What Does A Pinhead Look Like?

I've read about them for years now and did so again just recently. But no one ever seems show a picture. Does anyone have one they can post or link to?

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Originally Posted by MasonC2K

I've read about them for years now and did so again just recently. But no one ever seems show a picture. Does anyone have one they can post or link to?

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Just a fairy tale.

Had a long discussion about this at my old job. Pretty sure it's not real.



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It is a thing and it is difficult to find good photos of it because it's not something people want to show off. it used to be more common 15+ years ago but not so much any longer with all the years of improved husbandry advice and knowledge shared about best practices regarding slower growth rate and feeding of boas. It doesn't make the head tiny or anything, it's just smaller in comparison to the body than would be expected, hard to describe, it just looks a little 'off'. They also can grow into it over time from what I've seen.

Also Super Motley boas tend to have undersized heads, so do a google image search for 'super motley boa' to get an idea of what it may appear like (although super motley boas also sometimes have an underdeveloped bottom jaw which a normal 'pin head' boa would not).

Hi,

Their head has no fat on it so it looks super thin from rear to the eye whereas normal bp hatchlings are filled out and curved outwards. Generally after a few meals it goes away and the head resembles more normal proportions.

The most common cause is either hatching too early in development of not absorbing the yolk correctly.

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Originally Posted by MasonC2K

I've read about them for years now and did so again just recently. But no one ever seems show a picture. Does anyone have one they can post or link to?

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As you said.. no one ever seems show a picture!

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

It is a thing and it is difficult to find good photos of it because it's not something people want to show off.

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But it's not a legitimate syndrome. The best explination as to what would cause a "pinhead" is what dr del stated, and even then it can be remedied by a few feedings to restore proper definition that was not developed in the last stages of incubation. True microcephaly in snakes - or in anything really - is very rare, and would most probably be caused by abnormal development or injury to the embryo during incubation. I have yet to see legitimate "pinheading" that isn't just a fat, overfed snake with a head that looks too small compared to the girth of the body.

Of course I could be wrong, I don't know everything about syndromes that might afflict snakes and my experience with boas (with which the claims of pinheading seems the most common) is limited compared to ball pythons. But all I've ever seen to substantiate pinheading is just talk on the internet and weird explinations or tall tales as to what might cause it, like feeding prey items so small that the head doesn't stretch out enough to get bigger (the most outlandish claim I've come across).

Jist for clarity, the pinhead I have talking about is when you overfeed the heck out of a snake in its youth that the body is supposedly so much bigger that the head that it is called a pinhead. Some of the descriptions I have found say the snake looks like it has no neck.

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Originally Posted by MasonC2K

Jist for clarity, the pinhead I have talking about is when you overfeed the heck out of a snake in its youth that the body is supposedly so much bigger that the head that it is called a pinhead. Some of the descriptions I have found say the snake looks like it has no neck.

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I can assure you that such thing does not exist and just a fairy tale. I challenge anyone to provide pictures. Think logicly, even if the snake is overfed, why would the head become much smaller than the body? Does something like this occur in humans or any other animals? You can mention other real negative sides of overfeeding, no need to believe, rely on and spread fairy tales such as this.

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Originally Posted by Dutti

Does something like this occur in humans or any other animals?

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Well, kinda. I see fat peole everyday that look like they have no neck. But I wouldn't call it a pinhead since their head is fat too! LOL!.

Anyways, I always had doubts about it but it still comes up.

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Originally Posted by MasonC2K

Jist for clarity, the pinhead I have talking about is when you overfeed the heck out of a snake in its youth that the body is supposedly so much bigger that the head that it is called a pinhead. Some of the descriptions I have found say the snake looks like it has no neck.

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I wouldn't call that pinheading, just fat snakes. Google fat blood pythons if you want to see some robust snakes with tiny heads :P

yes this is about boas being powerfed, not hatchling BPs. They do seem to eventually grow into it and it doesn't happen to every power fed animal.
It does exist, if I could go back and screenshot stuff I saw posted on Kingsnake in the late 90s and show it to you, I would.
People would get ridiculed for it and so people stopped posting photos. It's subtle, it's not like a tiny head on a huge body but it is a head that looks too small for the size of the snake.
As I suggested, google super motley boa to get an idea of what it looks like.

In 37 years of having boas and pythons I have never seen it. My guess the syndrome was coined by breeders to grow their stock fast and attempting to scare the competition to grow their stock extremely slow. Overfeed a boa and you will have worse problems than the mythical pinhead.

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Originally Posted by Dutti

I can assure you that such thing does not exist and just a fairy tale. I challenge anyone to provide pictures. Think logicly, even if the snake is overfed, why would the head become much smaller than the body? Does something like this occur in humans or any other animals? You can mention other real negative sides of overfeeding, no need to believe, rely on and spread fairy tales such as this.

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The head doesn't become smaller. The whole skeletal structure is the same size but the fat from all the food is being stored on body of the snake making the head appear to be smaller. Basically, its more of just the snake is plain fat. Pinhead is not something that is going to be like a bean sized head on a sausage thick body.

And like mentioned, look at some blood python pics. Some of them are little chubby monkies with smallish heads. That's fine for that species I'm guessing(I don't know my blood pythons) but for a boa, that is most definitely not fine.