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I found this on a news item this morning Sat 29th Sept.

US pet store buys conjoined turtle twins

Friday Sep 28 10:16 AEST

AP - A pet store in the US has bought conjoined turtle twins from a collector and plans to keep it on display, the store manager said.
The two-month-old turtle, known as a red-eared slider, fits on a silver dollar. It has two heads sticking out from opposite ends of its shell, along with a pair of front feet on each side. But there is just one set of back feet and one tail.
The turtle is apparently healthy, and the species can live 15 to 20 years, said Jay Jacoby, manager of Big Al's Aquarium Supercenter in East Norriton in Pennsylvania. The turtle has not yet been named.
The store would not disclose how much it paid.


The same exotic-turtle collector sold another Big Al's store a conjoined-twin turtle about 20 years ago, Jacoby said. The man lives in Florida, but he declined to identify him.

©AAP 2007

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Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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I remember a special on tv about turtles with 2 heads and 2 tails. They sell for around $1000-$2000. For example: http://www.turtlesale.com/home/index.php?page=rare-turtles

hi guys.
Please do not premote this...there is actually one idiot in america that specialises in breeding these...these are true mutants that do not belong in this world, in the wild they would die or be eaten, i know it does happen on the odd occasion, but breeding them for this purpose is wrong..

I have a friend that likes to collect oddities like this. I've held two headed turtles and snakes, among other exotics. Mez is right, it's the parrot fish of the herp world!

Two headed critters are kinda cool. It doesn't exactly mean that they'd die in nature, though. There is a two headed girl (they prefer to be referred to as 'girls' in the plural form, as they are two separate people, they're just in the same body) that gets along just fine. Each of them has control over their side of the body. They can easily coordinate their movements to walk, play sports, ride a bike, and even drive a car. They have no problems surviving in the real world. Their biggest problem is fitting in to one's standard definition of an organized society (they both have separate driver's licenses, but took their test together, etc). In their case, two heads are better than one.

Of course, a turtle may have a bit of difficulty getting away from predators or something if it's got two heads, but other critters do just fine.

I don't mean to promote breeding of critters like this, but you've got to remember that they aren't completely un-natural. If they couldn't survive, the genes that cause these mutations would never have been passed on in the first place (even before the point of them being kept in captivity).

Bicephalic chelonia are a bit of an abomination im afraid, usually only one animal has control over the major nervous system , and the remaining head often has little say in the matter ,and are consequently no more than a brain going insane, little more than a passenger in life.

Without the advanced brain that say a conjoined human twin would have, there is very little outside of the animals natural instincts left that can make it happy. Its life will be one of boredom and frustration. In the rare instances that both of the twins have some bodily control, they will quite simply struggle against one another. These species of reptile are also not especially social, and a smae sex relative, even a conjoined one will be considered competition, even an enemy, but certainly not a companion. If a human twin had the same moral instincts as a reptile as far as making compromises was concerned, if one twin tried to divert even slightly from what the other wished to do, there would be a wrestling match that would last for days, they would incessantly walk in opposite directions, they would punch, bite and kick each other , and sooner or later would come the day when one would proabably attack each other with knives and broken bottles. A suboordinate twin with no control would be battered for even daring to move.

The are precedents for non peaceful living in human conjoined twins the "original siamese twins" had lots of problems. One was a drug user and alcoholic and one was not, the same twin was also prosecuted for murder , but his sentance commuted in consideration for his brother who was joined at the hip.One day the drug abusing one died in the night, the following day it was reported that his brother discoverd his conjoined twin had died and could be heard screaming in terror before he too died. Fun huh?

I think its a little blase to say its ok. Especially when you havent tried it for a few years. For most creatures it would be abject suffering, indeed only in humans are such twins usually able to come to any peace at all.

There are records of both bicephalic snakes, lizards and turtles fighting, snakes have been known to attack their own heads,sometimes resulting in the death of one, and then by complicity of damage to the same body, the other dies too. If one turtle has control of the body, but both have independant lungs, turtles have both drowned their other half, and they too will fight if they can reach each other.

This is a sad , sad, trade, breeding and dealing in such deformity. I find this no more acceptable than a doctor providing egg alteration processes to deliberately produce conjoined twins in humans.

I believe in live and let live most of the time, but conjoined animals have none of the accomodations a human mind can compromise with , and the animal may never accept its situation, and its life will be suffering. Such deformities also lead to severe physical pain, incessant cramps, bone ache, circulatory issues etc etc, the list is endless really.

Breeding them is abuse pure and simple, and I would euthanise them at birth. Its a fascinating thing that happens in nature with extreme infrequency. To witness one is interesting, to promote them, and to breed them, deeply sick.

Needless to say the twins on average die at less than 3 years, 15 years would be exceptional, lets be honest, most barely survive, many dont hatch, and its usual for them to live only a short time after hatching. Healthy doesnt enter into it really. They are about as far from healthy as you can get. Most terrapins / turtles with brumation should be able to make 60 years or so. 15 years is a very premature death, perhaps though, it is a mercy for some of them.

Its crazy that these poor little souls are kept alive, let alone encouraging this deformity. This is far far far worse than any parrot cichlid.

No way should people be getting away with this.

Actually, I don't think you can "breed" Siamese Twins like you can breed color morphs in animals. It's not genetic. Conjoined twins arise when an embryo starts to divide into two individuals, but for some reason does not complete the process (probably due to environmental factors). Identical twins are not more likely to give birth to identical twins themselves than the rest of the population, so the same would hold true to for conjoined twins.

I agree, however, that it is not very humane to keep these turtles alive. Living reptiles have absolutely no concept of "companionship" in the sense that mammals and birds do, so two individuals forced to live so close together would most certainly be under a significant amount of stress at all times.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I have a horrible feeling these people are "breeding " them by damaging the embroyo within the eggs, and forcing a conjoining.I agree genetically its not really possible to traditionally breed them.

OMG tha'ts just horrible


They just don't look right, and then to read that people do this intentionally is just ....wrong!

Poor animals, we humans are just horrid to them. Not enough we have to be bad to our own species we have to go and force something like this on others.

^_^