Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How much will you shorten a condas life, if you are overfeeding it?
Not that i intend to.
Thanks Jonas

I don't have any hard data to give you, just information from what I have read over the last 30 years. It would appear that anacondas are more prone to a shortened life span from the effects of obesity than most other boids. This probably originates from the fact that their metabolic rate is slower than most other boids, and therefore the body weight of these snakes is more likely to be impacted by overfeeding. They are obviously one of the most heavily built of the boids and any additional weight, above a certain threshold, will result in physiological stress. Unless they are extremely obese, this is usually a problem seen only in larger and older captive anacondas.

Kelly

` The large Boids have slow metabolisms, and did not evolve to be overfed. There are so many Burms out there, I have seen it often with them. When they are overfed, they build up fat around, and in, their vital organs, often causing them to fail. This can happen in young adults, perhaps earlier. Overfeeding does boost their growth rate at all stages of life, but is often deadly. The large Boids evolved to be opportunistic/ambush predators. As such, they often go months between meals.
` Most pet Boids do not get a post-mortem, or a necropsy from a vet. My experience is that the ones that do, often display fat buildups.
` A member of these forums posted recently that his large, beautiful Burm just just died overnight, with no symptoms or warning. As the snake was large, young and healthy acting, he was perplexed. He had a necropsy performed, and the vet found fat buildup in the liver, arguably, causing failure. Overweight is going to negatively affect their cardiopulmonary system too, as they have a leaky, three chambered heart.
` It's fun to feed 'em. Lots of folks want giant snakes, that's the reason they got an Anaconda or giant Python, in the first place. If you're looking at the long term, feed them sparingly. My adult Yellow Anacondas, and Boas from large races, get fed 5 to 7 times a year, but when I do feed them, I fill 'em up! Even so, they are still chubby, and growing to larger sizes than I would really like.
` Also, the smaller Boids, who are foragers and eat smaller meals more often, can be killed in this way, too.
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