Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a green anaconda approx. 6 years old that has not eaten in 8 months.
He has shed several times in that period and goes about his normal routine - in water out of water, etc. I did feed him a gruel of chicken and vitamins about 2 months ago.
He just is not interested in food. I have tried chicks, live and frozen, fish and rodents, live and frozen but no luck. Before this he was eating f/t rats regularly. I would appreciate any advice.

Has he ever gone off feed before for an extended period, and have there been any changes in his interior cage environment or cage location?

Kelly

He would skip a feeding every now and then but would take the next time.
I only changed his habitat recently to see if that would get him to eat.
Before that nothing changed. I would use him occasionally in my education program but he would still eat. His habitat is 7'L x 3'D x 2'T. One end has water and the other end has a heat bulb that keeps that end about 89 during the day. He doesn't appear to be in distress or sickly. He has lost a little girth but he is not skinny. When I force fed him he kept everything down and seemed "happy". Maybe this is a normal thing, I just don't want to find him dead one morning because I didn't do something.

I definitely would not force-feed again as that will most likely delay any chance of him feeding voluntarily. I would also not handle or remove him from the cage except for cleaning purposes until he feeds again. The warm end could be a little high in temp for this green and could be affecting the rest of the cage temps. You might try lowering the warm end down to the low 80’s for a while to see if that helps any. Not all males do this, but some occasionally go off feed for extended periods during the winter months for no apparent reason. In some cases this could be attributed to natural reproductive cycling because it is typically only seen with mature males, but not always. I have also noticed that the period can be variable with the same male, some years going off feed for more months than other years. I wouldn’t get overly concerned at this point as long as his weight doesn’t change much. However, if you see a dramatic weight loss, or it gets close to a year, that would definitely be a concern and you should be trying to determine what environmental parameters could be adversely affecting this male. One question I have would be what is the longest period of time he has gone off feed before this one?

Kelly

He ate!
I was changing his water and he seemed to be showing a little more interest than usual so I got a feeder and "bam" he took it right away.
Thanks for your advice. Next time I won't worry quite as much.

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