How to Feed a Yellow Anaconda

Determine the appropriate food for your yellow anaconda. Juveniles and sub-adults should be fed one or two mice or small rats per week, while an adult yellow anaconda requires a feeding every other week of one large rat, guinea pig or rabbit. No food rodent should be bigger than the thickest part of the snake's girth.

Place the yellow anaconda in a separate feeding container or enclosure. A large plastic storage container with air holes drilled into the lid works well. It needs to be big enough for the snake to wrap around its prey. There should be no bedding in it, so the snake does not ingest the material with the prey.

Place the live prey in an open shallow plastic container, such as a deli dish, and set it in the feeding container with the yellow anaconda. This will keep it close to the snake until it smells the prey. Don't worry if the prey jumps out. It will entice the snake to hunt. Leave the snake with its prey for at least 24 hours.

Check the yellow anaconda to see if it has eaten the prey. Sometimes it is difficult to get this type of snake to eat at first. Feeding should become easier with time and sufficient handling. If rodents do not entice the snake to feed, other animals such as frogs, lizards, fish, chicks and quails can also be offered depending upon the size of the snake.

Tease-feed the snake if it refuses to eat. Hold freshly dead prey with a pair of forceps and tap the snake near its head and mouth with the dead prey. A more extreme method is called "braining." To do this type of feeding, open the skull cavity of a freshly killed prey (such as a mouse or lizard) and place it in the cage. The smell of the prey's brain matter and bodily fluids might be enough to entice the snake to eat.

Return the yellow anaconda to its permanent cage after it has fed. A glass tank or aquarium is sufficient for a small snake, but an adult will be more secure in a large wooden cage with one or more opaque sides made of polyethylene. Both types require a graded heating source. Make sure there is adequate fresh water in a shallow ceramic bowl for small snakes to drink and soak in. Change it every few days, as snakes can be dirty. Adult snakes will need water bowls for drinking as well, but most cages are not big enough to hold bowls large enough for them to soak. Take adults out of the cage and let them soak in a large tub of water at least twice a week.

Spray artificial plants or the sides of the cage with water if the snake will not drink from a bowl. Thirst-induced feeding is another method of getting a snake to eat and drink. Spray the prey with a little water and hold the prey with forceps near the snake's mouth. The snake should begin swallowing the prey to get the water.