Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Appropriate name, huh? THEM! is one month old, the size of a quarter and about 6 grams. It's swimming, basking and both heads are active, alert and feeding.

Ophidiophile Farms

Awesome I've seen some pictures of this a while ago. If anyone remembers the "Three Amigos - ie 6 amigos" thread, this reminds me of it. In that picture there was some deformaties to the shell but the one you have looks really good. Healthy and all

So just curious, both heads will eat? I wish I could see how they act and stuff but I can't.. do they just act like normal 1 head RES? hehe

>>In that picture there was some deformaties to the shell but the one you have looks really good. Healthy and all

THEM! has the slightest asymmetry of the carapace. But it's barely noticeable. I have also seen some two-headed RES that have pretty severe deformities of the carapace, but this one doesn't.

>>So just curious, both heads will eat? I wish I could see how they act and stuff but I can't.. do they just act like normal 1 head RES? hehe

Yes both heads feed (it loves Reptomin Baby but I'm trying to vary the diet as much as possible). In fact they compete and sometimes try to grab the food out of each others' mouths. The left head is definitely dominant and usually wins in competition over food. Presumably no matter which side wins, it's all going to the same place, though at present I don't know whether its internal organs are duplicated or single and shared. Overall THEM! acts like any other RES spending a lot of time basking on the rock under a UV tube (ReptiGlo-8.0) and black light combo. It usually swims in a very coordinated fashion as well, even though from watching it often, it seems like the left head controls both limbs (i.e., front and back) on the left and the right head controls both limbs on the right. Very occasionally the two heads decide they want to swim in different directions and it either winds up going nowhere or sometimes swimming backwards. Usually after this occurs the turtle seems somewhat exhausted and will take a rest either by climbing on the basking ledge or just floating in the water. The problem of being of two minds Overall, it is doing excellently.
Ophidiophile Farms

Great photo! I've seen photos of two headed turles before and they always seem young. Do you know, do turtles with this deformity usually live long?

>>Great photo! I've seen photos of two headed turles before and they always seem young. Do you know, do turtles with this deformity usually live long?

In the wild, adult 2-headeds are almost never seen. I think they'd be very easy prey for predators as the heads try to make the turtle escape in 2 directions simultaneously. In captivity, the survival rate is certainly higher but still not great. Many of these turtles have other major deformities and or one head that is non-functional. This one is still doing fantastically well but again it's only about a month old. Time will tell. Two-headed turtles in captivity have occasionally survived and been raised to adulthood. That's certainly my intent here.

Here's a new photo I just snapped a day ago:

Greetings,

My turtle looks like this, except it only has one head. I noticed the "ears", they are yellow. Is this considered a yellow belly slider or a red ear slider, with yellow ears?

-Ravon

If you look closely you'll see that the ears are orange not yellow.
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Denise (Mom) and/or Jared (son)
Take care!