I know it’s a year later but it’s never too late to share experience on a subject like this. I currently own a 1:3 group of yellow anacondas. Last year, I am proud to say, was the first year I was able to successfully breed my male to one of my females which resulted in 17 live babies and no slugs/stillbirths (as far as I know). I acquired my first female yellow anaconda in April of 2005 and instantly fell in love with her. About 10-12 months later, searching for a male to accompany my female, I got a deal on a 1:1 pair. All of these anacondas were purchased as babies and with regular handling became easy to handle snakes in a matter of months. Last year was the first year that the male showed interest in breeding with any of the females and in June I received my first group of 17 babies: 5 males and 12 females. Being that this was my first successful group of babies of course I kept one, which brought my group to todays 1:3. This past winter I also noticed the older anacondas exhibiting the breeding behaviors and am hoping for the best.
This is only sharing my experience over last season and this season so in no way am I saying this is what has to be done:
I have my anacondas housed together all year long and have never had any issues. I have seen the snakes from time to time “flex” when another interrupts their sleeping but still no issues. I do have a second cage that I can move them into if I do want to separate them, and from time to time throughout the year do for a week or so. The cage/cages have a large water dish large enough for the snakes to soak in, a hide for security and a hot spot around 98°F. I only provide one hot spot in the cage but it covers an area of about 2’ x 2.5’ so that each snake can be in the area if needed at the same time. I do not regulate the rest of the cage but will keep the water about 6”-1’ away from the heat to ensure that the water doesn’t get to cold in the winter months. One major reason I do not regulate the cages is because I have a room with wall to wall cages so the room is normally around 80°F most of the year. As the weather gets colder I do not change the setup at all, I just let the room drop with the house temp dropping. In the house we set the heater to kick on if the house drops below 65°, over the last two years I believe the lowest the room has dropped to be the high 60s. The basking spot is maintained all year but the rest of the cage does drop a bit with the room temps.
I feed all of the anacondas every 2 weeks, offering them 3-4 large rats. I offer the rats until they begin to refuse to eat, and for the last 3 years now my anacondas have begun to refuse feedings around the end of October/beginning of November. By mid November I am no longer offering any feedings and I begin to set up the spare tanks. I have the spare tanks set up the same as the one they all live in. The spare tanks are so that I can pull out one snake for 3-7 days to be in their own cage. I will play “musical cages” with the snakes for the next 2-3 months or as long as they are showing breeding behaviors. To begin the season if they have not begun showing breeding signs, I will separate all 3 snakes for 2-3 days. If you don’t have enough cages try to at least separate the male for a day or so. I will rotate the male between my 2 females every 1-1.5 weeks. My male is very persistent and seems to chase the girls the entire time with a day or two between just lying with them and not trying to lock up. The last 2 years I have noticed that the male is willing to lock up as often as he can and I have witnessed long lockups and short ones. The last 2 years now most of the breeding activity has taken place in December and January but started as early as the beginning of November with the last signs as late as the beginning of March. Around the middle of March I begin offering food to the snakes again, although I have read that during breeding you are supposed to offer food but my snakes have the last 2 years refused to eat at all. When returning to feeding I start with 2 large rats each until I get them feeding then it is back to offering 3-4 rats. This year I am converting them over to 2lb Guinea pigs. Last year, my female that produced did accept a few meals between March and April but only 1 large rat per feeding. By the beginning of June she had become very restless and was often squeezing herself between things the entire time. She never became aggressive at all and actually I had her out for pictures about 4-5 days prior to giving birth.
Last year I did separate the female that visually showed, after she showed absolutely no interest in the male. She was given her own tank with a hide box, soaking dish, and heat. The tank was a one that was a large glass tank and made it easier to view progress.
I have read to keep feeding through breeding season but my snakes have themselves refused meals during this time. The first year I wasted a lot of money trying to feed them for this time and after that I only try for the first 2 weeks of the breeding season.
As a breeder that lives in California and don’t have to deal with extreme cold weather or extreme heat. I have only successfully bred my yellow anacondas once as of right now but have had my snakes breeding this past November - January, and have my fingers crossed for a second successful season. I am always searching for any information on anacondas and in no way am saying I do things correctly. Again this is not an expert’s outlook on this topic, it is just what I have witnessed with my yellow anacondas and with any luck it will be how I have produced a second group of babies. I am a fan of providing as much room as possible and housing snakes together if the cage is big enough. I do not feed in my cages and have always fed pre-killed prey in storage totes. All of my snakes are easy to handle and “tame”… it’s an animal so if you respect them they will respect you. Know your animal is not 100% tame because there is always room for something to cause them to startle.
Hope this helps those looking to breed and again I am open to input on bettering things.
Thank you and Best of luck to all.
Anthony

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