How to Raise Farmed Crocodiles, Annual Weight Gain, and National Policies and Investment Explained
Crocodile farming has the advantages of low investment, quick returns, and significant economic benefits. It has medicinal value, high ornamental value, and its skin also has high leather value. The market prospects are promising, and the farming prospects are broad.So how do you raise farmed crocodiles? How many jin do they grow in a year? What national policies are there? About how much investment is needed? According to crocodile farmer Master Hu, a crocodile's body develops rapidly within a year. Generally speaking, it can grow 40 to 50 cm in a year. Because crocodiles are small in size when young, they develop faster, and can gain twenty or thirty jin in a year.
How do you raise farmed crocodiles?
1. Site selection: The environmental conditions throughout the area are excellent, with no industrial pollution, pesticide pollution, or domestic pollution. There is sufficient water, good water quality, fresh air, and unpolluted soil. The fish ponds at the crocodile farming base have fertile soil, a clean environment, and fresh air.
2. Pond facilities: The bottom of the fish pond is flat, with silt ≤20 cm, a water depth of 1-1.5 m, and a 1 m high wall around it to prevent crocodiles from escaping and outsiders from entering. The feed fish (tilapia, silver carp, bighead carp) pond has a flat bottom, with silt ≤20 cm and a water depth of 1.5-2 m.
3. Disinfection and seed selection: After the fish pond is drained and the bottom is dried in the sun, quicklime is used to clear the pond for disinfection and to regulate water quality before releasing the fry. For crocodiles, healthy, disease-free, inspected and qualified seedlings are selected for stocking. For feed fish, healthy and disease-free seedlings such as tilapia, silver carp, and bighead carp are selected for stocking.
4. Stocking density: For crocodiles, 200-300 crocodile seedlings with a body length of 30-100 cm (3-10 kg) are released per mu. The stocking density of feed fish (tilapia, silver carp, bighead carp) follows conventional practice, with large ones caught and small ones retained.
5. Feeding management: All crocodiles are fed self-farmed, fresh, live feed fish (tilapia, silver carp, bighead carp). The feed fish are mainly fed mixed feed, corn, wheat bran, etc. Quicklime, beneficial microbial bacteria, and water quality improvers are used regularly, with timely water changes and aeration.
6. Water quality management: The crocodile pond must be continuously refilled with fresh water to keep the pond water fresh. At the same time, the old water from the crocodile pond is discharged into the ponds where tilapia, silver carp, and bighead carp are raised, making full use of the aquaculture wastewater from the crocodile pond to ensure ecological balance and environmental hygiene.
7. Heat preservation for overwintering: Crocodiles are not cold-tolerant. When the water temperature drops to 15°C, they stop activity. In cold winter weather, plastic film is used to cover the crocodile pond, and water with a higher temperature is drawn from deep wells and injected into the pond to ensure the safe overwintering of crocodiles and other fish.
What national policies are there for farmed crocodiles?
1. The fishery administrative department is responsible for the protection and management of all species in the order Crocodylia (excluding the Chinese alligator, the same below). All crocodiles not native to our country are managed as national second-class protected aquatic wildlife, and special permit management is implemented for domestication and breeding, business utilization, and import and export.
2. Crocodiles imported duty-free must be strictly used for scientific research such as artificial domestication and breeding. Business activities such as selling, exchanging, transferring, leasing, and exhibiting are prohibited.
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About how much investment is needed for farmed crocodiles?
The feed consumed by crocodiles is mainly meat (including scraps, chicken bones, etc.) and fish. The average total feed per crocodile per year is 72.6 kg, equivalent to no more than 500 yuan. In addition, raising crocodiles can maximize the use of rearing sites and equipment. The rearing enclosure area is not very large, and the rearing density is quite high. Young crocodiles within one year can be raised at 17-18 per sq m, sub-adult crocodiles aged 2-5 years can be raised at 1 per sq m, while the density of adult crocodiles used for breeding at 10 years or more is slightly lower, with each crocodile having a rearing area of 10 sq m.