Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, I have a baby green anaconda and since I bough it it wont eat, and it got to the point that I had to force feed it to prevent it to die.
what can I do?

How long ago did you get it? If the animal is not noticbly skinny, not acting normal, etc then force feeding should only be as a last resort and could make it worse. Just give the animal time.
-----
Jeremy Carroll
Center for Reptile and Amphibian Propagation and Conservation
http://www.onet.net/~eagle/Reptile/index.htm

a couple tips i can give you..when i got my yellow anaconda it didn't want to eat either
1. anaconda's prefer rats, not sure what you're feeding it, but if its mice i'd try a rat pup or small rat
2. anaconda's won't eat prey too large for them ( some snakes will and just regurgitate it) i saw this on the discovery channel an anaconda can actually tell if a prey item is too large for consumption
3. don't be afrid to leave a frozen thawed rat in the cage overnight, anaconda's have a very strong stomach and in the wild have no problems eating half rotted stuff...not to say you should let the rat pup get rotten but it wont hurt to leave it in there for a day or 2, just incase you might be stressing it out at feeing time

these are things i encountered with my yellow anaconda, i would assume you'd treat a green the same way if not someone please correct me

just food for thought hope this helps

I am certainly no expert in trying to deal with fasting anacondas. But if their behavior quirks are similar to other snake species, I think the best approach could be to vary things a bit (as the previous post was implying). I do have a hognose and a ball python (along with my boas), and they can be pretty finicky (sp?) from time to time.
My ball python will only take live food, but he is still small enough that I can toss a couple of fuzzy rats into his enclosure (as they are no danger to bite), and he eats them eagerly
When my hognose is having difficulty, I can usually get him to eat by putting him in an appropriate sized paper bag with his mouse (pre-killed)... closing up the bag and laying it back in his enclosure. This usually works for me.
Every snake has the potential for different feeding habits, part of the fun with the hobby is discovering what works best for your snakes.

Hope this wasn't too lame.

I am in total agreement with Jeremy on this one. Force feeding should only be an absolute last resort. It is too easy to permanently damage a young anaconda during force feeding and as he said, could make things worse, possibly stressing the animal into not eating on it's own. Green anacondas have an incredibly low metabolic rate, even for a boid. We had newborns go over four months before finally eating and none showed any apparent weight loss at all. We have had the best luck initiating feeding in neonate greens by using day-old chicks. Most initially showed no interest in rats or mice. They were later easily switched over to rats by scenting them with the chicks. It is best to leave the food in overnight and not try to offer it by hand. Temperatures in the mid-80's is best as they tend to avoid areas much warmer than this. If for some reason chicks don't work, try other prey items at four or five day intervals. I have heard that some will even take small fish as a first meal. If it does begin to show a significant weight loss in the short term, I would suspect that a health problem could be involved. Good luck.

Kelly

I am not an expert either, but a guy I did know bought a green and it only ate quail, ya thats right quail. Where you find that I dont know, but if it did get hooked on somthing I would go back to where ya got it and ask them what they fed if. If you tried everything else. Rats pre-killed, live, frozen, moving it in front of it, the bag trick, and eventually it will eat.