Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Several days ago there was some discussion on the temperament of green anacondas with respect to captive born vs. wild caught. Although captive born greens do generally tend to be more even tempered when acclimatized by frequent handling from birth, this is definitely not a given. Some captive born greens never calm down and remain aggressive or unpredictable through out their lives, just as a small percentage of wild caught neonates can tend to be fairly even tempered.

The main key to the temperament issue is not necessarily wild caught or captive born, but is more strongly connected to genetics. I have seen it over and over again in captive bred boids. Even tempered parents tend to produce young that are more likely to be even tempered themselves. Although not always a given, the trend is definitely there. Most newborn boids come out of the egg or membrane with a pretty aggressive attitude, and for good reason. This usually fades and disappears within a few weeks in those individuals that are born with a tractable nature. Only about 10% of the greens Jud and I have produced were aggressive at birth and these few calmed down within a few weeks. The other 90% were never aggressive even from the beginning. I attribute this to their genetic background and not so much as to them being captive born. The main factor in their genetic background being Jud’s adult male. His demeanor for a green anaconda borderlines on almost impossible to believe. Although both of the females we have used are extremely tame, they are not as calm as this male. When bred together, these adults have produced some incredibly even tempered anacondas. We have 3 individuals from the 2001 breeding that continue to maintain this calm behavior. They are now sub-adults and we believe this behavior will most likely continue into their adult lives, just as was seen with their parents. I believe some, but not all, of the unpredictable behavior experience by people keeping green anacondas is in part due to the ease at which they can be startled. They are by nature relatively shy snakes, and if unaware of your presence, can be scared rather easily if they suddenly notice you in close proximity. Care should always be taken to allow them to become aware of your presence before opening a cage or trying to pick them up. Some startled anacondas will even let you pick them up before reacting. This delayed reaction can usually be predicted, as their bodies will stiffen up quite noticeably before hand.

And a final comment on bird feeders. From our experience, we believe that newborn greens are programmed to feed on shore and water bird chicks in the beginning. Some will take rodents early on, but the vast majority will hold out for young birds. As they get a few months older, they start getting interested in other prey species. Some take longer than others, but we have yet to see a young green that would not switch over to chicks. Sorry for the long post, but I just wanted to cover some of our observations. Thanks,

Kelly

Kelly I totally agree with you. The first pair of yellows that I got were nasty. The babies were as well. My yellow is the only yellow that I kept from that litter and she is not totally trustworthy. As for the startaling of young anacondas, I like to give a few taps to the top of the cage which usually sends my young one out of his hide area looking around. Then I give him a few seconds or so just to let him know it is me and not a food item. Once he notices that its me, he will noticably relax and lay his head down. Then and only then will I touch his mid body and pick him up. Once in my hand he is a dream, a real joy to hold.
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GOD,I LOVE ANACONDAS!!!!! Eric aka Mr.A

my luck with anaconda temperment kinda varys a little my first green anacondas were both males which at the time it was nearly impossible to find captive bred condas so these were both wild caughts they were nasty as babies regardless of how much time was spent handling them and they grew into nasty adults neither of them would eat rodents and it was just a real pain in the butt to deal with then recently i got a female yellow anaconda from Mark Petros she showed no signs of aggression at all would just crawl up your arm find a spot and just bite without warning i figure she would have probably grown out of it with enough handling sessions but unfortunately for unknown reasons she didnt live long enough for me to work with her Mark is a great guy sent me a male yellow to replace her and he is a great tempered snake he is a little hyper but not a biter a couple weeks after getting this male yellow anaconda i called and ordered my first female green anaconda she is a captive bred was only 2 feet long when i got her she was shaken up after shipping and i reached into the bag to get her and the first thing she did was nail me i gave her a week to get settled in and calm down from her trip and she ate frozen/thawed mouse the first attempt a few days later after i know she had the mouse completely digested i planned to attempt handling her for a little to see how she would react and this anaconda is the greatest tempered anaconda i have seen in my life i can reach right in and pick her up she doesnt strike at me hiss or nothing while handling her you can tickle the top of her head and cannot make this snake bite you she is a truely remarkably tempered snake i have yet to see another anaconda as sweet natured as she is hopefully later on when i buy a male i get another one as sweet as she is to try out that genetics theory Kelly is talking about

Personally, I believe this ot be true of ALL SNAKES not just Anacondas. My carpets are that way produced from extremely calm parents and weren't nippy as babies. I've been bitten by them each twice in two years and all four times, I have deserved each bite. THey were in shed and I accidentally threatened them by removing a hide log close to them and grabbed them, I grab them at mostly anytime without any bad reactions.

As far as the temperament, Look at the Retics, as we bred them into captivity Gene pools got added too and mixed up and We now have Tame Retics, and soon Tame Rocks!

THis has proven its self over and over again, Bloods, Retics, Rocks, Anacondas, etc. Soon snake keeping isn't going to be the same none of snakes will bite us unless we do something real dumb, lol I like the fact that people are afraid of being bit yet I will miss it when no snakes will bite us as handlers, unless its feeding time and they get real excited!

Oh I completely agree...but this is the anaconda forum so we talk about them and leave the rest for other people to talk about lol