Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The only anaconda I’ve seen in person is a female green, but I’m interested in knowing more about males of both species. I understand that male yellows average 6-8 feet and green males average 8-12 feet.

In particular, between male yellows and male greens:
What size prey can one expect to feed an adult?
What kind of girth (how thick) do these guys have (a size comparison such as they get as thick as a soda can, 2 liter bottle, etc)?
How much do adults weigh?
Any differences in temperament?
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from the looks of your list one would assume you own a petco. That is like their entire stock of reptiles lol. Anyway...Jumbo rats are about all you will need for everything but the female green. Some female yellows and male greens may jump up to small rabbits. Males of both are not near as thick as the females and the female yellow is usually around the thickness of a very large male green. So pound for pound I would be willing to bet female yellows come in second on average size. third is the male green and in a far 4th is the male yellow. giving a measurement is hard to say...anywhere from baseball to football and the occational basketball female greens. I will also note the female yellow can regularly grow over 12 ft. Then we will exclude E.d amd E.b for now.

Just to be sure I'm clear, when you say " giving a measurement is hard to say...anywhere from baseball to football" - you are speaking about yellow males compared to green males?

Thank you so much for your information and help.
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1.0 Ball Python "Aragorn"
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa "Gimli"
1.0 Saharan Sand Boa "Frodo"
0.1 Rough-Scale Sand Boa "Arwen"
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0.1 California Kingsnake "Gentoo"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Indigo"
1.0 Snow Corn snake "Chile"
0.1 Okeetee Corn snake "Amazon"
0.0.1 Crested Gecko
0.0.1 Irian Jaya BlueTongued Skink
0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer "Kira"

Green males which have been raised in captivity from young animals typically weigh between 30 and 50 pounds as full grown adults. Adult yellows usually run about half to two-thirds of those weights. Temperament is largely genetic and so varies, although acquiring anacondas as newborns will definitely help.

Kelly

Why are the weights of the greens (and yellows too I imagine) so low in captivity and so high in the wild? I rememeber seeing a green on TV being weighed in at 200 pounds. So why dont they get that heavy in captivity, assuming they were newborn.
though I wont complain. 50 pounds would be NICE. lol

the dimorphism of eunectes is expressed much more in the weight than it is in the 2x length.

Male greens in their natural environment very rarely get to 9 feet, or weigh over 30 or 35 pounds. It has been shown that long term captive males can add on an extra couple of feet to this along with almost doubling that weight. I have a 3 year old male that is currently about 8 feet, and he has definitely not been heavily fed. I'll post a picture below from the first of this year. You can see that he is well fed but not overly heavy. In captivity, males tend to put on weight easily due to the lower activity levels. I believe in the wild, males are relatively active and have low food intake numerous months of the year due to breeding behavior. This in combination with a genetic propensity for smaller size, is not conducive to a high growth rate. Being smaller, males are also probably more prone to predation than the larger females. And, with the females, large specimens in captivity are rare. I believe females over the 16 to 18 feet range are rare because of the age required to reach this size. Due to the historic lack of interest, very few females have been in captivity long enough to attain these sizes. The 200 pound female you refer to was probably at least 15 or 20 years old, and may have also been from a population that did not genetically attain the extreme sizes of 20 to 25 feet.

Kelly

Only hit half to 2/3 of 30-50 lbs? I have seen some monster female yellows that appear to dwarf most male greens including the 65 lb Jud specimen...gravid possibly a factor? I have seen a pretty descent number though. Could captive size and over feeding for breeding weight be a factor? I trust your words so I am curious to figure out what factors may influence this. I have not spent much time researching yellow female weights in the wild (I have a good bet that DFR has so maybe a post from him would be nice right about now lol).

P.S. Did you see my comment on your pimbura pic?

at 1/2 to 2/3 the size of adult male greens. Female yellows would easily outsize the typical male green. I think a record size female yellow would probably be around the 100 pound range. Also, I apologize, I did not catch your comment on the pimbura.

Kelly

I asked if you breed P.m.m. or P.m.p. I would privately e mail you but it rarely works out because I am bad with tech. But I can usually get them if you wish to privately e mail me. Thanks in advance.

I am only working with P. m. pimbura at this time. They are all still about a year away from being ready to go. They are also definitely right up with green anacondas as one of my favorite boids. Thanks,

Kelly

You will just break all myth of the bost agressive large boids if you have super docile P.m.pimburas lol. I would deffinitely be interested when you have nice docile babies. Nice photo as well.

You are correct in that pimbura have been known for their highly aggressive behavior. The females I have are both very calm animals and have never tried to bite or spray since they were a few months old. Their behavior however, is quite different than the Indian or Burmese pythons. They are very alert snakes and will always come to the front of the cage when you approach. When they are being held, they are usually more active than an Indian or Burmese as well. It is amazing how calm they are considering the fact that they are only handled about once a week. The male is more nervous and is in constant motion when being handled, but he still has not struck or sprayed anyone. It will be interesting to see how the young turn out. Thanks,

Kelly

Kelly,

I am most interested in your Sri Lankan python breeding and would love to have a pair of tame ones some day. Do you know of any one who is actually trying to breed African rocks for docility? If any one can-you are the one. Perhaps that could be your greatest future challenge.

Take care,
Bill

They have been captive long enough and have nowhere near the general temoper the pimburas are known for. Here is one that has yet to strike at me. They have a reputation but it is only as accurate as the green anaconda and the retic

I haven't had one at my place for about 20 years. I know that the Barkers were breeding docile adults and producing calm young African Rocks 10 to 15 years ago, but I don't believe they have the breeders any longer, and am not sure where they or any of the young have gone. I know there are a few relatively trustworthy adult rocks out there, but very few. However, my place is full, so I'll have to let you work on this project. Thanks,

Kelly