Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys and Girls

I have an 8ft yellow and she is such a problem feeder. She wont take f/t at all... But thats not a problem as a breed my own rats... but she will only eat now and then... she will sometimes fly across the enclosure for the rat ... other times she could care less. Im not use to poor feeding responses with large snakes. I have retics , burms and boas.. all feed flawlessly. Her enclosure is phenomenal ... bamboo basking spot... 3x2 ft pool and a large planter hide spot... excellent humidity... any tips or tricks to get her to come around ?
Also ... i handle her , but sometimes she strikes out of th eblue for no reason at all.. much the way a snapping turtle throws its head back and snaps... complelty out of the blue with no warnings , hisses etc ... she has never tagged me but i dont think its aggression.... if you could just see they way she does it .. its kinda like a dog snapping at a fly ... but there is no fly ...
Any tips or advice would be great !
-----
Safari Tom
See'em Touch'em Save'em
www.SafariTom.com

I don't have a fraction of the experience as many folks on this forum, but I can comment that the striking behavior you describe seems pretty typical of anacondas, especially for the yellows. My female (yellow) is pretty docile overall, but will occasionally just sort of decide that she wants to see how my arm tastes, with no real appreciable warning. I think anacondas are certainly "readable," though, just not as overt with their body language as other large boids.

As for the feeding issue, if she is at least eating some of the time, maybe she just isn't a particularly voracious feeder..? I suspect that others with more experience than I with regards to housing and maintaining large adult anacondas can probably chime in with some ideas as to what might be amiss...
-----
-- Kitt

Thanks for the response..

She does eat .. its like she just waits till she gets very very hundry may every 3-4 weeks and then she will eat only 1 rat .. only live as well...

Ive found that I cannot predict when she is gonna bite ... she has never tagged me but she strikes when im holding her... she is 7-8ft .. Most snakes give some sort of warning that they arent happy .. but she doesnt , and im not even sure she is annoyed .. it seems like an instinct snap .. she doesnt lash out or anything .. she maybe moves her head 3 - 5 inches when she snaps.. kinda liek a dog snapping at you ... its wierd and ive never seen anything like it ...
-----
Safari Tom
See'em Touch'em Save'em
www.SafariTom.com