Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took Mr. A advice on what to do to try and get my anaconda to eat...i have not touch her since he gave me the advice and the temp and humidity is what it should be...well she almost took a rat thru. she open up her mouth and touched it and then backed off....i did notice when i changed her water yesterday that her eyes were somewhat cloudy, so i assume that she is about to shed.... As far as getting her to eat, i have had burm pythons before and after a shed they would eat...Is that also the same with anacondas....I guess that i am on the right track being that she at least made an attempt..right? (before she wouldnt even go at it)i have pictures of her as soon as i can make them smaller i will post them....

Sounds like your on the right track. Lets just cross our fingers and hope that she eats after shedding. I think she will.--Eric--If you have trouble getting your pix smaller let me know, I might be able to help.

Things are probably ok but with anacondas you can have a huge number of reasons they are not eating. Keep the handling to none and conditions you obviously always keep perfect. But if you are feeding live rats..the anaconda can actually be afraid in captivity and back off, if it is f/t it might not be ready to take them yet. It could always be it simply does not want a rat, in which you can always try other types of food. But I think that odds are if you are feeding a f/t or p/k rat and it opens its mouth, you will get it to eat that..but if you are the one giving it to the snake...it sees you and does not want to see you since you are bigger and a threat (is this a cb or wc animal?). make sure lights are off and you can even leave a dead rat in over night. I never have much luck with that for any of my snakes so I would use tongs from an angle the snake can't see you, after it takes just leave and let it do the work. Post and let us know what you have tried as far as food and how it is presented. If the eyes have not gone "blue" yet but they are just starting to cloud..we can expect to hear from you in a couple weeks. Not only do you have a way to go in the shed cycle but after you clean the shed out of the cage you should give the snake another day before offering food (not something you have to do...but i would since i have found they are more likely to take food the day after a shed than the day of the shed)

I am not sure if she is wc or cb the guy that i got her from did tell me that she was cb, but he also told me that she was eating on her own too....I have had her as of today two months...and he told me to wait two weeks before i tried to feed her because she at a 4 days before i picked her up...so every weekend after i have been trying to get her to eat...i have tried store bought chicken, frozen rats, pre killed rats, and last friday i tried fresh killed chicken and a live one....and before i notice her eyes getting cloudy i tried the rat the she started to take. I do not give it to her by hand I hold it to her face so she can smell it then i lay it in the cage and close it...then she comes out..I told Mr. A and Kelly two saturdays ago i say a girl in the bar that was at the house when i bought the snake...she told me that they was force feeding her in a pillow case and that they had her in the tank with a retic and a albino burm...so her living conditions was not good at all...So if I knew all that i would not have gotten her, but now i am glad that i did because if i didnt she might not have live to long...i have her in her own cage and i temp and everything is what it should be for her...and I have taken Mr. A and Kelly's advice and it looks like she may come around....If she starts to eat a pet store here in Va. have a male the is eating very well and it looks like it could be about 5' for $199.00 so i am thinking about getting him thanks to you guys here...i have learned alot in the little time that i have been in the forum and is looking for to learning alot more...oh her eyes are blue today when i checked

Well, if this is a 9 foot snake, I don't blame you for not wanting to hand feed. I have had luck with "teasing" but with a 9 ft snake you might want to try tongs. Most anacondas will get all whimpy if they get hit with the food so make sure it isn't too close to their face and let them decide...if they are far back and showing interest just keep what you are doing, if they are getting really close calm it down a little if she has not struck yet so you don't hit her with what she is trying to make a decision on(I use decision loosly). Sounds like you are doing pretty good and hopefully you get success after the shed. For the record, I think it is the worst idea in the world for a pet store to be selling the big 4. This leaves it open for high school kids (depending on the store they might not even need to be 18 year old high school kids) and other loosers to buy an anaconda or other giant snake on impulse to impress a girl or something. So if you have experience and the snake is healthy, it sounds like a pretty good deal and you might want to pick it up so some idiot doesn't buy it. But I really don't think you should give up on her unless you have someone you trust to take this work off your hands. Just curious, who did you buy your snake from?

We have here in Va a paper called the trading post I saw the ad in there....when i went over to the guys house he had the anaconda in another room by itself and in another room he had four stack cages with retic in them not one of them was less then 10 foot long and on the floor was another tank that had a 13 foot burm...which later i found out through the girl that he kept the anaconda in there with it....This is my first anaconda but i have had burm before so i am use to the larger snakes..I do know through things that i have read and seen on tv that anaconda takes a little more work then some of the others...

Just a quick note on greens and shedding. Jud and I have noticed that many greens will refuse to feed if they are even close to a shedding event. Some will even refuse food a full week or more before they even begin to go opaque. A little different than most boids.

Kelly