Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here is a question for you guys/gals that own both retics and green anacondas. What are your likes and dislikes about both when you are comparing the two?

Thank you,

Jim

Green anacondas are more likely to react quickly to displeasure, retics are more likely to have a feeding response in the enclosure.

In the enclosure, greens are easier (if they eat)...outside the enclosure, retics are easier (but also easier to let your guard down and that can be bad).

Greens are definitely more of a mess.

Green babies are much harder to get feeding (with the exception of Kelly's : ) (and for some reason yellow anacondas have the easiest feeding response of any snake I know...dangerous sometimes)

Retics are more likely to have bad sheds at mid size

Both snakes are great though and a pleasure to work with given dedication

I will throw in rocks too

They have the longest teeth and the most wild personality

What do you mean anacondas are more of a mess? I have not kept one in 25 years and do not recall them being too messy other than the small laundry tub that I had in a walk in enclosure. That tub was always a mess and a pain to clean. I can remember the urates being like concrete and seemed to harden even in the water.

Btw, thanks for the your comments.

Jim

The ongoing discussion here online is the advancement of Green care by Kelly Haller and Jud McClanahan. This is NOT to provide a swimming area and only a small water bowl for drinking. No mess. End of story.
Keep up the humidity and now we have a snake that we can all keep. I have raised retics too and do not see a great deal of difference. Each animal has their personality. All of my snakes are CB and I raise them from babies. They know me and I have not been bitten mistakenly by feeding responses.
I keep food scent off me and sometimes place my hands under my armpits (yes I wear a shirt) before reaching in to scent my hands with my scent. (Lots of room for jokes here!)
If I get hit (not happened yet, knock on wood) then I know that they deliberately bit me so that needs to be analyzed.
Why? Underfed? Stresses I have not noticed? Temp? etc.
Most anacondas (my yellows too) hate being touched too close to the head. So I avoid about the first 6-8 inches of neck and support them well. If they feel secure-no problem.
My retics were like this too in some respect. Each is their own person so to speak. My green is one of Kellys and he is a very laid back languid animal that I can leave with my niece alone. My yellow is a bit nervous so I only hold her unless the other person is an herper too.
Cheers
Tom

Thanks Tom. This makes sense to me. When someone is referring to mess I should take it as being in the water. Probably kind of like my water monitors. Now these are filthy beasts!

Thanks again,

Jim

Jim,

To reinforce what the previous poster said, I keep my greens with only drinking water. Newspaper is the substrate and I provide moderate humidity. They are as easy to keep as retics. I have no dislikes with retics. I clearly understand their behavior and deal with them. Comparing them to greens I have been around typical greens but have only raised the extremely docile pair I got from Haller/McClanahan. Words cannot describe these green anacondas and you just have to experience them. They are the only ones of my 36 constrictors that I take out free hand and never have used a hook on them once. They do not exhibit a blind feeding response, are not flighty, and both love to have their heads rubbed. Have handled them in full blue and never a bite, bump, hiss, or reaction to being touched in any way. I could go on and on here. Just get one and you won't regret it. Bill.
-----
...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

I figured I would just go ahead and throw my two cents in here... I am a keeper of both Retics and Condas.

As far as the messes go, I keep my Anacondas with waterbowls instead of pools as well. But Anacondas are by far the messiest snake I have ever owned. They tend to "paint" their cages with feces. I've even found feces on the ceiling! Their urate is also more an egg yolk type of thing, very runny and sticky if fresh, and if you wait for it to dry, you have to basically chip it off.

Another thing about the mess they tend to make is, they will skip a week or two without deficating once, this period is heaven like for me. But then, they will go an entire week with deficating every day. This isn't a problem with smaller Anacondas, just an in and out job, but whenever you are cleaning 8' cages everyday, it's a hassle!

As far as feeding goes, yes, Anacondas are a little harder to get eating... My Anerythristic Green Anaconda was off feed for 6 months, and just started back up on it last week. Retics tend to be really good eaters, mine just start snapping whenever they get a scent of something they like...

ONE more thing about them is the size difference. Anacondas tend to be much more massive snakes. My 9' Male Green Anaconda weighs as much as a 12' Retic. They tend to be a little harder to control as well, Retics seem a little more easy going to do what you want them to. Also, Anacondas have the great 90 degree bite that gets me everytime, lol. I'm just throwing in a little info for fun...

Thanks,
Ben R.
http://web.mac.com/anaconda_guy/iWeb/News/Home.html

My retics usually broadcast their bites before they try to nail me when they are upset... where the anacondas just like to surprise me and attack without any warning... like my wife does about once a month.
-robbie