Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello
I am about to get my first Yellow Anaconda, I am making its cage and I can't really decide how big it should be. It well be a 2003 baby. How big of a cage will I eventually need when it is full grown? Also should I get a male or a female, in my personal experience most of my males have been nippy when I am getting them out of their cages but once their out they are fine. I have never a female be as mean. Is this so in all snakes or just mine? So that is why I am leaning to the female. These anacondas are tame and I've held them and everything, but I am afraid that if I get a male it will be the same as my other male snakes when I get home. I've done as much research on yellow anacondas as I could but I am having a hard time finding much info. on their care in captivity. Anybody know any good sites, that will include their temperatures they should be kept at?
Well thanks for your help.

` Excellent care sheet here: www.newenglandreptile.com/CareYConda.html
` I don't use large cages, 5'x2'x2', suits my adults fine. When Anacondas' husbandry suits them, they rarely move! Just in the water, then out of the water, until they get hungry. I heat the entire floor, with a gradient from 72 to 88 degrees. I put a removable soaking container over a hot spot. With a properly sealed and vented cage, this creates, and traps, vital humidity. My cages are sealed in the top 2/3s, with ventilation at floor level only. When you have heated soaking water, you've got to sterilize the container regularly, or you'll have a disease incubator! They can get along without a soaking container, but seem happier with one. Just large enough to get into, they like it cramped.
` I haven't noticed males to be more aggressive than females. I have a large male Yellow who is the tamest snake I've ever encountered.
` This tame enough for a male?

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Can you post some pics of your cage or provide a description it. I'm planning on building a new one for my yellow in the near future and am open for ideas. Great Caresheet as well.

Thanks

--Nick

` My experience with Anacondas, and many other large Boids is that they are very sedentary when content. I believe that, except when gravid, the instinctive necessity of thermoregulation is a myth, in tropical snakes. They only move to thermoregulate when they must. Yellow Anacondas especially, tolerate a wide range of temperatures. The floor temperatures in my cages run from 72 to 88 degrees. The Yellow Anacondas always choose the cooler areas, even when digesting.
` I keep my cages as simple as possible. Newspaper substrate, and easily removable soaking containers make frequent cleaning easy. Heated water is a bacterium's paradise! I believe that for most Boids, and definitely Anacondas, the spartan conditions don't make a bit of difference to them, and in fact contribute to their well-being. Cages with many objects, let alone decoration, offer many more places for filth to collect. I spent so much time in reptile retail, dealing with people's sick reptiles, caused by highly decorated, filthy habitats, that I've become a fanatic about cleanliness. I haven't had a sick, or infested snake for years ( except one that I recently rescued from a pet store ).
` When I worked in one pet store, I put newspaper in some cages with unhealthy snakes. The owner told me not to do that. He said he made plenty of profit from different substrates, and he wanted the customers to see us using them. He said he knew newspaper is better, but it's free, and bad for business. The same goes for gravel in aquariums. You don't see gravel in wholesaler's or breeder's tanks, unless it is for a substrate-using species.
` By the way, the next largest health problem with captive snakes is over feeding.
`

` Here's a pic of two of my habitats.
`

`

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Hello,
Maybe I am just unlucky with males, I don't no. Anyways, at first I plan on using a 3 2/3'L x 2 1/3'D x 2'H cage, with news papper as a substrate. With a good sized water bowl in it. How long before you think I will have to move the conda to a bigger cage? The snake I will be getting was born in 2003, just a baby.
Also do they need like a hide in their cage, or does it not really matter?You just disinfect their water bowl with a 3 or 5% bleach solution then wash it out real good, right.
Thanks so much for your help, I will put some pics up as soon as a get him or her.
Jonathan

YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO KEEP YOUR LITTLE GUY IN THERE TILL AROUND TWO YEARS OLD, OR TILL HE LOOKS TO BIG FOR THE CAGE. I LIKE TO PUT THEM INTO LARGER CAGES 6X3X2H IS WHAT I KEEP BOAS IN. GOOD LUCK.

` I have seen Yellows grow at widely varying rates. So, it's hard to tell you how long it will take for it to outgrow that size cage. Hell, I have a B.c.c. who is 19 months old, and is just passing 5 feet!
` When babies, my Anacondas were content to get under the top layer of newspaper. I have several flat layers, then crumpled on top. They seem to arrange it to suit themselves. Also, when they're in the water, with everything submerged but their nostrils and eyes, they seem to feel invisible. As adults, they just flop wherever they want. Adult Anacondas, when happy and not stressed, don't seem to want or need to hide like most other snakes. Must be apex predator instinct. Also, I've found that they don't mind if I just put them down, and let go of them. It makes them easy to handle, unless they're in a stubborn mood. Most snakes will get anxious, or panic if put down in the open. They'll hold on to you, or go for something to coil onto.
` I don't use bleach on anything that I can't put outside and let air out. So, I only use it for major cleaning, and then only if I don't have Nolvasan. Bleach is just too hard to rinse off completely. The chlorine fumes can be damaging to the snake's lungs, and to the mouth, throat, tongue, etc. When I clean the water container every day, I have a spray bottle of peroxide, and another spray bottle of vinegar ( the peroxide should be in a dark bottle ). I spray with both, without rinsing between, then scrub with a bristle brush. Vinegar is food, and peroxide can be used to rinse their ( and your ) mouth when there is need to kill bacteria, so you're not trying to rinse away a deadly cleaner. Much safer for the critters, and you. I add vinegar to the soaking/drinking water to bring the pH down to 5.0 , you must use a pH test kit to establish the amount added to your water. Anacondas tolerate acid water well, and the acidity is hard on bacteria. But, if you get it too acid, you'll kill them!!
` I'd like to see your pix. Do you plan to use floor heat, I hope? Another tip: Anacondas in general, don't like to be bagged.
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Hello
Thanks for the peroxide and vinegar tip. I really want to use a heat mat, but I'm building the cage myself and the bottom of the cage will be made out of 1/2" piece of laminated wood. I don't think the U.T.H. would conduct that much heat through the wood. Would a ceramic heat emitter be good to heat the cage. If not than I suppose I could drill a hole in the back wall big enough for the pluge to fit through. But then it would have to be under the news paper, is that ok. Also I would have to use two U.T.H. besause the water bowl is going to drop down into a hole in the bottom of the cage so it will be almost flush with the cage floor. And the water bowl has to be heated as well as the floor, correct?
Thanks
Jonathan

I have one large cage made from 5/8" oak plywood (the damn thing must weigh 300 pounds). I heat it with heat tape underneath. The tape is sandwiched between to bottom of the cage and the piece of 1/2" plywood it sits on. It heats the entire bottom of the cage, with some areas having heat tape side by side for a hot spot to heat the water. I run the heat tape off of a thermostat, with a probe inside the cage. Here is the important part. Between the thermostat and the heat tape, I install a rheostat. I buy them at the hardware store, and put them in a plug box. Under $10, each. I pre-set the rheostat so that the tape can not get over 92 degrees, should the thermostat stick on. While this is essential with a highly flammable cage like plywood, it is also smart with all heat pads, with all critters. I have a cheap IR, non-contact thermometer. This is the best invention since sliced bread!! Not only can you use it to set the temperature of your rheostats, but it's great for spot checking the floor temperature of the cage. Also, when you have your snakes outside, away from their heat source, the IR thermometer is just great for making sure they don't cool too much, especially for little snakes. In my cage, the floor gets hot enough to heat the water to the mid 80's. I don't think you need a hole in the bottom for the water. You want the water container to be the easiest part of the cage to clean, and recesses collect crud.
` I don't put any high voltage heat pad, or any other heat source, inside the cage, NEVER. I've seen just too many burnt, electrocuted, and incinerated, snakes, owners and houses! There are some low voltage heat pads, made by Tropic Zone, which I do use inside, sometimes when traveling. They ain't cheap.
` Flexwatt heat tape is cheap, and efficient, just not too durable. So you have to set it up carefully, not hard at all. The clips that fasten the cord to the conductive part of the tape are JUNK! I make a slit in the plastic, and solder the cord directly to the conductive strip. Also, that way it is flat, and will easily fit under the cage.
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