Posted by:
bwaffa
at Wed Nov 2 21:32:11 2011 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by bwaffa ]
I bumped into this abstract today that I thought might be of interest to you and Dan:
A Simple Method Of Preventing Self-Inflicted Injury When Feeding a Dicephalic California Kingsnake
Donal M. Boyer, Associate Curator and Brett Baldwin, Senior Keeper, San Diego Zoo, San Diego, CA
Dicephalism is known to occur in chelonian, squamate and crocodilian orders. The occurrence of dicephalic reptiles, in particular the condition referred to as derodidymus form of duplication, is most common in snakes. In the derodidymus condition the vertebral column is bifurcated in the cervical vertebral region. In 1995, we obtained a captive born dicephalic California kingsnake approximately three months old. Initially only one of the heads would readily accept prey. In time the other head began to feed. In general, two to three, live, neonatal, laboratory mice were placed in the enclosure and were eaten during the night. However with time it became apparent that there was enough flexibility in the bifurcate spines to allow the heads to bite one another when offered food, or if prey scent was detected on the body after a feeding episode. In the fall of 1996, the fighting became severe enough that unsupervised feeding was discontinued, and a new technique was utilized. A small circle of medium density foam rubber, 10 mm. thick by 25 mm. in diameter, with a 6 mm central hole, was slipped over one of the snake's heads just prior to feeding. The bottom edge of the circle contacting the ground was flat. Prey was then offered to the head without the collar. This foam collar was kept on 30 minutes after feeding. Once the collar was on and the other head began to feed, no further supervision was required. The collar was alternated between heads weekly. With each successive shed the appearance of the skin at the trauma site had improved and now the scars are almost gone. As the snake grew it became necessary to place an additional collar on the head which was not fed.
http://www.arav.org/
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http://www.waffahousereptiles.com
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