Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The post below got me wondering if anyone has shots of a two headed snake that did make it past the first couple of months? I have seen shots of two headed adult snakes before, but not all that often. I would expect that some would make it, after all there have been two headed turtles, bearded dragons, pigs, humans!, etc. that have lived (at least for a little while).
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Kyle

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

13.10.2 Milks and Kings
2.2 Hognose
3.3 Kenyan Sand Boas
2.2.12 Texas Rat Snake
4.2 Puget Sound Garters
1.1 Macklots Pythons
2.1 Geckos

Interestingly, I just found this two-headed hognose for sale in the classifieds.

Two Headed Western Hognose

Thoughts?
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Kyle

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

13.10.2 Milks and Kings
2.2 Hognose
3.3 Kenyan Sand Boas
2.2.12 Texas Rat Snake
4.2 Puget Sound Garters
1.1 Macklots Pythons
2.1 Geckos

Yes, I believe last year(possibly Vinny) produced a perfect looking two-headed snake. I "think" it was a Sinaloan, but could be mistaking.

I've been wondering about that very animal for a good while now. Haven't seen it posted since then either, I wonder if it's still alive as well.

In any case, I have seen a fair amount of bicephalic(two-headed) snakes in years past, but most(not all) do not live very long. This doesn't necessarily mean that some of the short life-spans are directly due to the snake being two-headed, because no doubt there is certainly a good degree of feeding problem issues that must be properly addressed if the snake is to survive at all too.

I have thought about this many times over the years, and have thought of several ways to keep the animal alive for as long as possible if I ever produced a good viable one.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

At the Texas Parks and wildlife Department Expo in Austin several years back, there was a full-grown Texas ratsnake on display. It actually had about 2" split before the heads. Obviously, he was doing well to make it to adulthood. he obviously was the exception, rather than the rule. I also saw an adult Cal King at a show in Houston back in the 90's.
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Greg Jackson

Yeah, I remember the Texas rat you mentioned real well. Same with the Cal. King. As a matter of fact, there are many two-headed rats and kings, especially Cal. kings. This is not abit surprising because of the zillions of these that are produced. When you figure in all these that are produced each year by breeder's, logically there would also be a good number of weirdo mutants as well.

I remember the dude auctioning a two-headed albino Black or Texas rat for I think it was some totally ridiculous amount like $150,000 dollars on an auction site..LOL!

A lady friend of mine asked me about this a long time ago, and I told her....."believe me, two-headed snakes are much more common nowadays than you could possibly imagine". People off the street from the general public have no concept of how popular snake breeding is today, and most would probably think these are worth a huge king's ransome(as the guy's auction amount attests too..LOL!), but this really isn't necessarily the case at all. It depends on many factors, and one big one is how coveted and sought after the particular species/subspecies is in the first place. A perectly formed two-headed woma, or Outer Banks king is CERTAIN to fetch many many thousands more than say,...a garter snake.

In any case, they make for an interesting conversation piece, and nothing more. You certainly cannot produce more of these at will..LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Dr. Van Wallach at Harvard was/is in possession of a dicephalic eastern milk snake. He is giving a speech at the New England Herp Society on Snake Taxonomy and an update on his triangulum in November.
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Joe

Very cool!,...does he know about your killer amel gem?. If not, I'm sure you will definitely let him know about it, or even show that awesome specimen to him when you see him, correct?

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Nice to hear Van's still out there doing his thing... I hadn't heard from him in a while. I went down to Cambridge a few years ago to donate a dicephalic L. t. gaigeae to his collection, and he was nice enough to give my friends and me a full tour of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, including the basement where they keep all the stuff that's not on public display. Then he invited us back to his house where we got to check out his two-headed Eastern, which was donated to him by a kid from the Augusta, Maine area who found it in or near a stone wall. I'm not sure if he's had a chance to dissect my gaigeae yet to determine the extent of its deformity, but he did send me some x-rays of it, which I think are a lot cooler looking than a dead snake in a jar. I'll have to get that posted...

Nate