Slow and heady wins the race.
A two-headed turtle in New Jersey is being hailed a miracle after beating the odds and surviving past infancy despite its rare deformity.
“I am going to do whatever it takes to keep these guys happy and alive,” owner Joseph Morena told Caters News Service of the reptilian anomaly.
He said his friend had hatched the dual-domed anomaly and had no idea how to care for it.
So Morena decided he’d be up for the challenge. “Obviously I had to take him,” declared the New Jerseyan, who explained that raising the unique creature was difficult given the low birth and survival rates of multi-noggined critters.
To have multiple heads, also known as polycephaly, is generally caused by malformation of a developing embryo, due to either genetic or environmental factors. Although most commonly observed in turtles and snakes — such as the two-headed rate snake, Tiger-Lily, whose ovarian surgery ordeal was broadcast to the world earlier this year — the affliction has been documented in every critter from fish to pigs. One of the most remarkable examples in the annals of zoological oddities was a bifacial billy goat that became a worldwide sensation due to its resemblance to the Greek god Janus.
Two heads are not better than one in the animal kingdom as the dueling noodles often compete for resources.
Indeed, Morena’s two-for-one turtle was double the trouble with two mouths that refused to eat.
“I continued to offer food but they showed no interest, I began to get really worried,” he lamented.
Salvation came after the larger of the two heads finally began to eat, seemingly inspiring the smaller one to follow suit.
However, Moreno, who documented raising the turtle in a viral clip for his over 180,000 followers on YouTube, said the saga was far from over as the twin craniums caused coordination problems.
He recalled waking up one morning to find the conjoined creature flipped on its back and unresponsive in the water.
“I was almost certain they had passed,” recounted Moreno, who frantically performed gentle chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth.
Moreno breathed a sigh of relief when they recovered almost two hours later.
“Somehow, they managed to almost drown in half an inch of water,” he said.
Interestingly, the turtle’s locomotion problems stemmed in part from his pet’s strict diet. Moreno claimed that the persnickety reptile would only eat one specific worm species, failing to provide the nutrients it needed to survive and grow.
Luckily the determined turtle lover, who had experience caring for difficult reptiles, bolstered their diet with enough supplements to encourage hunger, accelerate growth and improve mobility.
To further protect against mishaps, Moreno heeded his vet’s advice to keep the terrarium “small and simple” to adapt to the creature’s condition.
Now, at eight weeks old, the two-faced pond-hopper has seemingly defied the odds. “They are doing great they are over two months old now and they keep growing in size,” gushed Moreno, who admits they’re not totally out of the woods yet.
“They are still young and they have a lot of challenges to overcome,” he said. “I’m not saying that they are guaranteed to live but they are not giving up and every week it is looking better and better.”
