Rare Mutant Two-Headed Snake, With Single Respiratory System, Found In Family's Backyard

A mutant two-headed snake was discovered in the backyard of a New Orleans home. According to reports Monday, a family found the deformed snake and has been raising the reptile since.

Wildlife educator Tanee Janusz, 39, adopted the western rat snake, currently ten months old and a foot long. The snake has two heads but only one single respiratory system, digestive tract and body.

The genetic defect with which the snake was born affects one in 10,000 births. This defect is caused when the embryo does not divide fully.

Janusz named the heads Filé and Gumbo and refers to them as "the twins" because they have different personalities. According to Janusz, Gumbo is the dominant one and the two heads often end up wrestling when they try to move towards different directions.

“When I first saw them I thought they were the neatest little things ever. Two-headed snakes are not totally unheard of but they are pretty rare and this is the first time I have been in charge of caring for one," Janusz reportedly said.

“At first, I was trying to figure out what they needed to eat because their mouths are very small. It’s kind of gross, but they eat newborn mice and I buy them frozen," she said.

“When snakes eat their jaws expand so it had to be something they would be able to eat with no jaws because of the way their heads are angled... They are a little easily intimidated so they want to try and bite me sometimes... When people see them they cannot believe it’s a snake with two heads."

Janusz, who has been a wildlife educator for over 20 years, said that many two-headed creatures die prematurely due to genetic issues, but this snake has been living well so far. Conjoined twins can occur once every 200,000 births and their survival rate ranges from 5 percent to 25 percent.

Janusz's family have rescued several other reptiles, animals and insects including seven snakes, a frog, three turtles, two cockroaches, millipedes, a tarantula, a bearded dragon, grasshoppers, a hedgehog, birds, dogs and a cat.

Last year, a two-headed rattlesnake was found by an on-duty electrical worker in Jonesboro, Arkansas, while inspecting a home.

Reptiles like turtles, snakes and lizards can be born with two heads.

"The two heads have to decide they're both hungry at the same time, and then they have to agree to pursue the same prey," National Geographic reported about two-headed reptiles in 2002. "Then they might fight over which head gets to swallow the prey."

According to National Geographic, "since snakes operate a good deal by smell, if one head catches the scent of prey on the other's head, it will attack and try to swallow its second head."