Todd Ray is an American music producer. However, he quit that job and opened a show called Venice Beach Freakshow – a gathering of the weirdest things. He is also known for his collection of two-headed animals.
Recently, he spent up to 50,000 USD (more than 1 billion VND) to buy “Medusa” – a 4-year-old Hoduran Milk snake with two heads born in Forida.
Sharing in an interview with The Huffington Post, Ray said: “I have wanted to get this snake since the day it was born four years ago. I have bid many times with the owner and the price just keeps going up, not down.”
Ray currently holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of two-headed animals, and he considers the snake “Medusa” to be his most valuable asset.
He said: “There are only perfect words to describe this snake. There are many other beautiful two-headed snakes, but those snakes have one main head and the other is like a branch. Medusa is different, it’s the real two-headed snake.”
Medusa is nearly 1m long, but this snake often curls up with just one hand, especially when being fed.
“I picked it up from Forida and waited a week before feeding it so it could get used to its surroundings. However it moved a lot, I think it was looking for food.”
Ray said that with most two-headed snakes he has to feed one head at a time while distracting the other so they don’t bite each other.
He said: “I brought a rat to them and both heads opened their mouths. Then the right head reached up and grabbed the rat right in my hand. Then the left head grabbed the rat’s tail. I couldn’t believe they ate so quickly. I had to cut the rat in half before they swallowed each other.”
“Now that I’ve learned from experience, there must be at least two rats at a time or more.”
In addition, he also owns a collection of many other two-headed animals.
Ray spent $5,000 on Pancho and Lefty. He believes this is the rarest animal in the world and he is proud to have kept them alive for more than a year when they are thought to only live a few months.Laverne and Shirley are king snakes, born in Italy. With this snake, he said, he had to feed on one side of the head while distracting the other so they wouldn’t bite each other.
Lenny and Squiggy, a two-headed snake of the Albino Hognose breed, is said to be the rarest snake in the world. Myrtle and Squirtle are the first two-headed animals with a shell in his collection. He said he was really attracted when he first saw it. This two-headed hognose turtle is the newest member of his family of two-headed animals. It’s only 1 month old. Ray is looking for a name. |