Good things come in small packages -- if you happen to be a collector of two-headed animals.
Todd Ray, who runs the Venice Beach Freakshow in Los Angeles, which features a variety of two-headed creatures as well as a five-legged dog, now believes his latest addition to his multi-headed menagerie is the biggest ... and the smallest.
The creature in question is a two-headed razorback musk turtle that is about six months old and the size of a nickel.
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One head of the two-headed turtle is named "Teeny" and the other is "Tiny" and Ray says both sides are "adorable."
They may also be record breakers.
"I believe they are the smallest two-headed turtles ever," Ray said, adding that he has owned many two-headed turtles over the years and never seen any as tiny as Teeny and Tiny.
Ray has been raising Teeny and Tiny for the last five months after coming in possession of them when they were a month old.
"I heard about them from a guy who was selling me a dead two-headed snake," Ray said. "He told me about this friend who had the two-headed turtle and sort of brokered the deal. From the photos, I didn't realize how small they were."
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Two-headed animals have a harder time surviving that their one-headed counterparts, but Ray says reptiles seem to do better than mammals.
"They move slow," Ray said. "My vet says there's never an emergency with them because everything happens slowly."
Still, Ray says Teeny and Tiny are taking their own sweet time adjusting to life.
"They seem so worried," he fretted. "They're always too nervous to stick their heads out, but they're getting more comfortable around me."
That's good news, because things have been topsy-turvy in Ray's two-headed world recently.
Six weeks ago, Ray had a two-headed box turtle that was connected at the plastron, the bottom part of the shell, and things were so bad that he considered doing something he had never done before: Having them surgically separated.
Although he came close to getting a vet to do an operation, the turtles tragically died before that could take place.
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Teeny and Tiny are doing better, but life isn't easy for a two-headed turtle -- especially when the two heads share one anus.
"Put it this way: We're always happy when they poop because that means everything's going OK," he said.
Hopefully, it's a happy ending in more ways than one.
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