Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey everyone!my birthday was friday.knowing that i love snakes,my mom seen a baby green anaconda at the pet store and thought it would make a nice present for me.well it was!i was overwhelmed with excitement.however, im not very familuiar with them.i calloed the petstore to get a feeding schedule and what its eating ang they say they tried mice to no avail.and also upon further inspection if a small peice of fleshy tissue slightly peeking out of its vent.a snake hemmoroid if you will.
has anyone else had a snake with this? how do i treat it?any tips on how to get this beautiful snake healthy and eating i would appreciate it.my e-mail is durtybyrd1@yahoo.com
thanks guys,
derek

Ok I am glad you posted and I hope you stay with us here...but your story is terrible. A green anaconda should not be in a pet store for someone to pick up without knowing a thing about them...and your mom at that so the person selling could not even get an idea of your knowledge besides what your mom could brag. Now happy birthday and congratulations but that pet store is doing some serious wrong. Now if it is coming out of the "vent" it is probably a young male born with one hemipene out, which happens time to time. Try ft chicks..if you read the post below you would see that is most often what it takes to get greens going for the first months or more of their life. Good luck with your anaconda and stay posting. tell us also about your cage setup as well as things you know about the snake. congrats!

hey thanks for the info,after i wrote the last message i was thinking it could possibly be a hemipene.what should i do about it?push it back in?
yeah i was suprised to hear that a pet store had a green anaconda.ive kept many large snake of the more popular ,easier to keep species.i respect anacondas and am just fascinated by them.
i dont know anything about the snake.if its a wc snake or a cb i dont know.shes shifty at first but calms right down when you take her out,but thats normal of many snake.
from what i understand his enclosure at the petstore was an aquarium with about 2 or 3 "s of water and several climbing branches with fake plants.
ive got him in a 55 gallon aquarium,dry, with basking light,heat rock, climbing branch ,a fake vine and large water bowl.for substrate im using indoor outdoor carpet.hes on a 12 and 12 light cycle.
thats about all i can think about for now.so are my housing requirements ok?any other info or tips would be great.thanks again,
derek

Ok the 2-3' of water was a poor substrate and luccky you dont have blisters since I am sure they did not have it clean. Indoor outdoor carpet..awesome, I love the stuff but replace it instead of cleaning it, its cheap. Ditch the hot rock and go with a UTH...heat tape. i would actually ditch the basking light as well but you can use it as long as you are keeping good humidity (lets hear about your warm and cool spots...you are using a thermometer correct? and your humidity). I have a nice little temp gun you can pick up for about 35$ its digital and you can move it along the floor to get a quick reading of any area of the tank. NICE to have. I didnot hear anything about hides. if you mentioned you have a hide area in the warm and cool side of the tank..ignor this...if not, do that. sounds like everything else is goodand I would think the hemipene should go in soon but I suppose you can try an gently help it in. What is the pet store you got it from?

yeah,i guess i did forget to mention the hide box.hes got a brown bowl flipped over with a hole cut in the side.works just fine and he sure doesnt seem to mind.on the cool side there i a peice of wood with a hollow on the other side.
the bad part,no thermometer.my u joint busted on my car the same evening and ive had no way to town which is almost an hour away.but i should get it tonight.
the pet shop is called House of Pets in Garden city michigan.
where are you at? and do you have any pics of your snakes.

Illinois...here is a small pic of one of my yellows. I will respond under it with a picture of my green.

green

nice snakes.which type do you like the best?

Now that is a question I really cannot answer. As a species I have the biggest love for E. murinus and I have worked hard with mine with feeding and i understand this snake very well. But my eyes were on my granite yellows since the first time I saw them but I just never though I would have them due to them being $1000 each. I love their uniqueness and their feeding response. I wish I could say I love them eating mice better than my green but I can honestly say I love the work I went through with her as well. If I had to do it all over with the yellows I would not love that so I deffinetly love both just the way they are...they are perfect. I even love this evil little couple.

nice amazons!!!!! i had a garden phase a few years back.more of a rescue but still fascinating.viscious as all hell though.anacondas in general are just neat i dont have a favorite either.
i really hope all goes well with this snake.thanks alot for everything.

hey fellas whats going on?
good news here,my baby just pounded its first chick!!!!im so fired up!i was worried because i didnt know the dealer or anything about the snakes background.
i did gently push in the possible hemipene and everything looks fine.apparently i didnt stress him too bad because he wasted no time on the chick.
as for calling it him or her ,who knows for sure until i have a chance to have it probed.
i do plan on keeping the snake.ill make room!
i have had plenty expirience with big snakes,and i do have a little knowledge of anacondas,i was just looking for tips and advice from some people who have inside expirience in dealing with anacondas specifically.and you have been a big help everyone on this forum.ill be here,an anaconda lover for life

probing is super difficult with green anacondas. Even people that have probel 1000s of snake have a hard time. Spur sexing as much more accurate. Kelly Haller helped me with that many posts back. Female spurs will be recessed into the scales, darker coloration, and have a cone like shape. Males will be completely external, on an appendage, lighter coloration, and have a hooked shape to them. With a young snake you might need to use magnification. Good luck!

Wow. I have nothing more to say than eunectes already has about the fact that a pet store sold a green to another person without any info or guidance.
One question however, do you know the sex of the conda? I seen mention of a possible extroverted hemipene but then in almost the same sentence the snake was refered to as a 'her'. A lot of times people just inadvertantly refer to things as 'her' or 'she' and I was wondering if that was the case.
The best advice I can give you is to go back to the beginning of this forum and read, read, read. You are now in a race to become knowledgeable about condas before the snake starts to need you to have that knowledge. Since you said this was a suprise for a B-day gift (happry birthday by the way) I guess you were honestly not prepared for it. That just pushes the blame back on the pet store.
I really hope your conda is a male because if not you better start thinking about where your going to be putting a HUGE cage in the near future. That 55gal. wont last very long.
Anyways good luck and I hope you keep posting and asking questions. This is the best spot for conda questions.

Arik

Even if there is a small chance (really doubt it and I am pretty sure it was the snakes junk hanging out) the snake is female, the cage should last him almost a year if the animal is not power fed. Mine would still be doing fine in a 55 after over a year but you cant really count me since I had feeding problems for the better part of the year. I agree though, having a female is going to put him in much more need to read up since his feeding problem could potentially be that the snake wants to eat him. You would be surprised how many pet stores will sell green anacondas like its no big deal. The one a block away from me used to sell both green and yellows for the prime reason that there was a movie! I was in there today selling their snake guy a probe set and I had my green with me and he thought it was a yellow. Its an honest mistake with my green being so light and it has been mistaken by people at reptile shows before without a strong interest in anacondas. It is an honest mistake as long as they are not selling them and not knowing what they are selling...then its a big problem.

I guess I was assuming he was going to have the snake more than just a year. So thats why I mentioned that he needed to start thinking now. One mistake, not necessarilly his, was getting the snake without any info on it. So I didn't want to see a second mistake made and him not have any plans for the housing of the snake. I'm 31 and 1 year goes by really quick for me. If he's as young as it sounds he needs to start making plans on how to afford the eventual cage he will need. Male or female.

Arik

I was not disagreeing at all...sorry if i sounded that way..I was just saying if he plans on staying on here for help he will be fine and has at least a year to start building up. We dont need to scare the kid on his first day Arik lol : )

are you ready?

I have seen that pic 100 times. I still cant quite make it out. I think I'm seeing the head in the upper right. Without something in the pic for a size ref. it's hard to see the huge size that that conda is purported to be.
I just wanted him to start thinking now about the reality of having a huge snake to deal with. I have seen and I'm sure most of you have too, people that really dont quite understand what they're getting when they get a huge animal. I am in the process of getting my females cage built right now and trust me it's gonna take up some space.
Anyway's I didn't think you were disagreeing with me but I do think it's something he needs to keep in mind.

Arik

Oh I agree...start preparing..but no hurry NOW o ditch the 55. He will without a doubt need a very large cage (I still think he has a male..but still takes a 125 or greater). The head on that pic is in the mid left smushed against glass...picture it being roughly the size of yours without your hat on. I took the picture and it is 22 feet (and a few inches)and over 350 lbs. She is HUGE!