Anaconda Care Sheet

I have two very large Anacondas and I will first warn everyone that these snakes get very large and when grown the males will be 10 plus feet and the females will be 15 plus feet. Never attempt to handle a grown anaconda by yourself. No matter how tame you think the anaconda is it can attack and if it gets wrapped around you and you are by yourself it may kill you. Yes kill you. It may not eat you but it can kill you.

You will need a room size enclosure for your snake and you will need a bathtub as a pond for your snake. Ideally it should be possible to empty the tub when you want so it can be cleaned. Anaconda love water and your anaconda will get to the size where it will need the room size enclosure. A snake this size is also going to be hungry and need to eat often. When the snake is young you can start with mice but as the snake grows you will also have to go up in size with the prey you are offering it. Small pigs are ideal for full grown anacondas. So as you can see there will be a huge cost involved in keeping your anaconda.

The best thing to do is to create an artificial waterfall into the bathtub as this will help to keep the humidity up. The humidity in your anacondas enclosure needs to be at 60 - 70 percent. Shredded newspaper , shredded aspen or paper towels will make a perfect substrate for the cage floor of your anacondas enclosure floor. You do not want to use other substrates as they will get wet and because of the humidity you will see mold to start to grow and with mold can come disease. The best thing you can do is stick with shredded newspaper.

Keep in mind that the anaconda is the largest snake in the world. Your anaconda is going to need a day time temperature around 82 degrees with a hot spot at around 90 degrees and at night the temperature needs to drop to 72 - 75 degrees. I keep my enclosures at the high temperature for 12 hours a day and at the lower temperature for the other 12 hours. Your anaconda will not need any special lighting but I suggest keeping the lights on 12 hours and off 12 hours.

You will need to feed your anaconda every 10 days. Small snakes can be fed on mice while larger snakes will need rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, and eventually small pigs. Always remember never to handle your anaconda for a day or two after feeding as you can cause your snake to throw up what it ate by handing it.

As your snake grows and gets above five feet have someone near by when you are handling and working with your anaconda. From 10 feet and up you never want to work with or handle this snake by yourself as you can get in trouble in a hurry and quite possibly be injured or killed.

When you are cleaning your snakes enclosure you will need a large rubber-maid container to hold the snake while you clean its enclosure. You will need to thoroughly clean the snakes enclosure at least once weekly. A bleach solution is the best thing to use. Let the enclosure dry out before you return the anaconda to the enclosure. Use a fan to hurry things along if you need to.

I can not stress enough. If you are going to keep an anaconda do your own research and learn everything you can about anacondas. You will want to keep a journal about your anaconda and keep notes about what you feed your snake, when it eats, when it defecates, its daily habits and any other notes you feel are important. You should also look around for a good veterinarian that works with snakes and knows about anacondas. Take your snakes journal with you if you need to take the anaconda to the veterinarian. If your snake does not defecate at least every other feeding take it in to see the veterinarian. If your anaconda is shedding leave it along and it will take care of the shedding on its own.

Keep in your mind that when your anaconda gets large never try to work with it on your own. Even docile anacondas can get spooked easily and once it grabs you it could seriously injure you or kill you if you don't have some one to help you around. So never work with a large anaconda alone.

But keeping a anaconda that you buy as a small snake like those in the top photo can be very rewarding and interesting. If you provide your anaconda with the right heating, humidity, and food it is going to grow very quickly. And I love watching them grow from small snakes into adult snakes.

Anacondas are meat eaters and they kill their prey by constricting their prey and crushing it before they swallow their prey. Sometimes they drown their prey. They swallow their prey head first and they should not be handled for a couple of days after they eat. Keep in mind that the larger the prey the snake eats the longer it will go with out eating. If they eat large prey they will want to rest for several weeks before they eat again.

If you have questions or comments about anacondas please post them in the comment section below. And always remember to do your research on anacondas. If you are going to keep one learn everything you can about anacondas.