Reptile & Amphibian Forums

http://www.roussisreptiles.com/collectionpages/other/twoheadedboa.html

I just came across the above link. Now, I've always been under the impression, based upon everything I've seen, that an animal like this would not really be able to live a good life and/or would die due to this type of mutation.

Is my impression wrong ? The link above seems to be boasting of this as a sort of accomplishment ?

I love snakes, but I look at that one and almost feel sorry for the animal there...

Am I misunderstanding the issue ? Or am I just way off my rocker and need a good kick in the pants to get my head realigned properly? Thanks !

~ Seliah

i feel that its not an accomplishment at all. i mean if it is, we should see a lot more mothers jumping up and down in excitement over giving birth to siamese twins. of course, we dont so i dont see how it being a snake would be any different. there are going to be major health issues to deal with and whether it be in the near or distant future i dont see how a 2 headed boa would be nothing but a heartache to the owner and torture to the animal.

or someone is really good with photoshop.
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0.0.1 Colombian Redtail Boa
1.1.1 Sumatran Blood Pythons
1.0 Black Blood Python
1.0 Dumeril's Boa
0.1 Coastal Carpet Python

Two headed reptiles is really not that uncommon. I believe reptiles
especially turtles and snakes have this happen more than any other animal on earth. I have seen two examples of this in snakes, a gopher snake that lived many years and recently a cal king that seem to be doing just fine.

when my dad was camping around Arizona or Nevada back in the early 70's he once caught (in a trash can lol) a two-headed rattlesnake, said it was a few feet long, so not a baby and it must have been surviving fine. After he showed it off he let it go. Too bad they didn't have cell phone cameras back then heh
-April

Well not really but Carl is right. Two headed snakes are not that uncommon and turtles even more so. It is a form of incomplete twinning that causes it. Glades Herp kept a two head Texas Rat snake called "Them" for years and it did fairly well. It had to eat smaller then normal food items but grew just fine.
Many snakes that are born this way also have other issues internally and may not live very long, but oddly with snakes that have two fully developed heads and two brians, they will do ok and sometimes fight over which direction they want the body to go.
I would not ever try and breed out this gene, and seeing that it is simply a twinning error, I don't know that you could, but I also would not put a snake down just because of the defect either.
Nice post, I have never seen this in a live bearer before
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

>>Well not really but Carl is right. Two headed snakes are not that uncommon and turtles even more so. It is a form of incomplete twinning that causes it. Glades Herp kept a two head Texas Rat snake called "Them" for years and it did fairly well. It had to eat smaller then normal food items but grew just fine.
>>Many snakes that are born this way also have other issues internally and may not live very long, but oddly with snakes that have two fully developed heads and two brians, they will do ok and sometimes fight over which direction they want the body to go.
>>I would not ever try and breed out this gene, and seeing that it is simply a twinning error, I don't know that you could, but I also would not put a snake down just because of the defect either.
>>Nice post, I have never seen this in a live bearer before
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>>Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
>>Hopkins Holesale Herps
>>Hopfam1@aol.com

Hi Jim,

I honestly wasn't attempting to put the animal 'down', my post was made more out of curiosity and trying to understand. ^.^ I had assumed actually that it was a mutation - not an error during twinning. I did not know that, thank you.

I just wonder how such an animal eats properly... I know there is a propensity with snakes that if there are two animals around a food item, they will fight for it... would this not occur in a case like this, especially if each 'half' has it's own fully formed brain and thinking processes ?

Mainly just curious...

~ Seliah

In most of these snakes, there is a dominat head (sounds strang LOL) but in this snake it looks obvious that the head that is at a less of an angel from the snakes body would be the stronger of the two, the other head looks like an after thought. In some of the snakes either head can feed because they share a stomach and common throat, in others only one head can feed because the other is to deformed. While feeding a snake with this kind of deformity the keeper would have to take care to make sure that both heads don't latch onto the same pinkie. Obviously they can't swallow each other (I think that would cause them to dissappear LOL) but the struggle could cause harm to them.
Oddly this kind of deformity is a fairly sought after item and I have seen these snakes sell in the 10K range. Not sure I would purposly try and take on the care needed for one of these animals, let alone pay 10k to do so?
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

There was a really cute (well..kinda cute) pic in the corn snake forum years and years ago of a two headed corn where there was one dominant head, the pic showed the one head swallowing the pinky while the other head just looked at it flicking the tounge. I think the 10K price tag is for the simple reason that it is rare and something odd.. I've heard of pet stores buying them as a display item and oddity just to generate interest and bring people in.

TGIF
-april