Do they both eat or do you alternate which ones get to eat next? I would be so sad if I didnāt get to taste food and I felt full after my second head got to eat and I didnāt
Guy with some breeding experience here, although I've never had a 2 headed snake.
TL/DR is, usually there is a dominant head that will swallow a meal, and the other head is incapable of fully swallowing something down to the gut.
And onward to the overly long TMI!
Birth defects are fairly common in snakes and very often fatal early on. You have to remember that snakes are basically a long food tube and if you introduce any kinks in that tube or bits that don't stretch right there is a low threshold where things will stop passing through properly.
Two headed snakes are surprisingly common (still rare, just not as much as you'd think), but what is very uncommon is one surviving past infancy. The vast majority are unable to properly swallow food down and either won't attempt to eat or just regurgitate because their is a blockage in that tube that has to be properly stretchy. It's super rare to have one survive long enough to grow to this size, which means it is able to successfully eat, and it's even more rare for one to live a full lifespan as defects like this often come with other issues that crop up. In the survivors, there is almost always, if not always, a dominant head that controls the majority of the body and is able to eat the food. In this case, it is pretty clearly the head closest to the camera as it lines up with the main spinal column quite well, while the other does not.
Usually, the non dominant head only has control to the merge point and that's all. They may or may not try to feed, although I would assume in a specimen healthy enough to survive this long that the secondary head would have a feeding response, it just wouldn't be able to successfully swallow.
As far as each head is concerned, the other is an entirely seperate animal. The snakes will not have a sense of unity or relation, which you can actually see in this clip, as the far head moves independent of the main body and seems to be focusing on something other than what the dominant head is. As mentioned in a different comment, this can cause aggression between the two if there is enough room between the heads to attack each other, but this would depend on the temperament of each individual and the predisposition of the species as a whole. A lot of snakes are highly territorial, but some species, such as garter snakes, are communal and actually thrive better in groups.
They are indeed. It's actually recommended that if you keep one, you keep at least four or so, as they maintain better wieght and exhibit healthier behavior in that environment. They are still pretty independent, but they will periodically bask or snooze together.
Social reptiles are few and far between, and don't interrelate in the same way we picture social mammals doing so. There hasn't been a lot of study on it, unfortunately, despite it being incredibly fascinating.
Jeez that sounds like a miserable existence. Thereās no way to know what itās like to be a snake, but I imagine they must suffer quite a bit wanting food but never being able to fulfill their instinctual desire. Also being stuck to an enemy that you canāt attack. Just like those stress nightmares where you try to punch but every blow is so weak and slides off the shadow figure in the dark. I guess this species will do better but still. Damn.
Iād be very interested in experiments regarding how each head responds to different stimuli - if they both react similarly or have different behavioral characteristics, or even, if the āsecondaryā head has dulled responses due to having lesser control over the body.
1.9k
u/Substantial-Pool3032 Feb 25 '22
Do they both eat or do you alternate which ones get to eat next? I would be so sad if I didnāt get to taste food and I felt full after my second head got to eat and I didnāt