Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering what you have been feeding your 2 year old female? You said your Green Anaconda female is almost 2 years old and still under 5 ft. I saw this a lil while back in the forum! I was just wondering is that pretty normal. Also, what and how often have you been feeding here. I have been trying to stay on a once every 5 days feeding schedule with my young female. And it seems like she doesnt like to eat that often. Could you kind of tell me how your feedings have been going? Any information on that I would really appreciate. Thanks a lot. -Nicholas

I do not believe it is common at all for them to be quite this small but she is very healthy and a regular feeder. She is actually over 2 years old and is somewhere around 5 ft. She eats large rats every week to two weeks. I do not believe heavy feedings for anacondas is necessary or appropriate as their diet in the wild is usually much less than they get in captivity anyway. Many times greens are overfed and they are prone to obesity and a shortened life. Also remember anacondas will usually refuse food during the shed cycle very far in advance and they take a long time to go through it. Longer than any other boid I have worked with. This usually means various periods of short fasts. Now I have also mentioned she was a difficult feeder for a long time. She has not been on a steady diet of rodents for even a year now. She refused all types of food for the first seven months of her life and began a diet of snakes when she started. I only fed minimally during this time. She was then moved to a diet of grocery chicken and eventually she took whole day old chicks. She then moved to rodents tied to chicks and then chick scented rats. It was nearly a year and a half after her birth before she was taking unscented rats. So in conclusion, while I do agree it is a bit abnormal for a female green over 2 years to be around 5 ft. I think it is an appropriate size for her given her history and general green anaconda habits and metabolism.

From what I have experienced, once a neonate green begins feeding, they typically grow at a rate of 3 to 4 inches per month during their first year when fed reasonably, as in once per week. Over their second year, a typical growth rate is 2 to 3 inches per month on a 10 to 14 day feeding schedule. As you stated, your females feeding history was rather unusual, so over most of this period, she would have been expected to grow at a rate about a third to a half of this, which is fairly consistent with where she is currently in size. I would be extremely interested to see how she grows over the next 2 to 3 years. Please keep us posted. Thanks,

Kelly