hhmoore
tired & cranky shadow
they resumed feeding!
Background stories:
a) I went away for a few days in early June of '05 (after managing food/water intake in a futile attempt to prevent returning to messy cages). Sure enough, my male yellow anaconda was sitting in filth and sounding a bit raspy when I got home. I cleaned him off, soaked him, and put him in a fresh tub - and few days later gave him a thorough going over. Mouth clear, nares patent, no noises - no problem. Except that he refused to eat...and continued to refuse until yesterday (well, a day and a half ago). From 05/16/05 to 02/09/06, he refused all offerings (f/t and live) - to include rats, guinea pigs, gerbils, weanling rabbits, chicks. I did force feed him a smallish medium rat on two occasions.
b) One of my females, presumed to be gravid (some of you may remember me posting about her last summer), had first refused food on July 21, 2005. Figuring she was a only week or two from parturition, I wasn't particularly concerned...except no babies ever came. And she just never bothered to eat again - rats, guinea pigs, or rabbits. Tonite (last night, whatever - 2/10), she ate like she had never stopped...came right over to the door when I opened it (just like she used to) and snatched the f/t rats up like they were candy.
Admittedly, I had been at a bit of a loss...for ideas and warm cage space. I had dropped the temps in my snake room for breeding, and my plastic cages have heat tape - wired in series, of course - so I didn't have a convenient means of keeping them warm...so I cooled them. Since I kind of needed all of my available cages for breeders, I struggled with the idea then put the male in with the female. I hesitated to do this because I felt that neither of them was in suitable condition & didn't want to risk breeding activity. Anyway, my schedule being what it was, I just got around to separating everything over the past 2 weeks. These anacondas were the last, and they both ate within 24 hrs of being separated. Now, if she will just cough up the babies she flaked on last summer, lol (For the record, I didn't notice anything even resembling courtship or copulation with this pair. And I don't expect babies from this pair, but stranger things have happened)
Background stories:
a) I went away for a few days in early June of '05 (after managing food/water intake in a futile attempt to prevent returning to messy cages). Sure enough, my male yellow anaconda was sitting in filth and sounding a bit raspy when I got home. I cleaned him off, soaked him, and put him in a fresh tub - and few days later gave him a thorough going over. Mouth clear, nares patent, no noises - no problem. Except that he refused to eat...and continued to refuse until yesterday (well, a day and a half ago). From 05/16/05 to 02/09/06, he refused all offerings (f/t and live) - to include rats, guinea pigs, gerbils, weanling rabbits, chicks. I did force feed him a smallish medium rat on two occasions.
b) One of my females, presumed to be gravid (some of you may remember me posting about her last summer), had first refused food on July 21, 2005. Figuring she was a only week or two from parturition, I wasn't particularly concerned...except no babies ever came. And she just never bothered to eat again - rats, guinea pigs, or rabbits. Tonite (last night, whatever - 2/10), she ate like she had never stopped...came right over to the door when I opened it (just like she used to) and snatched the f/t rats up like they were candy.
Admittedly, I had been at a bit of a loss...for ideas and warm cage space. I had dropped the temps in my snake room for breeding, and my plastic cages have heat tape - wired in series, of course - so I didn't have a convenient means of keeping them warm...so I cooled them. Since I kind of needed all of my available cages for breeders, I struggled with the idea then put the male in with the female. I hesitated to do this because I felt that neither of them was in suitable condition & didn't want to risk breeding activity. Anyway, my schedule being what it was, I just got around to separating everything over the past 2 weeks. These anacondas were the last, and they both ate within 24 hrs of being separated. Now, if she will just cough up the babies she flaked on last summer, lol (For the record, I didn't notice anything even resembling courtship or copulation with this pair. And I don't expect babies from this pair, but stranger things have happened)
