GRIFFITH PARK, Calif. -- What one newspaper calls Los Angeles's second-most famous captive has been confirmed to be a male alligator, 7 feet 6 inches long, weighing 111 pounds. And like Paris Hilton, Reggie The Alligator hasn't eaten anything since he was taken into custody, either.

The gator was given his first physical examination by veterinarians at the Los Angeles Zoo last week, and the South Bay Daily Breeze reported Saturday that Reggie is healthy, has good muscular development and appears happy basking in the sun in his isolation ward, hidden from public view.

"He's a great patient ... he was very easy to handle," chief veterinarian Curtis Eng told the Daily Breeze.

Close examination of the alligator reportedly showed him to be missing a scale on his tail.

The man who reportedly dumped Reggie in a park lagoon when the gator was just a little guy has said his little pet was missing a tail scale where he was nipped by a turtle.

Zoo officials would not confirm the match, however.

Reggie has turned up his snout at offerings of fish, chicken and other tasty meat cuts since he arrived at the zoo May 24. But the vets said that's to be expected, as American alligators normally don't eat anything until summer.

"We think the ambient temperature is not hot enough to stimulate him to eat yet," Eng told the Daily Breeze. "We're not pushing him very hard."

The vet said Reggie didn't signal any complaints when zoo officials carefully, very carefully, lifted a few underside scales to checked his sex organs and see if Reggie should be kept with the boy gators or the girls.

Reggie does not exactly have a place to stay permanently at the municipal zoo, which has a no vacancies in the alligator department.

Zoo officials have not yet announced permanent plans for the gator, who has become something of a folk hero in the rough Harbor City neighborhood where he was abandoned two years ago.