I have retics, anacondas (yellow and green), African rocks, and an amethystine. What I can tell you is with the exception of my Sulawesi retics, all of my snakes are tractable. The green anaconda and the yellow anaconda are both very mellow, and both are captive born. The yellow was feisty for the first two years but has mellowed out into a very slow deliberate snake (calm handling and work with the snake went along way). The green has always been very mellow and is a great snake. Both, however, are aggressive feeders so that is something to keep in mind. Another thing to keep in mind is the size. My adult yellow anaconda is around 9 to 10 feet and weighs around 50 lbs. She is comfortably housed in a 6X3 Vision enclosure. My green anaconda is 14 feet and 186 pounds. She is housed in a 48 square foot walk-in enclosure with a heated 150 gallon pound and 6X3 pig blanket on a rheostat. The point is that the expense and upkeep for the green is much more than for the yellow, although truth be known, the yellow anaconda is a much messier snake. Both cost about the same to feed as the yellow gets one 3 to 4 pound rabbit, or 2 to 3 pounds of birds every 4 weeks and the green gets one 8 to 10 pound rabbit or chicken(s) every 9 weeks (yup, adult greens have very slow metabolisms). Both cost much less to feed then any of my retics. I believe that the care of large green anacondas is beyond the abilities of most casual keepers. This is not to say that you are a casual keeper, I just mean that most people cannot make the commitment to these giants (same could be said for any of the really big snakes). Yellows on the other hand stay much smaller (especially the males) and are easier to house, feed, handle, etc. I would make sure that the yellow anaconda is at least one generation captive born, two generations would be even better (there seems to be some mellowing as snakes are bred through several generations whether by selection or something else). If you want a smaller snake go with a male. I keep mine at 82 degrees with two hot spots of 90 degrees. The temp drops into the high seventies at night, with the hot spots always available. She has a heated pond (plastic cement mixing tray) which I bleach at least once per week (sometimes much more often) and I keep her on newspaper. Her humidity is between 60 to 70% at all times, and she always sheds well, eats well, and has thrived for years. She was fed once per week as a juvenile and slowly that frequency has worked out to once every 4 to 5 weeks as an adult (from mice to rabbits). The yellow anaconda is a voracious eater and will eat anything I feed her whether rats, rabbits, pigeons, quail, or chickens. Anacondas can live past thirty years of age if properly cared for so that is another thing to keep in mind. I hope this helps and good luck with the yellow if that is what you go with.
Shane

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]