Reptile & Amphibian Forums

You gave me some tips on getting the 9' anaconda to eat..I spoke to a girl that was at the house when i bought the anaconda, She told me that the guy was force feeding the anaconda....She told me that she only seen it take a rabbit by itself one time....other then that she was force feed...They had her in the tank with a python and a retic, with no lights.....So my question Will I be able to get her to come around or is she so far gone that I have to have her force feed....I have her by herself and get the temp. close to her natural setting...I have tried to give her rats and I have tried yesterday to give her a dead and alive chicken and she did not take...I am going to try the rabbit this week....Do you think she will come around....

Let me get this straight, You paid for a known trouble snake. First of that is dumb, but if you still want to keep the snake you had better have some skill. You should NEVER force feed a snake. There is some thing wrong to make it not feed on its own. The first step that I would take would be to place the snakes cage in a room that gets NO activity. Second I would make sure that the snake has two hidding places, one warm, one cool. Third , make sure he/she has a good area to bath in , a large tub of water, water works wonders. OK now that we have that down leave the snake alone for a week or longer, DO NOT try to hold the snake or show it off to your friends. DO NOT make any alot of noise in your house that does not need to be maid (radio). After your snake has become acustom to it habitat (two weeks or so) place a pre-killed rodent in its cage at night, just before lights out. In the morning remove it. Repeat this every 1-2 weeks, he/she WILL eat on its own sooner or later. Remember that a anaconda can go months without eating, so be cool even if it is two months or more. You plobably know caging temps but let me repete it again, warm side 90-95, cool side 76-85 and humidity 65-85%,DO NOT GUESS!! You have a very big problem on your hands, DO NOT take this lightly. A snake that big that does not eat on its own is in real trouble. PLEASE BE CAREFUL I would not want to see that snake die, we have seen that with the last force feeding snake. I cant sat enough on leaving that snake alone, only look in on him/her every 4-5 days and only for 2-3 minutes at a time, DONT hold it. Well this is my advice, take it on not. good luck and I hope the next time you post is when it eats on its own.---Eric--- P.S. Kelly and myself are not the only smart people in this forum, that old guy dfr, he is VERY smart as well, more than I. I do not have all the awnsers, I can only give advise.

I would like to point out that there ARE reasons to force feed a snake...ball pythons have been known to starve themselves to death (most of these cases ARE probably care or other health issues). Second, a month or 2 or 3 to take a f/t rat? My green went the first 8 months of its life without taking any food (vets told me i needed to force feed or it would die..I did a few times and hates it and the food had medication on it so it was not completely pointless...but putting little pinkies in any green anaconda is pretty pointless) needless to say I refused to do that eventhough 2 different vets told me I had to or the snake would die. They said my snake is stressed, it is the conditions, its just spooked out....skrew that, the damn thing wanted chicken and I was insisting on chicken scenting. I now know without a doubt that my snake is not spooked out but it was my dumb ass that wasn't giving it what it wants since everybody in the world doesnt know anacondas for crap and they never suggested anything but weird little changes in habitat and bag feeding and small containers in dark rooms(all crap)..Out of knowwhere I decided to call Al Haikem, a guy I met a long time ago at the ft. meyers flea market who delt with a lot of imports of all different sorts..but i do remember he knew some stuff. He told me to try grocery store chicken..i thought it was the craziest thing in the world..the snake wont even eat live things...My Anaconda loves tysons chicken..took thigh after thigh and gizard after gizard. Then I get this advice that it needs whole food...I go out and grab 25 ft day old chicks took one down with no problem and wont eat any more and has way less of a diet now for the chicken than before...maybe it will come around and get going good again or maybe I should start trying other things. Still...don't force feed because eventhough my snake does not seem to be too affected by that and I was extremely carefull and only giving pinkies, if i would have just calmed down and waited till I got some good advise..or knew about this forum..i would have never had to do it (plus its not fun when you touth a tooth). other point...it might be way way longer than a few months...my newborn anaconda refused for 8 months..try different food and rmember this snake can go well over a year and probably more without being too affected if it is 9 ft...good luck. p.s. when i said the little tricks didnt work..i did not mean conditions dont matter..still keep all that right and dont handle the snake since you never know how much it is stressing it out..if they are picky enough to only want tysons chicken(please no dumb comments people..that was a joke..like the sugar glider and the anaconda not being cool enough to eat it)who knows what they are thinking.

As I stated when you originally posted a few weeks back, I feel that this is obviously a wild caught snake, which already accounts for a huge amount of stress for a green of this age. At best, only newborn greens should be imported, as sub-adults and adults rarely survive. Greens are shy snakes, and more susceptible to stress than most other boids. The stress on this animal was compounded by the fact that it most likely was never allowed to acclimate properly, and was probably force fed when it refused to feed right away. You will rarely ever succeed when force feeding an anaconda. If the conditions are correct, and it is healthy, it will eventually feed. Additionally, if it was caged communally with other snakes, this created further stress issues. Greens are best kept separately in a private collection, unless breeding attempts are being made. Most individuals don’t have access to the cage sizes required to keep greens in groups. Isolate the snake, get the environmental conditions adjusted, and give it 2 or 3 weeks to acclimate before trying to feed. Keep main cage temps 80 to 85, max of 90 at a small area, moderate humidity. Too high of a cage temp will inhibit feeding as effectively as too low of a temp. About weekly, try different food items (chickens, rats, etc.), prekilled overnight until she takes one. Then stick with that until she feeds regularly before switching over if you need to. As Eric said, non-disturbance is critical during the acclimation period. If she is not too thin, I think there is a fair chance that she will come around. Keep us posted. Good luck.

Kelly