Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my baby anaconda seems to be stressed lately, going under the newspaper substrate and traveling to the corner where his hidebox is. he hasnt done this until he began his shed and has been doing it since. im looking to destress him since he also wont eat, and its been 5-6 weeks. the first two weeks he ate fine, but then almost lost all interest. i want to give him some space to calm down but i also dont want him to starve. any suggestions?

Shane, I'm voting for you for the Concerned mother of the year award. =) He's in great shape, and you are doing a good job with him. You've been handling him every day. Let him settle for a week. His temps, hide, water, and other things you have in there are all correct. It's been 3 weeks since he's had a rat, and that's normal. Wait another week without handling and offer again. He's going to refuse food some days..... they do that. You're doing a great job with him, keep up the work, and take a picture of the two of you! Next time I'm up there, i'll do a whole shoot for you. lol

If it was my snake I would keep the humidity high, and just wait til I saw it out and about(probably accompanied by emptying remaining contents of digestive tract) and offer it food then. A lot of times its just a game of patience with reptiles.
Mike

Yes is sure does seem like a waiting game... But do you (or anyone) know how long a 7 month old can go without eating?

I believe a 7 month old green could go around 5 or 6 months without feeding before things started to become problematic. This is providing of course that the green had been feeding well before, had no health issues, and had good body weight before the feeding stopped. I have seen two or three newborns over the last 10 years that did not take their first meal until almost 6 months of age. They were a little thin, but not in bad shape, and did well and grew normally after feeding initiated.

The issue with a young green under a year old going off feed after feeding for awhile is that their metabolism has kicked in and this makes a difference. Before a newborn green takes its first meal, it is only losing about a gram or two a week in metabolic weight loss. This is not that much considering an average birth weight of around 250 grams. It appears their metabolism is in a strong conservation mode and using stored reserves until their feeding response kicks in. Once they start feeding, the metabolism gears up and if they go off feed later, their weight loss will be more significant over a given time period than before their first feeding after birth. Greens go off feed occasionally for apparently no reason, but I have not experienced this myself with greens less than two years of age. These younger greens usually feed consistently with no interruption unless something occurs to throw them off. The key in your situation would be to determine what in its environment or with its health changed to cause this one to quit feeding.

Kelly

The only health related change would be that he shed his skin two weeks ago on the night/morning of the 24th/25th of may, and he hadnt eaten three weeks prior to that.(last feed was a small rat on 4/26, and one was a week before that on 4/19.) I have kept a very close eye on all his temps, his basking spot is constantly between 87-89 degrees, ambient is between 74-78. the only real significant change would be that i changed his hidebox and have started taking his waterdish out since he would soak in there for a while, and i recently tossed in an old t-shirt since he would burrow under the newspaper substrate (he seems to use the t-shirt a lot now to hide and sleep in). ive tried weekly feedings each time but no luck; should i skip this weeks attempt and try again next sunday? it will be 6 weeks no feeding total as of june 7th

Young greens are very shy snakes and some are more stress prone than others. The combination of the change in hide box, water bowl removal, and frequent handling, could have stressed this individual male to the point that it would go off feed. You have two options at this point. One would be to do nothing except cut back on the handling and when he settles into the new environment and gets hungry enough, he will start feeding. This could take anywhere from another week to a month or two. The other would be to put the original hide box back in for a few weeks, leave the water in, and only handle him once or twice a week until he starts feeding again, and then make other future changes to his environment when he is a little older. The water won’t be an issue as long as it is kept clean and he doesn’t start showing any skin issues. Please keep us posted as to how he does. Thanks,

Kelly

Ive reduced the handling and replaced the original water dish, and when i was doing so i noticed his eyes have glassed over again, even though he just shed may 24 would the current lack of appetite be tied into him preparing to shed again?

You might try a live rat pup just getting it's eyes open, that usually works. Jud