Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Kelly, you told me my anaconda that is taking grocery store chicken should be fine until I get it onto a better staple diet like rodents. Do you think I should try and supplement the chicken until I get her(?) to take whole food. If so, what should I use. Also do you think it would help any to rotate what parts I feed her like light meat, dark meat, and gizards..or is that just stupid and chicken is chicken. I just thought maybe the gizards would add something thighs would not. I was mainly using thighs because what she doesnt eat, I do and I could only handle splitting a bag of gizards with her about twice.

I could not get her to take any adult rodent wrapped in chicken skin yet, but do you think a fuzzy folded into the chicken parts would help for a more complete diet or is that just as useless and not big enough to make a difference?

It probably won't make much difference which chicken part you use, she really does need whole animals after a while. Supplementation would probably help a little, but not much. This may sound weird, but others have used this before and it works. Try tying an appropriately sized thawed rat to a chicken thigh and see if she will eat it. Make sure you use a heavy white cotton string and not plastic or nylon. Tie it tight and trim any excess string from the knot. This might also help switch her over to rats. It's worth a try.

Kelly

I will try but this snake looks at all sides of the food for a long time and then makes a decision. Sometimes she turns around ignors the food no matter how many times i put it in frnt of her and then I go try a different size and she looks for a while and opens her mouth and takes it from me. She confuses the crap out of me. I will give it a shot though with a tiny rat to start. I bet the fuzzy folded in would work though...would that help or is it not worth using my ATB food?

That would be better than nothing. I would try anything that you might think will work.

Kelly

Well, she just took 3 ok sized chicken parts by hand after i tried all different sizes...once I found the right size she wanted..I gave 3 (she looks pretty full so I stopped there)...I will try the fuzzy trick in maybe a week or a little less. then next feeding I will try the rat trick. Thanks a bunch

It sure does sound like you've got a wild-caught snake on your hands. Does it have scars?

Snakes, as predators, develop a search image for their prey items, via instinct and learned cues, or in other words a set of stimuli, that goes with the prey they encounter - frequently - in their habitat, and which prey is most beneficial to consume, given the other risk factors involved in hunting and eating. Plus, anacondas - mostly females, and the very largest males - go through major predator type shifts as they get bigger. The smaller ones eat mostly wading birds and turtles, and the larger ones shift to bigger animals (deer, capybara, peccary, caiman).

Snakes, as you know, can be picky eaters to begin with, so a wild-caught one would understandably be more difficult to feed, since it has adapted to specific prey items AND the stimuli that go with catching/eating them.

We'd put chickens in enclosures with wild females that had just given birth (and thus not eaten for typically 7 to 10 months), and so were really hungry, but more often than not the snakes wouldn't eat the chickens. Just another example of search image confusion, I have a feeling - that, and a result of being plucked out of their home and stuck in an artificial environment. It's hard to say what instincts are overridden - or used - in changing prey items in captivity, although it is known that familiarity - seeing, and smelling, and other ways of detecting prey (not hearing, in the case of snakes, since they are deaf) is involved. And on top of that, individuals are just different.

So, short of finding some herons, mallards, or large turtles to feed the anaconda, the snake has to "get used to" the prey they will be eating, by sight, or smell, and sometimes motion (depends on the individual). The rat/chicken feeding sounds like a good trick, if he's already eating chicken.

Also, although anacondas are one of the hardiest animals I've ever seen when it comes to healing from wounds, maintaining good health while being infected with parasites, malaria, etc., like the others said, they are also super touchy, and don't appreciate being man-handled - wild ones, anyway.

The more the females were handled/disturbed while pregnant (wild caught) it seemed the less they basked in their enclosure (which was warmed by natural sunlight), and thus the higher rate of problems with their pregnancies/offspring. We don't have hard statistics on this, but it's something I observed personally. Often when the female should have been basking, she was hiding under the hyacinth in the water, or maybe only a small part of her body was exposed. And, they spent a lot of time patrolling every inch of the enclosure trying to figure a way to get out. So, don't doubt that they definitely know the difference between captivity and the wild, when wild born, at least.

Just some info to compare with your captive critters.

Renee

Lat april I responded to an add for cb green anacondas. I emailed and asked the guy who bred him a few questions. he said his female that produced these babies was 15 feet and the male was 9 which he sold shortly after the breeding (I do not know for sure the origin of both parents). He said she produced 20 young which was more than he expected and needed to get rid of them pretty quick for cage space. The snake he sent me was about 2.5 feet and the only mark on it was from the attachment to the yolk. I told him I did not care if it was male or female but I did want a good temper since my plans were to keep a pet (I have more plans in breeding now since I got a couple years to prepare). He called me after he sent the snake and told me when it should arrive, I asked what sex it was and he said he sent a male(I don't know if he was just trying to remember what he sent or if he really looked since this snake has no spurs externally and are hard to find with parting the scales and a magnifying glass a year later). The snake was fine being taken out of the bag but after it was set down it bit if it was touched but if i let it crawl on my hand it was fine being picked up so that is how I put it in its cage. The guy told me all the babies took live fuzzy mice on wednesday and I got the snake friday so I waited untill the next wednesday to try and feed. NO luck with any rodent of any size for 8 months..scented or thawed in chicken broth...I tried all the little tricks people told me they have used over the years for anacondas and nothing worked. One night I left a small garter in his huge cage since I needed its cage for the day and the next morning it was eaten. So i figured I would let that put something in its stomach and I asked a vet and they said it would be fine (my friend breeds garter snakes so it was a cb i got from her) I then went out and purchased 3 more garters and a tank to put them in so I could keep trying to scent rodents with them. As time went by with no luck I would add the biggest garter to its diet(I know it wasnt the best idea but I figured it was better than a year without food). I was waiting until spring to get some baby chicks now because I was determined it would work. But Al Haikem from ft meyers told me to try grocery store chicken (I have never heard or thought of it before) and go figure..she took it (at first not from me..just dragged it into her hide box. Now she will only take it from my hand and she used to strike it but now it is just a gentle opening up and taking it from me. She wont take pieces in her cage over night? Just from my hand now. So now you know its history. Since the snake didn't take rodents like I was told, isnt male like I was told, do you think it is not cb? It was purchased out of Florida, import capital of greens in the US. But that seems like a big lie even compared to the other innocent ones. And the snake looked like a very young healthy cb. Opinoin? sorry for the long message

Several adult gravid females are imported into Florida every year and I would bet that yours is the offspring of one of them. How the neonates were cared for after birth will have a large effect on how they acclimate after they are purchased by individuals for private collections like yourself. Unfortunately, and I'm not saying yours necessarily was, they are kept in mass in a large cage and in a state of high stress. Many probably never feed before being purchased. Fortunately, they are very young and a large percent can be turned around and do recover. Sub-adult and adult imports are much more likely to fail to acclimate and many perish.
The one you have shouldn't be a problem, as it is feeding; just not on a long term sustaining diet. If she is feeding out of your hand, after eating the first piece of chicken, place a rat in it's mouth against the back end of the chicken piece as she is about to finish swallowing it, and usually they will continue to eat right over the second item. It usually works fairly well if you keep movement slow and don't scare her. It's worth a try.

Kelly

Ok..she doesn't eat it from my hand..she takes it from my hand but she pulls it away and eats it from a coil she wraps around. she doesnt strike it, just opens up and pulls it from me slowly. I just leave her alone after that..should should I slowly put a little rat, or mouse since she isnt too big, in her mouth when I see her put her head up for that gravity help getting it down the throat? I did ask if this was captive bred and not captive born and I was very clear about what I was asking and he said he bred these himself...he told me about his 2 large females the larger (15 ft) being the mother of the babies in a large cage he built...I commented that he never mentioned a male and he said he had already sold the 9 ft male...do you think it was a lie, I hate to even think that though? Has anyone heard of Tom Burish?

Ok, I guess I missed it in one of your previous posts, I thought when you aquired the snake it was already much larger.

Hard to say where these animals come from...just reinforces the value of reputable, known captive breeders.

RO

Renee,
Good information on wild anacondas. To confirm your observations, I have noticed that even in greens that have been born and raised in captivity, they are still somewhat shy animals and seem to be a little nervous about strange movements or vibrations in their vicinity. There are a few that nothing seems to bother, like Jud's large male, but most still tend to be a little shy and reserved.

Kelly

I totaly agree with that Kelly. My little yellow is a real sweety when we are alone in the snake room. When I took her up to have some pictures taken I got a good spack in the face (camera got it) that was the first time that she has done that in a long long time.

` I've had good results from dipping the rodent's head in chicken broth. I make my own, as canned and desiccated chicken broth is loaded with salt.

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eventhough I have not made my own, i have used the chicken broth trick with no luck...i have tried even putting chicken on the head and rubbing it all over the rodent. and the wrapping the rodent with chicken skin...no luck with any. She looks too long at the food before she decides to eat it...its like she knows I am trying to trick her and just goes away and ignors me until i bring her exactly what she wants (and she will take it if I bring it right away and she will wait if i leave this food overnight and she will wait months if it isnt what she wants)..I think my best luck will be to wait it out and hope and in the mean time try and stick fuzzies in the chicken she is taking (i really hope she cant notice they are there but she seems to know that a mouse is not chicken no matter what is smells like and is covered in)..thanks though for all and if there is anything else you think will work besides what i have gone over (like making my own broth..not a cook so please tell) i would be greatfull.