Welcome to Our World!

So here's where we are:
(most recent on top - read from bottom to top for chronological order)

October 18, 2008

I know I haven't posted here much, lately.  There's just not much to say right now.  I feed the caiman every Friday.  They're eating about 6 pounds of meat at a sitting. I'm in the process of securing some gates, some wire and some fence posts, so I can move the enclosure and put up a pen for our horses.  I think that because of all the stress this season, with the move and the vandalism and the building and rebuilding of the cinder block enclosure, we will not have any hatchlings this year.  With any luck, within the next few months, I will have better pictures, better videos and some good news about the completion of the enclosure.

August 9, 2008

Things have basically calmed down, for the most part.  Some of the more "country" neighbors still complain to whoever will listen.  Other than that, the plan is just like it was: go out and finish the enclosure, put up a barn and a pen, move the horses out there, put up a fence and make the enclosure break-out and break-in free and then open it up to the public for educational purposes.

July 13, 2008

Went back out there today with our neighbors, Robert and Glen.  Both those guys run snake rescue orgs.  It's nice when your neighbors have their own grabbers, pole nooses and catch bags!  We'll keep looking.  We might be watching from the sidelines for a while. So many places to hide and so much "food" at her disposal. 

July 11, 2008

Thrall FD, Wilco Deputy, Wilco Animal Control, Texas Wildlife, Texas Game Warden, who else can they call?  Ring, ring.  "Hi.  This is Thrall PD.  Can you come out...?"

Well we found the last caiman.  It's in a tank behind the across-the-road neighbor's house.  I went.  It was.  But a tank in Texas is different than a tank in New York.  I'm looking for a little troth that we can dump the water out of, turn sideways and grab the darn animal. 

Not so much.

A "tank" in Texas is a frackin lake.  Eight feet deep on the end.  Five feet in the middle.  150 feet long and 50 across the center, if it's a foot.  Moss and sludge and mud and muck at every edge.  Ivy and sumac and oak everywhere, some of it not so benign.  Snake rescuers and firemen and cops and me and my two younger boys, all for naught. 

Finally, I set a live trap out and baited it with fajita meat.  Maybe the caiman will turn out to be Central American?

If that don't get it in a day or two we'll have to take a john boat (another term I was unfamiliar with until today) out in the tank at night and eye shine her; and go from there.  The good news is that the neighbor's biggest problem is not the caiman attacking her pets, it's the seven water moccasins we counted while we were sliding in the sludge.

So we head over to get a drink and go back to the property, and FoxNews7 calls and wants to take a look.  And while they're there interviewing and taping, up comes the Game Warden.  Out walks Officer Turk and he says, "Hi.  We met about four years ago in Leander....."

I can go home and eat; relax in front of the TV; and get to bed early tonight.

More on July 10th

2100 hours.  Yup, got another call from Wilco Comm.  Seems the neighbor two houses down found a caiman in her pool.  When we go there the people who live all around us on the road were already there, and had it covered, roped and wrangled.  As it turns out they run a snake rescue and had all the necessary equipment and one of the guys had actually done it before where he used to live.  Talk about a stroke of luck.  We all went back to my property (2 sets of neighbors, Terri, Cody and Deputy Eric) and released Daisy back into the pond with the other girls.  At this point I think his should be the last of them. 

Our new neighbors are good people.  They said they'd keep an eye on the house.  They'll told me that they'd help with the fence and look to see if they had some extra "No Trespassing" signs when the time comes to take care of that, and that they'll happily call the Deputy if they see people on my property.  Now to finally get some sleep!

July 10, 2008

I took the boys out to the property at 0-dark-thirty this morning to start the resurrection.  Along the way I was visited by 2 neighbors from down the road and a newspaper reporter from Taylor and then went and met my neighbors from across the street.  I hope we worked everything out.  I hope it's all cleared up.  I had a nice chat with the gentleman across from me and he seemed like an ok guy. I gave all of them my phone number and told them that if there ever was a problem to let me know and I would be right out there.

July 9, 2008

Disaster struck.  I got a phone call from the Williamson County Communications enter.  There was a Deputy at my property.  It seems that someone (or the weather) came on my property and knocked down one of the walls of the new enclosure and Angel was on the loose.  I drove out and met the Deputy and lassoed Angel, and with the help of Ryan, Cody and Terri, we wrangled the girl back into her pen and put the wall back up, temporarily.  I will need to get out there and do a better job. 

Funny thing is, the Deputy told me that one of my neighbors had called the game warden, who came out to the property on Monday and determined that there was nothing wrong with my enclosure or having the caiman out there.  And lo and behold, tonight there was something wrong with one of the walls to my enclosure.  No ticket.  No fine.  The Deputy even shined his flashlight while I counted the heads and we wrangled the escape artist.  But he told me that I needed to fix it quick and to expect a call from the game warden.

We used to have a good relationship with the game warden.  Once he called us to rescue a caiman they found in Leander.  Another time he called to ask if we wanted a deer, to use as food, that had been culled and they needed to dispose of.  He retired or got promoted and the area is now being covered by a guy from a different county, where caiman are forbidden.  An interesting development, which we will watch to see how it plays out. 

I need to put up a fence, some no trespassing signs and security cameras.  Anyone ant to donate a fence, some no trespassing signs and security cameras?

July 2008

We finally got started working on the new croc pond out at the country property.  We know it's going to take some time to finish.  We also know that if we can get enough of it started that we could move the caiman out there, where they'd be much happier and healthier...and so would we.  So, all day on the 1st and 2nd, with trips to the store, the builder's warehouse and the property, we were able to move the crocs out to the last bigger box they'll ever need.

January 2008

We were getting a little bit worried that Mister Barkie Von Schnauzer wasn't eating, thus making her recovery, ultimately, nonexistent.  But today, we saw this, which gives up hope.

Also, we just purchased a piece of land out in Williamson County that we'll be able to house our entire outfit on, no longer beholden to anyone for land, fees, maintenance or rent for our rescues.

Happy New Year!

As of January 1st, 2008, we still have 2 spectacled caiman hatchlings for sale.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was up a little late last night and I heard a tiny bark coming from the far corner of the room.  I walked over to Incubator 2 (the only one left with eggs in it) and I saw an egg tooth breaking through. Stayed up all night having babies.   Okay, maybe not all night.  And not all the eggs hatched.  But so far I got five spectacled caiman hatchlings and three hours of sleep.  All five of the hatchlings even appear to be healthy. 

As soon as I know that they're healthy and eating and I see how many actually hatch ut I'll start calling the people on the waiting list and then sending emails to those who emailed.  Give me about a week or so to make sure they're eating well.

November 13, 2007

Also, today, I lost my patience.  It's been 104 days since the first clutch of the season was taken from the nest and 75 days for the second, although I know the second was 3 weeks in the nest before I could get to it, so I decided to break a few eggs.

From Incubator 1 I removed 6 eggs.  None of the six were viable.  They appeared as if they were unfertilized, if that were possible.  So I took two eggs from Incubator 2.  I cracked open the first and it was bad.  I was feeling rather depressed as I opened he second egg and a live, seemingly healthy, baby caiman hatchling jumped out of the egg and ran across my counter.  He's in the hatchling box right now, all alone, but I'm feeling a little more optimistic about the outcome for the remaining 20 eggs.

November 1, 2007

Barkie has been eating raw beef, pig and chicken and we're fairly certain at this point that this animal is in relatively good shape, except for its size.  In the next couple of days we'll add it to the big pond.  My concerns about this are that this animal is so much smaller than anything we've ever added to the big pond that we're unsure how the others will react.  And even if this one does bruise its way into the hierarchy, I wonder if it'll be able to battle its way to the food and get enough to eat. 

I know that if it lives through the battle for position, because of the size of the pond and the area around the pond, that this caiman will grow as big and as fast as Frankie did after she was added to the fray. 

October 2007

We received a call to go pick up an 18" caiman from Austin.  We met the guy and picked up the caiman.  Because of its size (22") I was sure it was only about 18 months to 2 years old.  The guy told me he had it for 9-10 years and its name is Duke.  In a house full of UNC fans, that name will hafta be changed.  Duke is so mall that I can't check its gender for fear of tearing its cloaca.  We'll keep it quarantined for a while to see if it grows.  The last time we rescued a 10 year old caiman was Frankie.  How about Mr. Barkie Von Schnauzer?

September 2007

Yup, Angel laid eggs, too.  And boy, was she protective this year.  I had the hardest time trying to find a time that she wasn't guarding her nest so I could get in there and raid the nest for the eggs.  About a week went by and then came my chance.  We added 28 more eggs to the incubator and we're looking forward to a November-December hatchling appearance from this group.  For info on hatchlings.

August 2007

There wasn't much to report, so I didn't report anything.  But now, as the rainy season comes to an end in South America, we have been blessed, once again, with a nest full of eggs.

We think it's from one of the smaller females, because of the size of the eggs, but eggs, none the less - and 22 of them.  And if memory serves, 90-100 days for hatchlings.

Call us in November.  For info on hatchlings.

February 2007

We've found homes for all 16 of the hatchlings.  We've even had to say, "No" to a few people for various reasons.  We're very happy with the results and the money went right back into the pond and the feeding, so it was a quick turn around and an even quicker relief effort, but we learned, it worked and we'll probably do it again next season.

Thanks to everyone for their input and assistance.  Thanks, especially, to Aaron at Zookeepers.

November 2006

Our experience with our first 2 clutches suggests some interesting results.  We've found that in the beginning the eggs have 2 slightly darker rings about 1/3 off each end that can be seen when you shine a light from underneath it. As it gets nearer to the time of their birth we've found that non-viable eggs start to smell like rotten eggs sitting in the incubator for a period of time. And really close to hatching time the viable eggs get soft spots on them and the non-viable eggs stay hard throughout the incubation time.

Additionally, we've found that all the books on the subject say that incubation time is between 60-84 days, depending on the "expert"). Ours sat in the incubator for 97 days before hatching. We believe this might be due to temperature changes (opening the incubator to re-moisten the dirt and eggs or to check their status, the heat or the moisture levels).

We have 16 hatchlings from 50 eggs.  Three from the first 20 and 13 from the second 30.  Although, to be clear, during the second clutch's incubation time, anytime we found a "dead egg" in the second incubator we removed it.  So by hatching time, the second clutch only had 20 eggs.  We learned this lesson from the first clutch so the incubator didn't smell as bad from rotten eggs, which may have done harm to the first clutch.  Something we will look into if we allow the caiman to breed again sometime in the future.

If you're interested in purchasing a hatchling or helping us with the cost of our rescue,please contact us.

August 2006

Well, like I said, "...with 2 males and 6 females in the croc pond there is always a very slim chance we're wrong!".  So, here's where we're at.....

Shane and I took a look at the croc pond, the girls, the mounds and the mound visitors.  We now think that the first batch of eggs belongs to either Big Boy or Daisy.

Angel rebuilt the mound and moved it. Then she laid 32 eggs of her own.  And she is keeping a very close eye on her nest!

July 2006

On or about July 23rd, 2006, we noticed that Angel had built a huge mound in the corner of the croc pond. About the 29th we decided to check and see what Angel was up to.  We found that there were eggs in the mound.  The mound was about a foot and a half high, about 3 feet around and was off in the far corner.

On Monday the 31st, we talked to our friends Daniel and Aaron at Zookeepers and spent some time pondering our next step.

We decided to go out and buy a Little Giant chicken incubator from a local tractor supply store.  We also picked up Forest Bed substrate bedding from Zookeepers and Spagnum Moss from a local do it yourself home repair store . Following all the experience that came before us (Aaron and Daniel have had numerous successful breedings) and everything that our own experience with reptiles told us and the information we plucked from the interweb, we set up the incubator.  I soaked an entire brick of Forest Bed for 30 minutes in the croc feeder bowl and added it to the bottom.  Next time we can use half a brick.  It was like a damn chia pet!

Next we took the moss and filled the feeder bowl and then poured warm water over it and left it for a few hours.

We went out to the croc pond and had to persuade some movement, but ended up finding 25 eggs.  One looked cracked, but we could see a visible band on all the rest of them.  We carefully took them out and placed them on a bed of hay in the same position as they were in the nest in a plastic tupperware tub. All the while we had the stare and gaze of onlookers! 

We brought them back to the incubator and placed them on top of the Forest Bed.  Then we filled in all around the eggs, 4 rows of 6-7 eggs per row, with the moss.  We only packed the moss finger-push tight, not truly packed down hard.  Once that was done we covered them all, lightly, with a layer of moss.

We added a hydrometer from my cigar case and a thermometer that came with the incubator and covered it.  We made a few adjustments during the night to the thermostat, but we seem to have a good 87 degrees and a humidity level of 90 percent in the packed-to-the-gills incubator.

Just need to wait 60-80 days, now!

November 2005

Haven't written much lately because nothing much had changed.  We feed the "children" every Friday about 8 pounds of fresh or frozen thawed meat.  The only thing we've seen that's different was when I went out to check on them last week, I noticed that there was a rather large caiman hanging out by himself with a big burn scar on his back. 

At first I couldn't figure it out, but then I realized that it was Frankie.  Frankie has grown!  Her body has finally caught up to her head and she no longer looks like a Downs Caiman.  And Frankie is still as mean as ever, but now has the body to back up her attitude.

April 2005

Today we received a present from our friends at Bayou Beasts.  Tony called and said that he had rescued a caiman that had been abandoned.  He has too many gators right now and not enough room to keep her.  I gladly agreed, and before I knew it there was a knock on my door and Goldie showed up. 

That's what we're calling her for now, because of the blonde coloring in place of stripes on her back...and because it's such a lovely, feminine name for such a dear creature! 

She measured out at 44 inches and weighed 11.5 lbs.  She probed out as a female.  She was a little cold and she has two small scabs on the inner part of her cloaca, but otherwise she looks in good shape. 

She also came with a toe tag.  Presumably, this means that she was a wild caught, legally imported, spectacled caiman from South America.

December 2004

Today we measured, weighed and sexed all 8 caiman.    Then, news that we will be getting a 4 1/2 foot female by the end of the month.  That should be interesting.

Angel, the 4 1/2 foot caiman came in today (Dec. 23rd, 2004).  We checked her out and gave her the once over and then untaped her and let her meet her playmates.  We found a bit of mouth rot on her and we're going to be checking up on and into that, but she seems to be getting along just fine with the others.  Just like everything else, we'll update this page as news becomes available.

I will say this, though...the people on Kingsnake and RepticZone gave us some good advice.  We spoke to our vet and told her what we've learned and she gave us antibiotics and a hexa-something concoction for Angel.  For five days we cleaned Angel's teeth and her sores and gave her the antibiotics and she's looking a lot better.And not six days later, I get a call from another person who needed to find a good home for a 10 year old caiman.  We picked Frank up from Lakeway and we kind of think she's a cross breed.  I call her our "Down's Caiman".  At ten years old, although her head is huge, her body does not look like what we would expect to see from a ten year old spectacled caiman.  We'll keep an eye open and let you know her progress.

Full house, once again!  So, if anyone wants to donate left-over, uncooked meat, fresh hunting kills that you won't eat, road kill that isn't rank, or other types of donations to our "Rescue" operation, click here.

October 2004

On October 26th, 2004, we received a call from a guy who had heard about us through ZooKeepers.  He said that he had a caiman, and although he loved it very much, he felt it was getting too big for him to handle.  He asked if we would be willing to take it off of his hands, and we agreed.  Terri and I went and picked him up at about 8 pm and we put him with the other smaller guys, until he's big enough to hang with the big kids. He's 23 1/2 inches long and looks really healthy.  Kurt, the man who gave us the caiman, asked if we could give him a hatchling when we have a clutch, and then wondered if he could keep trading them back for other hatchlings as they get too big for him to handle.  I love the big guys, so we'll see.......OK, so maybe we won't be making a limit.

September 2004

Today was our quarterly maintenance and growth check.  We took a tape measure and a scale and went to work.  The first one we got out was Big Boy.  41" and 13 lbs.  Next was Cuddles.  Cuddles weighed 9 lbs. and measured 38.5".  And then we turned her over and much to our surprise, there staring us in the mug was Cuddles' very own surprise!  No wonder she's been such a bitch - she's a he!  Then we got Fifi out.  Fifi weighed 8.5 lbs. and measured 38.5 inches.  Giggles was 40.5 inches and weighed 9 lbs.  Little Guy was 32" an weighed 5.5 lbs.  Last, but not least, was Daisy.  Daisy weighed 7.5 lbs, was 38" and is strong as an ox! 

May 2004

That idea worked well until Shane's father-in-law decided to give us a chunk of land on his property that would be everything we would ever need, plus some, we hope! The footprint of the area was 45' long by 24' wide. So a-digging we would go!

All 8 of the big guys are now out in the country living the good life, in an enclosure 24' by 18' with a pond in it that measures 18' by 12'. We need to do some more work out there and continue adding and maintaining and working it to where we want it, but it sure suits us for the long run.And the only down side to the entire "build and transport" was our first casualty at the mouth of a caiman. Both Shane and I called it as far as who would be the first to get it, and sure enough, (although it really wasn't her fault), Terri got tagged, ever so slightly, from the teeth on the side of Daisy's mouth when Daisy broke free of the rubber band holding her mouth closed. It's now duct tape for Daisy!

January 2003

And I know I've said this before, but I mean it this time...Your Honor...These are the last caimans we're getting. Needless to say, I couldn't resist, and we picked up four more 7 week old hatchlings on January 5th, 2003.We put them in a tank, indoors. We used Shane's tank and props from when his four were at his house, and set them up in the dining room. We measured them and took pictures, but the naming scheme just sort of happened by accident...because "all the good ones were taken".

"HY" was so named because it actually looks like the stripes on his back spell out the word, "HY". "V" got the same fate. "Whitey" got his name because of the two pure white splotches on either side of his snout. "Solid Stripe" was the only one whose stripes were not broken across his back from the back of his head to the tip of his tail.

I realize that with all this obviousness we should have been able to come up with some classic, ironic names, but after having so many babies we felt a little like George Forman.

So now, that's it. No more. I'm not doing it. We have all the caimans we're going to. Between the getting and the receiving and the turnover rate we now have a total of ten of the most beautiful, 200 million years of evolution-skipped existence, never-gonna-fetch-your-paper-or-shoes, awe-inspiring-to-look-at creatures of the natural kingdom.

November 2002

You see, on Veterans Day, 2002, I walked into the pet shop five minutes after they got a new caiman in. And five minutes later they were back to none. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so now I have four. And that's all! No more! This one is 30" and we named him "Giggles" because of the constant smirk on his face.

On November 17, 2002, I finally finished the new caiman habitat. So I took my camera out a few days later and wanted to add a few pics of it to this site. When I went out there, I noticed a little problem. Gonna have to do something about that. But while I was standing there, enjoying my handiwork and trying to figure out what to do about the "escape artist", I glanced down and realized how perfectly designed these reptiles are for being ambush predators. Out of no where, right at the point of the near pond where I was standing, Fifi came up to ensure that I knew that she was still in charge. (See Picture)

We did find a little problem. Thother and Mean Bastard had gotten out through a part of the fence that had a weak spot in it and spent the night in the yard. So Shane and I went out and redid the fencing and then spent an entire afternoon looking for, catching, measuring and doing maintenance.

October 2002

On a side note, Terri and I went over to our friend Shane's house on October 4th, 2002 to check out his caimans and watch them eat. His big guy measured out at 37" from tip to tail. And even though he's only about 4 inches bigger than Cuddles, that our inches looks huge!

And that made us determine that my three could all be together in one huge enclosure and that for the winter Shane's may come to visit. So, once again, off to build a bigger box.

Although, now it seems that there will be eight all together. Shane's four, the three I had, plus my newest guy.

September 2002

And now, as the saying goes, I'm taking my chances!

We went into a pet store the other day and these people had these two 30-inch caiman in a 3 foot aquarium. The water was dirty. There was no room for these guys to move around. Their heads were practically resting on top of each other.

I asked the people how often they feed the caimans and their reply was, "Whenever a customer pays for a mouse to give to them to feed them. Last time was about a week ago."

I hope that made you as angry as it did me. Well, Terri and I couldn't let that continue, so I took them both. I fixed up Daisy's enclosure to make room for the other two in a separate area. At first I gave the two new guys the same amenities that Daisy has, and although they were a bit grumpy to start out, I think Cuddles and Fifi are happier, if not better off. Then I decided that I needed a bigger box! Although Cuddles and Fifi were going to be happier in their new pond, Cuddles didn't seem to want me to mess with his old pond. Check out how he protected his pond until the very end.

July 2002