Zoological

Palps and trigs are like a fragil glass easly broken.I think every one would agree that this is a true fact.I have had a few over the years and the trig I have now is a monster healthy captive born animal
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Archie Bottoms

Yeah but once they are established like yours, they seem to thrive.
Buffalo zoo has a really nice walk through rainforest exhibit that has about 20 dwarf caiman (dont remember which species) that swim around freely. They seem to be fine with the hundreds of guests that visit them daily.
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1.0 Albino American alligator, "Smoke"
1.1 American alligator,"Al Bite Ya & Molly"
1.1 Purple Albino Reticulated Pythons, "Gumbo & Abita"
0.1 Eastern Gaboon Viper, "Gabbie" Recently passed away at 24 years old
Help me find this snake!

I have no way of getting a picture, but i can try.

I have the heat lamp running 24hours, one of the ladies i talked to at the pet shop said this was a good idea. I dont know the size of the bulb but it is 150watts. I try to keep the water temp between 81 and 85.

My tank is pretty small about 3ft long and the width about 1ft. I need to find a new tank before he gets bigger hes only about a foot now. So he doesnt really ahve anywhere to hide. I did set up plants for him to hide under, thats where he spends all his time.

Thanks for the help, let me know if any of my temps are wrong..

probably its a 20 gallon tank 30"Lx12"Tx12"H .. which is fine for a small baby caiman, but it wont last very long. I would suggest something larger, at least a 50 gallon long which would give the caiman a additional 18" of space.

Tank should be divided so that it has 2/3 water area and 1/3 land area .. personally with dwarf caiman and dwarf crocodiles I like to give them a 50% water / 50% land area.

Light should be on a cycle, run the light for 10 or 12 hours a day ... my reptile area stay low 70's and I only need to run 40w & or 60w bulbs to get a good temp basking sight.

I think low to mid 80's is to high of a water temp for a dwarf caiman ... I think 77/78 would be good.

I have a small dwarf caiman thats 20"-ish set up in a 50 gallon long tank which is 48" long, I have about 20" of land, not running a water heater, and basking sight is by one 40w bulb set on a timer to run I believe 10 hours a day, room temp is about 71-74 degree's .... this caiman does awesome!! I have rarely seen another Palp or trig do as well or as healthy as this one.
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Great Lakes Zoological

oh, also I have 1/2 of the tank lid closed off with a wood lid (that has some small air holes drilled) which helps hold heat in ... I do lids like this on all my small croc set ups
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Great Lakes Zoological

Thanks for the help, I'll turn down the heat a bit. So I should leave the heat lamp on during the day and off during the night then? The bulb is pretty hot.

No problem ... yes for sure turn the light off at night (this is when you caiman will start exploring land) and yes turn the water heater down a bit
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Great Lakes Zoological

Umm...sorry but i have another question. I'm in a bad situation, my boyfriend and i got the caiman from his friend, and he told us how to take care of him but it was all wrong, and now he came back to check on him and added hot water and now the temp is 90,,I was wondering if this was okay? and if not how long will he be able to take it that hot. I cant turn it down till he leaves

Are you joking around with us?? if not, I dont mean to sound mean or anything and im glad you have a interest in crocodilians but maybe you should consider donating this animal to one of the more experianced members of this forum.

Crocodilians require specialized care and there housing and feeding can and will get expensive! if this crocodile makes it to a larger size are you going to be able to take care of it?, really? ...

In a few months your going to need a larger enclosure, then not long after that your going to need a larger enclosure, then another even larger enclosure, then your will need its adult enclosure which will need to be quit large ... say at a mininum for a adult dwarf caiman 8ft x 4ft and that would be cutting it REALLY small

Lets not forget in a couple months when it bites you and it will its going to start hurting and breaking the skin nicely ... then not long after that if and when it bites there will be stitches involved, then after that possible finger loss.

Again, not trying to be mean im just giving you a small taste of what you have to look forward to ... if you keep the caiman and stick with crocs great, just as long as you are doing it right, not taking advise from morons and not letting anyone cause harm to the animals in your care.
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Great Lakes Zoological

So originally you received a caiman that was "going to die" and "recieved no information whats so ever on how to take care of him".

Now it appears you got it off a friend who is telling you how to take care of it?

If you know nothing about them, what makes you think you know his health was at risk and about to die?
If he was really in that bad of shape, why would you take advice from the person that put him there?

You can't even get your facts straight, at this point you're incapable of caring for this caiman. If it even exists, give it to a rescue, that's what responsible people do when they see an animal in distress.

Since it probably doesn't exist, troll somewhere else.

Mr. F
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Real time Rogue, a captive Palp

You sound like a very nice person who wants the best for your caiman. Don't get caught up too much in how you think your caiman "feels". Just follow the recommendations the others have posted. Unless the animal has a severe bacterial infection, it will be fine.
I would be more concerned if it doesnt wake up when you actually try to wake it up.
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1.0 Albino American alligator, "Smoke"
1.1 American alligator,"Al Bite Ya & Molly"
1.1 Purple Albino Reticulated Pythons, "Gumbo & Abita"
0.1 Eastern Gaboon Viper, "Gabbie" Recently passed away at 24 years old
Help me find this snake!

No need to cook the caimen if there is a caimen.It is time to put the so called friend on here to grill his ass.It is now your animal do not let this person touch it period.
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Archie Bottoms

In my opinion you do not need this animal.You ask to many questions and then do oppisit of given advice.You were told to lower the temp not let it be cooked.This is why we are getting such a bad rap non educated keepers doing stupid stuff.
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Archie Bottoms