Sizzling Facts about Alligators.

  Sizzling Facts about Alligators.

In this article, you will come to know sizzling facts about the eggs and hatching, growth and food, hunting, most dangerous body parts, hunting, use of alligators in daily life, and eyes blowing hypnotizing of Alligators. You will taste and enjoy the whole facts.

Sizzling Alligators facts

Sizzling Facts about eggs and hatching.

Alligators are the ones that lay thousands of eggs, which hatch out yearly. Alligators will not lay or breed until they are about six feet long and approximately 25 years old.


 The nesting season begins about the first week in July, or when the moon is full about that period. The female scratches with all her feet, sticks, mud, leaves and vegetable debris, making a large nest on the bank of a marsh, pond or creek, which is so conspicuous that one has no trouble in finding it.


 When complete she scoops a hole in the top with her tiind feet and lays thirty to fifty eggs, more or less, always after the sun has gone down, laying them about one minute apart, until she has laid all her eggs; she then covers them up with her hind feet and leaves them.

 The decomposition engenders the heat required to hatch them and the period of incubation is sixty days. Alligator eggs are long capsule shape and have a hard white shell, and I might add that Alligator eggs are eaten by lots of white and colored people in the Southern States, who gather them for the market.


 This indiscriminate destruction of their eggs naturally became one of the causes leading to the present scarcity of Alligators and Crocodiles.


 Some females are very vicious after laying and guard the nest faithfully, quickly attacking anyone or anything going near it. When the babies hatch out they take to the water and exist on small minnows, frogs, lizards, etc. 

 Baby Alligators, hatching in the incubator would decompose and be soft and break up into little pieces for the babies. A female has been known to disgorge for her young.

Baby alligators naturally have their enemies: snakes, herons, alligator garfish, hawks, wild hogs, etc., prey among them, killing off thousands yearly.

When hatched a baby alligator is eight inches long, they grow three to four inches a year, and an Alligator four feet long is approximately ten to twelve years old.

Sizzling facts about growth and food.

 There is much argument as to the exact growth of an Alligator; some people claiming that in their wild state they will grow faster than those domesticated. 

 It is noticed that some Alligators grow faster than others, but it seems that when they are ten feet long their growth from then on is very slow.


 On the farm from five to six tons of fish is fed weekly, the large ones being fed once a week; a big Alligator eating fifty to a hundred

pounds of fish at a feeding.  The small sizes are fed twice a week. For the babies, the fish is ground up and fed them in the water. During the summer months Alligators eat ravenously, but during winter months, if the weather is cold they will not eat.  As a rule, when the temperature gets below fifty degrees an Alligator will stop eating. In fact, they can go all winter without eating.  Wild Alligators in Georgia, Mississippi and Texas usually go into their dens or caves, which are underwater, about October and hibernate all winter, until spring, not eating a bite all that time but remaining inactive and dormant, not even breathing.  Wild Alligators newly caught will go months without eating even in the summertime; though tempted, they will not eat. Alligators are scavengers of the Southern Waters and will eat anything in the flesh line, no matter how fresh or how rotten, and still there appears to be no disease among them. Most dangerous body parts. Some people imagine that the tail of the Alligator is the most dangerous part, as an Alligator can strike a terrific blow, easily breaking a man's leg with one swing of its tail, if hit right; but let an Alligator shut down on anything with its powerful jaws, with its bulldog tendency to hang on and then start twisting and rolling over and over they hang on until something comes to lose. Sizzling facts about the hunting of Alligators.  In hunting Alligators there are various ways; the usual way to catch big Alligators from four feet up is in their dens or caves, which they live in along the banks of rivers, creeks, ponds, and marshes. The entrances to these dens or caves are submerged, that is why they are easily caught if the season is dry and water low; but if a rainy season and high water happen, it's hard to locate and capture them.  When a den is located a long cypress pole, about sixteen feet long with a hook on the end is used. This is run down into the den and if an Alligator is in the den you can feel it move when touched. A few sham jabs are given and the Alligator will immediately bite the hook.  The hook is always used downward, so as to pierce the fleshy part under the lower jaw. By cutting notches on the pole you can always tell when the hook is down, as otherwise you might hook it through the nose and cause considerable damage The moment the Alligator bites he hangs on like a bulldog and is pulled out. half-hitches placed over its nose. This is no easy matter, as sometimes they will twist over and over, spinning around and around ten or fifteen times without stopping.  An Alligator can be "shined" a long way off, as its eyes look like a red ball of fire on the water. The boat is then paddled quietly up to the Alligator, they will stay still fascinated by the brightness of the light. When a few feet away they can be shot and killed. A shotgun is usually used, tearing the whole top of their heads off. Before the Alligator can sink* a grappling hook is used. Use of Alligators in daily life. This is the way Alligators are hunted for their skins by professional hunters; the same way as deer, coons, opossum, wild cats, etc., are hunted at night.  Alligator leather when properly tanned is one of the most expensive leathers on the market today and is largely in demand as a durable and fancy leather for use in traveling bags, suitcases, ladies' handbags, wallets, billfolds, pocket-books, purses, shoes, slippers, etc.  Every part of the Alligator is used, the feet are made into claw purses and used for ornamenting bags, and the teeth have a ready sale as all kinds of jewelry is made from them, such as fobs, watch-charms, cuff buttons, stick-pins, ladies broaches, etc.  The oil is very valuable and largely in demand for medicinal purposes; being used for rheumatism, sore eyes, burns, etc.  Hunters mount the Baby Alligators leaving the head and the front feet out of the eggshell, which has been filled with plaster of paris. These are usually used as paperweights.  The small heads are tanned and used on bags for ornamental purposes. The larger heads are tanned and used for match holders and bizarre articles; they can be cured in natural color and mounted on panels, and prove very attractive for wall decorations. Sizzling facts about hypnotizing of Alligators. "Trained Alligators", "Shooting the Chutes" but by making a peculiar moaning sound, you can lay it on its back and it will go to sleep and remain in that position for hours, days or weeks, not even breathing. Its muscles being relaxed you can raise its feet up, which will drop as if lifeless, you can holler and yell, even shoot off a gun on either side of its head and it will pay no attention.  To revive the Alligator it is not necessary to touch it; but by imitating the exact sound, or call of an Alligator it will immediately show signs of life and quickly turn over; if left in this condition it would eventually die. Source