New, and have some questions

[Good 'N Plenty]

Originally Posted by Rham_Es-Hestos

Can I see some good pictures of the different anaconda varieties? Green, the only one I’ve ever heard of was and still is my favorite animal, though I could hardly consider owning one.

All the following pictures are courtesy of Ben Rennick's site and are his personal snakes unless otherwise noted!

Greens:
Normal Green Anaconda: Renick Reptiles - Collection - Normal [Wild Type] Green Anaconda
Hypo Orange Green Anaconda: Renick Reptiles - Collection - Hypomelanistic Green Anaconda
Hypo Yellow Green Anaconda: Renick Reptiles - Collection - Hypomelanistic Green Anaconda
Anerythristic Green Anaconda: Renick Reptiles - Collection - Anerythristic Green Anaconda
T+Albino Green Anaconda: Green anaconda image by woodage on Photobucket
Yellows:
Normal Yellow Anaconda: Renick Reptiles - Collection - Normal [Wild Type] Yellow Anaconda
Axanthic Yellow Anaconda: Renick Reptiles - Collection - Axanthic Yellow Anaconda
Hypo Yellow Anaconda: Renick Reptiles - Collection - Hypomelanistic Yellow Anaconda
Marble Yellow Anaconda: Renick Reptiles - Collection - Marble Yellow Anaconda
Patternless Yellow Anaconda: Renick Reptiles - Collection - Patternless Yellow Anaconda
Granite Yellow Anaconda *Not Ben's*: http://web.mac.com/anaconda_guy/iWeb...aconda%203.jpg

Beni Anaconda *Not Ben's*: Beni.Pics
Here is some more info on Beni Anacondas from the legend himself, Kelly Haller: Kingsnake.com - Herpforum - Info and metrics on Eunectes beniensis..
Dark-spotted Anaconda, aka Deschauensee Anaconda *Not Ben's*: Dark-spotted Anaconda, Eunectes deschauenseei

How much does a conda differ from a burm in girth? The picture of the patternless green burm looked very similar to that of the green anaconda.

Anacondas have such a strikingly unique head, that with some time just googling pictures, you'll see theres no mistaking them for anything else. The difference in girth is as individual as the snakes, but condas will typically be a bit bigger around. That's about as accurate as I can be, sorry! Hard to get stats on girth for the big 4.

I’m seeing that a shed could be considered a great enclosure for any snake, aye? I’m picturing having a shed attached to a house with a heat vent in it and possibly a few heat lamps, but the shed could basically be an entirely new environment with plants and even dirt perhaps with rocks to climb on and sub-bathe in during the summer (I could even install a skylite for just that purpose). Then I could save a few feet in the front of the shed for a fridge in which to keep the feeders. Sounds like an amazing setup, at least, the way I picture it looks good. The snake could have almost the entire area to roam around in and with the proper insulation and heating, it would be fine outside the house during winter.

'Shed' is a loose and ambiguous term. Make no mistake, any addition or small building that is used soley to house snakes should be as well made if not even more sealed up than a house. Within the snake building, humidity and heat need to be maintained, and you should always take cleaning into account.

When I get my license, I will most definitely check out a few of these reptile shows, and drag my friend along with me who will most likely be dorming with me during and after college. If I get accepted, I will be going to Virginia Tech, any good shows near there?

I'm up at Amherst College (not UMass), but live in northern VA. Wahoo Wah! UVA all the way!

[Will0W783]

Rham, if you're in MD, the Havre de Grace, MD show is a good one. There is also a great one in Richmond, VA if you're down towards the lower end of MD. BTW, I go to the Havre de Grace show every month because it's only an hour away from my house. If you want to go next time, perhaps I can meet you.

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

Will0W, that’s a great offer, thank you very much, but my parents would most likely not let me go to Havre De Grace with a complete stranger, no offense or anything. Perhaps later when I’m in college we can talk about it again. I would certainly like to go to a reptile show and having someone there who knows what they are doing would be excellent.

GNP, those anacondas are beautiful, my favorite in particular was the orange hypo. Amazing coloration and pattern. What’s your favorite? Keeping an anaconda sounds weird to me though. Probably because I’ve always thought of them as wild animals and every story I heard about them is about an attack. Pythons on the other hand, I’ve known that people keep them whereas anacondas on the other hand, I’ve never heard of as a pet. Is there greater risk involved with owning one of them? You mentioned that a snake’s power is not in it’s length, but girth so it would make sense to me that they would be considerably more dangerous than any burm, retic or boa as well as that they are worse tempered than many snakes. Not to mention you said earlier that they always tend to use more coils when wrapping their prey so altogether, you have: big snake + more coils + more strength + bad temper = Big problems? For those of you who own condas, do you keep more people around you when you handle them because of the extra dangers?

GNP, are you saying that a standard shed would be a possibility as long as it was properly set up and kept at a correct temp and humidity?

[Will0W783]

People do keep 'condas as pets. There's one at a pet store near me that they have as a display animal, and she is really sweet-tempered. She's a yellow anaconda, so she's full grown at 10 feet and about as thick as a salad plate. They are very thick snakes. I think that with anacondas, as with any snake, it's all in how one familiarizes it with human contact from a young age. Emerald tree boas have a nasty reputation for being aggressive, intractable, display-only animals, but mine is more docile than a BP. She loves her throat tickled. She is 3 years old and has been handled her whole life, since she was a hatchling. There is a risk with any snake, and all snakes, because they are primitive, wild animals. They are not domesticated like dogs and cats, nor are they capable of ever being so. Their world is a simple one of instinct and reaction and conditioning. So I would think that an anaconda that was handled regularly since a young age and was generally used to people would be no more risk than a burm or retic.

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

Well, that’s what I know most people would say. There is something that bugs me about that though. It is that people say stuff like that to people who are new to keeping snakes and those new people assume that if they do just that, they will NEVER have any problems. I don’t think that’s the right frame of mind to have, correct me if I’m wrong, but I would go into handling a large snake with much caution and awareness, not the mindset that as long as I’m doing everything right, nothing will go wrong.

Ex: I go to interact with my burm, thinking that I will do everything right and nothing will happen, that thought might lead me into a false sense of security so that I get comfortable and perhaps forget about the snake for a minute, then something startles it, doorbell, phone ringing, you know, any sudden noises. That has all been discussed and we all know that sudden noises can scare any constrictor into doing just what it was built to do. Do you see what I mean? I don’t mean any offense when I say that what you told me was what everyone else will say and that I think that could be misleading.

Again, I am new here, so correct me if I’m wrong, I’m just expressing my thoughts on what you said.

[Good 'N Plenty]

As Will0w said, people certainly keep anacondas as pets.

My favorite, without a doubt, is the T+ Albino Green. However, thats a $30k doller snake give or take, so that's not likely to be in my future ownership (I don't for for a fact how much Ben Rennick bought it for, but I've seen top end snakes go for $25k-$30k before and this albino conda is one of either 3 or 4 known examples in the world

There is greater risk in owning condas I believe, but it is based on size, weight, and strike style more than temperment. While baby snakes are certainly tempermental (this can be true for many species) with regular handling and some familiarization methods most snakes can become quite docile adults, though no snake is 100% tame.
Big snake + more coils + more strength + swiping strike = increased danger if triggered
But all danger is managable. Read the body language of the snake, always handle with at least 2 people, etc.

Will0w made an excellent point in making a difference between risk and danger. The risk of a BP and a dog biting you is pretty much the same in most cases of 2 well-raised animals, but sometimes something can trigger them and they will go off. The risk is not greater that they will strike, but the severity/risk is increased if they DO.

The issue of swiping is one that, as far as I've seen, is unique to condas, and is usually seen only in infants/young snakes. They can swipe, open mouthed at near 90 degree angles, seemingly just trying to rake you with their teeth when they are scared. This behavior has little warning but is fairly rare.
My only guess is that this is because the snake is threatened but realizes the person in front of them too large to eat, and therefor is looking to scare them away without having to latch onto the organism. This would account for why this behavior typically disappears with age, but who knows? I'm no Kelly Haller or Ben Rennick!

On another note - many snakes are deaf, and instead rely of feeling vibrations rather than directly hearing sound like we do. Doorbell wouldn't do the trick as there are no ground vibrations caused by it. A slamming door might though, but it'd be the sudden movement as much as anything else

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

So an anaconda strike is more dangerous because of the way it does it? How is a 90 degree strike worse? Sorry for all the questions, I’m just trying to learn as much as I can. Are Burms deaf? I do remember hearing that most snakes were deaf. Guess I forgot about that.

I’d have to agree with you on that albino, it is beautiful, though a 30k price tag is way too much. Our dogs were about $300+ for each, we have a standard poodle and a golden retriever. If I can spend less than that to buy a burm, I’m happy even if I do have to spend $500 feeding it each year.

Big question here. Last night I saw a video of a guy wrestling an anaconda. Now, I couldn’t tell if he was doing it for fun or what. He was actually in a pool, which made no sense to me because that would be a very dangerous place to be with a snake, let alone wrestling it. Why would someone do that? What is the point? Sure, maybe it looks like a lot of fun, but unless you are going to be wrestling anacondas as a profession, why risk it? I’ll try and find the link to the video later, but I can confirm that it is a real video.

[Will0W783]

Why would someone do that? What is the point?

In short, because they're a stupid moron. People do stupid s*it to "look cool" and to show off. A person is smart; people are dumb, panicky animals.

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

He definity wasn't doing it to look cool. It was an older video and there was a narrator, maybe it was part of a documentary. I believe the mans name was Ross Allen. Like I said, when I canc get on a computer tonight, I'll give you guys the link. Right now I can't copy/paste links.

[Will0W783]

Ok. I am curious to see this video.

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

I'll give it a go here on my iPod. I've never tried to grab a URL before. I can copy and paste but I've never tried a URL before....

Alright, it worked. Surprising...
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

the URL is set for a mobile device and I'm not sure how to change that. You might have to mess with it.

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

What do you think Will0W? I still can't see why even a professional herpetologist needs to do that...

[Good 'N Plenty]

Link wasnt working, least not on my computer. Very interested to see the video though

[Rham_Es-Hestos]

YouTube - Ross Allen Reptile Institute (1960's)

There ya go. Try that

[Will0W783]

Yeah, link just opened up on Youtube's homepage. You have to make sure to copy and paste the entire link.