Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have read another thread regarding a smaller Green not eating. I dont think any of that did me any good.
I have had my Green since it was 4 1/2 ft. About 5 months now. She is now almost 6 ft. problem is, she has only eaten ONCE on her own since I got her. I let her go a whole month trying small rats, large rats. medium rats, chicks, nothing worked, so I finally force fed her. I did this aboutt four times then one night she ate on her own.. I thought this was good. I thought it meant she would eat now. but alas it has been 4 more feedings I've had to force feed her. She just wont eat. I dont know why she ate that one night. I've tried to do everything the same as I did that night. the lighting, the temp, the pool, the rat size, nothing has worked. The one she ate was live. But she is usually scared of live food. So I've tried both live and prekilled. She seems interested in freshly killed rats. She almost ate last tiem I gave her one. She put her mouth around it as if she was going to swallow it, then took her mouth away and closed it and slithered off. I dont know why. !!! ???!!!!
very frusterating. I cant keep force feeding her forever. It's not good for her, and will get dangerous for me. She is healthy otherwise. growing at a good rate. Has shed twice since I got her. The last shed was last week. and was a healthy shed.
I give her two weeks between feeding to let her have a chance at eating on her own. Giving her a rat after a weeks time every night. After that I force feed her. Please if anyone has any idea what might be wrong and how to get her to eat on her own I really really need it!!!

First, I would agree with you that this anaconda appears to be in good shape going by the current growth rate. One and a half feet in 5 months is a completely typical growth rate for a green anaconda of this size. Assuming that proper environmental factors (heat, humidity, clean water, etc.) are being met, I would not get worried about it not feeding at this time. A month without feeding for anacondas is insignificant. We have had newborn greens go as long as 4 months before accepting their first meal without showing any visible weight loss what so ever. Greens have extremely low metabolic rates and healthy ones can go months beyond this with no problem. I personally would never force feed any boid that appeared in good shape. Aside from an unresolved health issue or husbandry error, virtually all will begin feeding with time. But if I was going to do so with this anaconda, I would not even consider it until it had gone at least 6 months without feeding on it’s own. Greens tend to re-acclimate slowly after a stressful event and two weeks between force feedings is much too frequent to allow it to recover from the stress of the previous force feeding. I think you probably had it made at the point it ate the first rat. I would have continued to make feeding attempts for several more months before thinking about force feeding again. I think the reason it backed away on the second voluntary attempt had to do with the negative experiences it had with the previous force feedings. At this point I would not handle it any more than necessary and continue to make feeding attempts every two weeks with fresh killed rats after the lights go out in the evening, and leave the rat in overnight. It could take a month or three months, but I feel it will feed again on it’s own if not stressed by force feeding. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Kelly

Wow, 6 months huh?
Thanks for the advice! I will try letting it go a few months and see what happens. The main reason I was so worried is I have afriend in Florida who owns a Green and he says his eats every week. And his is the same size as mine. But maybe mine will just take longer to adjust to this. I dont know how it was treated before I got it. I dont know if it was captive bred or wild caught. I would assume wild though, for it had a REALLY bad temperment. Biting all the time. At least now she doesnt bite. Again, thanks for the advice. I'll let you know when she eats.

Lethargy and apparent docility in wild caught greens can many times be caused by high stress and does not necessarily mean it has tamed down. As many times as this one has been force fed, I would say it was due to stress in this case. When it starts feeding again, occasional light handling in the beginning should help to maintain this even temperament.