Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I fed My 80cm female greens with bird on friday noon.& this sunday morning i found on her poops on still remain bird's entire foot,feather n little flesh..
Is that usuall on green?
Cz if i feed her with mice (in the past),it looks no problem at all.
It her first bird prey.
Thx b4

Feeding birds to an anaconda that is already feeding well on rodents might be asking for trouble. Most anacondas really like birds and can easily get stuck on them, refusing to eat anything else. Sometimes chicks or ducklings are the only way to get a newborn started feeding. These are usually offered as a last resort and once feeding, owners work long and hard to get their snakes off of birds and onto rodents since they are much easier to aquire for most people. Since your snake has already accepted mice, and even seemed to have a little digestive issue with the bird, I would definitely stick to a rodent diet. Also I would try to switch to appropriately sized rats as soon as possible to avoid it getting hung up on mice.

The advice Djderon gave you is absolutely spot on.Nearly all neonate anacondas need some type of bird to initiate a feeding response but can normally after a few feeds be switched to a rodent diet.It is also better to switch to small rats rather than mice as anacondas can become fixated on one type of prey at the expense of all others and as you can get much larger rats it makes sense to get them onto a food source they can stay on indefinately. IT is a risky business offering them birds again,i had a male anaconda of about 11ft and 65lbs that would only eat chicks which meant that for the whole of its life every time i fed him i would give him a chick and then sit there power feeding him 3 or 4 rats. You are just inviting in potential problems by offering them birds again as undoubtedly they are a more natural food choice of theirs.
Dan

But,whats wrong with bird n chick?
Are they can cause digestive problem to my green?
I replace mice cz in my country in indonesia the bird n chick is more cheaper than rat n any other rodent.
And i also reads that rodent can cause serious problem as them dying self defense..

If birds are readily available to you and you know for sure you will be able to aquire and feed your snake birds of appropriate size and quality it's entire life, then you can probably do so. I am not aware of any digestion problems inherent to an all-bird diet (but then again I've never raised something through adulthood on a bird diet either). Birds are something they would eat in the wild, so I assume it would be fine. There may be other forum members here that have fed all-bird diets that can lend more experienced advice. Just keep in mind that a full grown anaconda is going to need large, full grown chickens (or something similar) on a regular basis.

Whatever you feed your snake, it is always better to feed pre-killed prey. Offering live prey of any type to a captive reptile invites a possible mishap ending in injury to your pet.

I may be the exception here, but I occasionally feed both my adult green and yellow anaconda’s chickens, pigeons, and quail along with their normal rabbit and rat diets. As adults neither of them has shown any qualms about taking mammals at their next scheduled meal. The green was finicky as a juvenile and was hard to get switched onto frozen thawed rats from live rats and then again from frozen thawed rats to rabbits, but now will take anything I give her. The yellow has always been a garbage disposal eating anything I have offered from day one. Both are CB and this may be part of the reason they are so easy to deal with. Interestingly, my retics and rocks will not take birds of any kind, so I understand these animals can get fixated, but I just haven't seen it in either of my adult anacondas. As for the bird only diet, I have never done it or known any one that has, but as long as the birds are adults and maintained on a well rounded nutritionally complete diet prior to being fed out I can't see that there would be any problems.
Best regards,
Shane.

I was reading your initial post and it sounded like you fed the bird on Friday and Sunday the bird was defecated somewhat intact. If that was the correct timeframe, it would be impossible for the bird to move through the digestive tract of an anaconda that quickly, and I would suspect that it was more likely that the bird was regurged. This would also explain the apparent lack of sufficient digestion. I definitely agree with Dan and DJ on the feeding of rodent prey, especially rats. Best to start feeding rats as soon as they will take them, and not feed birds to a confirmed rodent eater unless necessary.

However, I have never seen a problem with feeding greens under a year old on birds. About 80 to 90% of the diet of young greens in their natural habitat during their first year or two is birds. As they become juveniles, they will naturally acquire the drive to take mammals. Although some greens will start well on rodents, many will not. Jud and I have started close to a hundred greens over the years, the majority of them preferring chicks, and have never had one that refused to switch over to rats within a few months at most. The big issue I would see with birds is the feeding of them to young adults or older greens. This would be where you could possibly run into the problems Dan and DJ were talking about as far as getting them stuck feeding on birds only. Not that birds would harm them, but I believe that it would be more difficult to maintain growth and body weight on an adult green feeding them only birds. Just my thoughts on it.

Kelly