Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all, i'm new to this forum but have been reading through it for a few weeks now.

Well, i got a male yellow anaconda over the weekend. He is about 3'long. They told me he was 9 months old, but you can never be sure. I got him home and pulled him out of the bag and.....got bit 4 times lol. No biggie, i laughed about it, i've been bit more times than i could ever remember so its no big deal 2 me. He's a bit on the nippy side but not overly agressive. I think over time he'll calm down. I actually pulled him out and handled him last night and was only bit once very lightly as if just a warning. He's already eating great. I got him on saturday afternoon and by sunday night he polished off his first f/t adult mouse. On monday i gave him 2 more which he took down w/out a problem. I'm switching over to small rats now, due to them being a little more of a hearty meal for him and it being more nutritional. I have him in a 40 gallon tank right now for the time being. I'm building him an enclosure as we speak. I should have it done no later than early january. I'm keeping his aquarium at 85 background and 90 basking. I found a chinchilla bathhouse that i've converted into a small little humidity/soaking area for him that he seems quite happy about. It won't last, but for the time being it serves a good purpose. Sorry this is such a long post, i just don't want people to think i'm some dumb guy who knows nothing about reptiles and show that i have actually done my research. I just wanted to see if anyone has any advice on handling and taming condas and any other advice in general. This is my first of the conda world. I've had ball pythons before and have handled many different snakes, but this is my first owning a conda so i just wanna be as informed as possible. I also have a young savannah monitor. He's around 14 inches and is doing great, a vorascious appetite on him lol. After awhile with this yellow, i'm hoping that i will be getting a green. Thank you in advance for any response, all information and advice is greatly appreciated. ---Jason

I own a female yellow which is around 3 feet long as well. She is thick and mellow. Gulfing down medium rats once a week. Slowly but surely growing compared to my burms. The burms grow like nothing I've ever seen. But anyhow, The anaconda is rather tame, she was captive hatched. i Am lucky I got her off good hands. Whenever I handle her, she hasn't made a single attempt at biting me. She rather tries to break free or slither around my arm than bite me. However, this is not a typical behavior shown in my male green ananconda My advice is: try to handle the snake after it had a good basking thermoregulation. Another thing I found very useful from my 3.5 years of reptile experience is; its always better to pick up the snake with a durable snake hook, especially anacondas, as they hate being grabbed from the top or the side. Handle the snake as much as you possibly can and try not to make sudden movements during handling, keep it smooth and gentle. make the snake move around you, not you around the snake. They wont freak out as much. Let it be stress free and more natural for them. If you got your snake on saturday, a reasonable thing to do is to leave it alone for two weeks or so ( i know it can be hard to do Let the startled male adjust and accumulate to its new habitat. Do you know if the male is CB, CH or WC? All in all, I hope he settles down for you with time and proper care. Yellows are by far not as nasty as most greens, yet it all depends on the gene pool (in my observations and opinion).

Ron

I was told that he was captive bred, but you can never be too sure. I got it from a local exotic pet shop and said he'd been there for 6 months and was CB. He seems to have mellowed out quite a bit already. Doesn't seem nearly as stressed when i clean out his cage or reach in there to do anything anymore. I handled him again yesterday and it went w/out incidence. I allowed him to do his own thing and slide around me and on my arms rather easily. It seems that as long as i don't do anything too sudden he doesn't seem to care. I've noticed that he will tell me immediately if i've done something wrong or made him uncomfortable. Usually with a light nip or just a closed-mouth strike. I think he's at least a captive-hatched, otherwise i don't think he'd be so easy to feed and acclimate as quickly either. I fed him a medium sized rat last night, which he took very eagerly. I actually noticed yesterday when i used the hook w/him, he seemed a little more uneasy about it. He actually tried to strike the hook once, but not me...lol. I'm quite happy so far with how its going. Seems to be getting along great w/his surroundings. I'll be posting pics real soon of him. Thank you for the response Ron, u are exactly right. I'm going to try my best to keep from handling him 2 much for the next week and see how he acts, ur right though, it's quite difficult not too lol. Happy Thanksgiving to all and see yah soon

Had plenty of turkey, yet saved only rats for the snakes

The whole hook thing is a gradual process. The first time I tried a hook on my green anaconda, he sunk his teeth right into the metal. The second time I ised it on him, he paniced but did not strike at it. The third time I picked him up, he just jerked. etc etc etc. By the 10th time you do it, he will not even notice the hook anymore. I believe that everytime you reach your hand in the cage, your hands are viewed as a potential meal ( good god you have your hands smelling like a rat on top of that). Snakes detect heat pheremones that are given off by your body. Whereas a snake hook is a dull piece of metal. In general, if you hook the snake by the thickest part of its body, the worst it will eventually do is jerk or puff. Why even expose your hands to unnecessary bites and wounds? Most bites occur at that stage where you reach in the tank. Once you open that lid, the snake goes into a hunting mode, or a defensive mode. In my amateur opinion, the hook is a safe and easy tool to use. But than again, for many owners, a bite less or a bite more is no biggie, yet imagine a bite from a 15 foot constrictor Anyhow, I am glad he is settling down for ya. he just might make a great pet down the road.

PS: bring him over and introduce him to my female someday, they shall make a cute couple together... hehehehe.

Ron

Had a great thanksgiving and a great weekend, hope everyone did as well.

I've been using the hook to get him out of the cage for cleaning and such, but otherwise i've been leaving him alone this week. He seems quite content in his little world, although he spends a LOT of time soaking. I guess thats normal considering their semi-aquatic. He ate a small rat yesterday, i tried i different method of feeding him last night to see what would trigger his feeding response. I first tried placing the rat in front of his face and he seemed quite uninterested. Then, i put the rat in the front of his tub and fashioned it so it looked like the rat was drinking from a watering hole. He perked right up when i did that! He slowly edged towards the rat, then dove underwater until he was right underneath its head. Then, out of nowhere he grabbed it by its head and drug it into the water and wrapped around it. He ate the whole thing entirely underwater, i was pretty impressed. I found this whole process fascinating and was wondering if anyone else had noticed any neat conda habits, feeding or otherwise. So after a full week with him, i think he's gonna be a great pet, especially when i get his new cage finished, should be done in a couple weeks! thanks again for the response Ron.

PS-Sounds like a plan to me Ron, I'd luv to have some baby yellows one of these days. Seems like ours are on the same growth pace as well

Wow, that's one hell of a response on your conda's side
I bet it is fascinating to watch. Reminds me of wildlife anaconda show that I own, where a green anaconda attacks a Capibara under water. Some beautiful footage there in the amazon. If any of you are interested in nature dvds like that, the dvd is called " Killer instincts", anaconda giant snake of the amazon. The movie is dedicated to the green anaconda. I bought it on amazon.com. Gives you great documentary and footage on green anacondas.
Grabbing the rat and howling it under water would be a natural reaction, which is a sign that the snake is acclimating to it's surroundings. Unfortunately for me, it is not something that I wanna experiment with anymore. I do feed all of my snakes outside their enclosures. Feeding the snake in its enclosure will result in a more aggressive snake. Trust me, I did an experiment 2.5 years ago with my captive born ball python. The python was kitten tame (as we call a tame snake, lol), I decided to see if the rumors were true. I started feeding the snake in its tank instead of a seperate container/enclosure. Once a week for about a whole month. After a month, each time when I passed by the snakes tank, it would assume a striking position and If I got close enough, it would strike. I couldn't even pick it up anymore with previous measures without getting a nip or a strike. My one year old sweetheart turned into a killing machine in just about a month. With all that happening before my eyes, I decided to reverse the process, just to test my hypothesis and see if he would become tame again. So I started to feed him outside his enclosure once again for another two months. Sure enough, he wouldn't even hesitate one bit when I approached his cage. He became mellow and docile as he was at first. I tried this vise versa experiment again in a few months with the same snake for the second time, and once again he became a killer once he was fed in his enclosure and kitten tame when he wasnt. At that point, I have learned my lesson through experience and won't ever again feed my snake in its enclosure if I plan on taming it down. Just some real life food for thought folks.

PS: check out that dvd, any of you conda lovers should appreciate the raw footage.

You're exactly right, as fascinating as it may be, its not worth the future trouble of making my snake more agressive. I have been feeding him in his enclosure and will for the next week until he's become fully acclimated to his environment, then i'm switching it up. I'm thinking i will get a bigass box and another soaking dish for him and place it in the box and feed him in there. That way he can still hone his natural instincts with hunting in the water, etc. but won't associate his home w/feeding time. I took him out last night and cleaned out his cage and such, had him on the ground and was handling him a little bit, not too much. Seemed alright with it, i'm still a little cautious, i wear gloves now just to make sure. I measured him the best i could and he's right around 3 1/2 feet long. At one point, i was sitting in front of him and just watching him, i stood up and he freaked, he struck into the air towards me, luckily i was just out of reach of he would have gotten me in the leg lol. I immediately sat back down and he was fine, actually slithered his way up my arm for a little while.

Sounds like a cool dvd, i'll have to check it out. I love watching documentaries about snakes and similar stuff. I used to have this 10 hour long documentary when i was a kid called "life on earth" which i watched religiously. Thanks for the advice and the recommendation Ron, always appreciated . After i get my yellow's new cage set up i think i'm going to get either a baby red-tail or a jungle carpet python.....or maybe a hognose, oh well, haven't decided yet lol. I'm still trying to come up with a good name for my new yellow, any suggestions? I have a savannah monitor i call Godzilla (yeah i know i'm a dork lol). Alright, gonna stop rambling......

Hey, you mind if I bring in my "horse diver" snacks into this?
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"I am all that is Divine, I am all that is Evil.
I am the one who brings forth Death,
On the wings of a Weevil." JSKII

np
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"I am all that is Divine, I am all that is Evil.
I am the one who brings forth Death,
On the wings of a Weevil." JSKII