Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My yellows pos was Jan 6, she was bred early Dec. She just shed again yesterday......almost 3 months! Can a date be estimated based on this info? Any consistencies another words? Much obliged.

That's a hard question to answer when dealing with anacondas. I haven't any experience with reproduction in yellows, but their gestation period appears to be just slightly shorter than greens. Ovulation is difficult to observe in greens and this obviously makes POS to birth estimates difficult to determine. Additionally, to further compound the problem, female greens typically shed two to four times between initial mating activity and parturition. The last shed you observed with your yellow may not be all that unusual. From what I have observed to date, it appears that birth occurs in greens approximately 160 to 170 days after POS. But it must be emphasized that this is a rough estimate at this point with very limited data to work with. I will be in a better position to verify this if Jud and I are successful again this year. There appears to be a fair amount of variability in reproductive data with captive anacondas. A lot of this could probably be attributed to the small statistical sample size involved however. Two questions I would have are was ovulation obvious with your female and does she appear to be greatly swollen at this point in time?

Kelly

Thank you for your thorough reply. I`m not sure I witnessed ovulation. She has been swollen on empty stomach for more than 2 months now and last mating activity was Dec 2, so I assumed pos was early Jan. From what I`ve heard about boas, its the pos used to determine birth date, not actual ovulation....Maybe you think this one was pos? It would be cool to have a breeders database so information could be shared on here. Thanks again.

From your timeline it sounds as though the January shed could be the POS, but it's definitely not a given. Has she been refusing to feed or are you not offering? If she is seeking heat, that is a pretty good sign also. You are correct in that little reproductive info is available on anacondas, especially greens, and what is available is many times too general and/or incomplete. Some type of database would be nice. It sounds like you are maintaining good records and it will be interesting to see your data. Good luck.

Kelly

`Cher`, heh, is seeking heat, she shed in one piece and ate today. It seems that regular half-one third size meals do no harm so far and hopefully help maintain muscle mass as long as she continues to eat. It seems like they wouldn`t hunt while gravid in the wild, content to bask in captivity. Captive snakes have a lot of luxuries unafforded their wild cousins, though their wild cousins are less likely to screw their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers. Peace, out.