Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Went out in the snake building to a nice surprise yesterday morning. My female green was having babies.
I had really looked at her the night before and she looked big but she is big and she did'nt look THAT big.
And because the 2 previous times she went one was mid Oct. and the other was late Oct.
Through my choice and bad luck this is the third male.
She has had a different male each of her three clutches.
The first clutch she had 12 the next 13 this year a whopping 31.
Still huge babies like always just a lot more of them.
The male did'nt seem any more impressive. Lean 8-9 feet.
An additional fully formed baby was dead and 2 unferlized ovum.
She ate the one dead baby but not eat the ovum.D.C.

Congratulations Danny. It's great to see some reproduction activity on this forum with Greens. Did you take some photos of the female giving birth. Again, nice job. Jud McClanahan

Jud
She was pretty much done when I got there.
I did get some pretty cool video of her eating the one dead baby.
I wish I had been paying more attention I only got the last 6-7 inches. But cool none the less. D.C.

Danny,
Great to hear. What is the length of your female? That male is actually about average for a male green, and typically not much weight. She did good if she produced that small number of slugs.

Kelly

Kelly
Probably 14-15 feet.
I found 2 more babies today. That makes 33 plus the one dead one.
I'm pretty sure it was born live and she laid on it and it suffocated???
It was out of the sack. I've seen snakes nudge sacks and free babies I don't know if this is intentional or not.
I suppose she could have release a dead baby.
I saw her moving it around for sometime. I don't know if she was making sure it was dead or just trying to figure the best way to approach it. Jud did'nt say his opinion on why they eat the dead babies. What do you think? Hungry? Or just keeping a tidy area?
I soaked her for 2 days while giving her cage a major cleaning.
But even now she seems whipped. I've seen wrung out before but I told one friend her stomach looked like a male tortoise. Hollow.
What's the biggest clutch you and Jud have ever produced and how big was that female?D.C.

Danny,
That is about an average litter for a female of that size. Most neonate greens are born outside of the sack having broken free while still within the female. I believe this to be an inherent trait with all anaconda species so that if the young are dropped in water they are able to get to the surface more readily. That one could have easily been born dead, as this is seen occasionally. The largest litter I have produced was in the low 30’s but I don’t remember the exact number. I do remember that if you counted both neonates and infertile eggs, the count together was about 40, which is about the number of live young that you could potentially see from a 16 footer. With all of the births I have had here, the females always ate the infertile slugs. I believe that female greens ingest any slugs or dead neonates as a way to replenish energy reserves lost during the period of development of the young. Reproduction takes a heavy toll on the female and it would be a waste of valuable energy to not eat this material. This is especially true with green anacondas considering the environment in with these snakes live, as energy is at a premium in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. Some female greens have even been known to kill and eat male greens after mating, but this has never been documented in captivity. Additionally, this probably only occurs when the females reserves are at an unusually low level and she needs to augment these reserves for the impending pregnancy. I believe this lack of occurrence in captivity is further evidence that it is an energy reserve issue. Female greens in captivity are typically well fed and the females realize there is a pretty consistent food source available, therefore they most likely do not have the inclination to feed on males even when they are available.

Kelly

This is a very cool topic.

Kelly, given that you are around 3.5 hours away, I thought I would let you know. Jesus Rivas will be coming to The University of Tulsa on the 28th of September to talk about Green anaconda, ecology, behavior, reproduction and genetics. If you are interested in coming down, seeing the seminar and meeting Jesus, let me know.

Warren
-----
Dr Warren Booth / Director USARK
North Carolina State University
Department of Entomology

Warren,
Thank you very much for the notice. I would be most interested in that seminar and meeting Mr. Rivas. I will contact you later this week on the details. Thanks again,

Kelly

Congratulations on the baby greens. My female that is a little smaller than yours produced 33 babies last year along with 9 egg masses and one still born. It was a crazy morning as I found her finishing up around 4:30 AM. I would love to see photos of your adults and your set-up.
Managing the babies has been a great experience. I'd have to check my records, but I don't think they started eating for about two months. The last one to eat voluntarily waited nearly 7 months. Once they start they seem to eat every time I offer them food. Their feeding and growth patterns are much different than the retics and burms that I have raised in the past.
My adults female's metabolism seems much slower than the large pythons. How old is your female and how long have you had her?

Karl
I've had my female 10 years, she was about 8 feet when I got her.
None of my babies have eaten for me yet.
I'll see about posting some pics. D.C.

Karl's experiences with the time of first feeding by neonates correlates well with what I have experienced. Individuals from all of the litters born here typically started feeding at two to three months after birth. Some in the first few litters however held out for 4 to 5 months before beginning to feed. One thing we have found is that the initial feeding time can be shortened by using chicks as a first food item. Some will start on rats, but most seem to prefer chicks as an initial food source. With really stubborn hold-outs, ducklings are the best bet. I don't believe I have ever seen a neonate refuse one. With the last few litters I had, I just started them all with chicks, and then switched to juvenile rats after they fed well on a few chicks. It made getting them going much easier and helped to get them feeding a little earlier. Plus I believe the most common food source in the neonates natural environment is small water and shore birds.

Kelly

n/p

~Mike