Were baby alligators ever sold as pets?

[DawnStorm]

I've heard that back in the 60s Florida pet stores sold baby gators; that it was legal to have baby gators as pets, but that that practice was banned in the 1970s.
True or false?
I can't imagine anyone having even a baby gator as a pet! They do get bigger y'know!

[zerocool]

Originally Posted by DawnStorm

I've heard that back in the 60s Florida pet stores sold baby gators; that it was legal to have baby gators as pets, but that that practice was banned in the 1970s.
True or false?
I can't imagine anyone having even a baby gator as a pet! They do get bigger y'know!

I went to highschool in Jakarta, Indonesia, and at some of the markets there, they sold baby alligators (among other things, including endangered and rare animals (or parts thereof)).

My mom asked one of the men selling them how big they get, and he held his hands about two feet apart. Then he asked how be big an area we would be keeping it in? Going along with it, my mom described the pond we had in our entranceway, about 10 feet by 20 feet. The man stretched his arms out about 3 feet, and said, 'ok, maybe this big'. My mom held her arms all the way out (probably a little bit more than 5 feet) and asked, could it get this big? The guy thought about it for a second, 'yeah, it will probably get that big... maybe even a bit bigger'. Not that we had any intention of buying one in the first place, but there was no way after that!

[snopes]

That alligators were commonly sold in Florida is hardly surprising. What happened when purchased animals got bigger was the buyer's problem, so the vendors didn't care. Laws restricting the sale of non-domesticated animals were generally enacted to protect the animals themselves (not the buyers) and were therefore slow in coming.

The town I grew up in had a wild animal park (Jungleland) that went belly-up in 1969. They put everything up for auction, including the animals, and quite a few people in the area ended up buying exotic animals they couldn't properly care for and had no business owning.

- snopes

[Brad from Georgia]

When I was a kid, the local Woolworth's would occasionally sell offbeat pets, chiefly turtles. I can recall their offering horned toads and, at least once, "baby alligators." They were a light brown and looked gatory, but someone told me--don't remember who--that they probably weren't American alligators, but caimans.

Brad "comin' here an' takin' our gators' jobs...." from Georgia

Baby alligators are still sold as pets. In fact they can be purchased at Aquarium Wholesale at the Great Plains Mall in Olathe, KS. I saw them just last week, cute wee things that have a handwritten sign on the aquarium that says, "Warning: Alligators will grow up to 6 feet". It's very sad.

[tagurit]

I recall baby alligators being sold in the pet store in town when I was in junior hs. My friend and I would stop by often to see what they had. Like Brad, I was later told they were caiman rather than gators. I had no idea, back then, they could get much larger than the cute little babies in the tanks. A common misconception was if you kept them in something small, they wouldn't grow big.

[NobodyAtAll]

Alligators live a long time too. When I lived in New Orleans I read a story in the paper about an old maiden lady who died in her 80's who had an alligator living under house (the tradtional design is elevated a few feet off the ground for flooding then fenced but that's a whole 'nother story). She had been given the poor 'gator as pet by her brother when she was in her 20's!! For 60 years she fed it chicken and bread, and kept a muddy hole for it to wallow. The newspaper story said that the Audubon Zoo collected it because they didn't think it would survive in the wild. She called him (who knew?) Butch.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by KKHB

Baby alligators are still sold as pets. In fact they can be purchased at Aquarium Wholesale at the Great Plains Mall in Olathe, KS. I saw them just last week, cute wee things that have a handwritten sign on the aquarium that says, "Warning: Alligators will grow up to 6 feet". It's very sad.

I have toured the Okefenokee State Park (if you are ever in Waycross, GA, you simply must do it, and you may as well, because there is danged little else for someone passing through to do). I can confirm that gators will get a LOT bigger than six feet.

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

I have toured the Okefenokee State Park (if you are ever in Waycross, GA, you simply must do it, and you may as well, because there is danged little else for someone passing through to do). I can confirm that gators will get a LOT bigger than six feet.

'Tis true. I have been to Okefenokee and I am from coastal SC, so no strangers to gators myself. I was just reporting the sign. But even though they can and do get larger, 6 feet is a good average for these, especially since they will probably never reach their full life expectancy, being in Kansas and sold to buyers who likely have little or no training, education or research into their care. I may be being harsh, but they are at a mall, for goodness' sake. I would like to hang a sign countering theirs that reads, "Alligators are not impulse items." But I doubt it would do any good.

I figured at least they are giving potential buyers some warning, although I can't imagine anyone buying an 8-12 inch baby alligator and expecting it to stay that way. The babies being sold in Olathe are so small and still orange speckled/striped. I wonder if they should even be away from their mothers. I know the mother stays with the young for a year, but I don't know exactly how fast they grow or at what age they lose that baby coloration.