Authentic Bayou Swamp Alligator Head Alligators are raised for their delicious meat most notable sausage and sauce picante as well as their hide for belts and purses. Every part of a farm raised alligator is used in making the alligator an important renewable resource to include head, teeth, toes, and feet once discarded but now preserved as unusual curiosities and jewelry. Alligators are venerable survivors that have been around for over 200 million years. Their ancestors were up to 50 feet long.