Unusual: a kitten with two faces is born in northern Thailand

by Pierre To 11 February 2023

By Pierre To 11 February 2023 2 minutes to read

Two-faced kitten from Lampang. Photo: Thai Rath

To the surprise of the owner, a kitten with two faces was born on Sunday 17 July in Lampang province, northern Thailand.

Two-faced kittens, also known as 'Janus cats', after the Roman god Janus with two faces, do not usually live more than one day.

However, this little kitten Janus is doing very well so far and is drinking milk from both mouths, said her owner.

One side of the kitten was named 'Tung Ngern' (silver bag) and the other side 'Tung Tong' (golden bag).

A difficult birth

The two-year-old mother of the kitten, named "Cat", gave birth to a kitten at a house in Hang Chat district, Lampang province, on Sunday afternoon.

When Cat tried to push the second kitten, she could not physically give birth.

Cat's owner, 29-year-old Anuwat, then took the cat to the animal hospital at around 4pm, where she underwent a caesarean section.

This fact is already extraordinary, as few cat owners would have attended the birth and taken their pet to the vet.

Cat gave birth to the kitten Janus and three other "normal" kittens.

Anuwat was sure that the kitten Janus would die at first.

However, Tung Ngern and Tung Tong seemed to be fighting hard for their lives, said Anuwat.

She explained that she had hardly slept since the birth of the two-faced kitten, as it cannot hold its head up and needs constant attention.

It's as much responsibility as having a human baby," she said.

Statistically, Janus kittens do not usually survive more than one day.

However, a grey Janus feline named 'Frank and Louie', born in Massachusetts, USA, in 1999, lived to the incredible age of 15, before dying in 2014.

In 2012, Frank and Louie were entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest surviving Janus cat.

There is hope that Tung Ngern and Tong Tong will survive to adulthood.

The Janus cat has not been the only animal with extra body parts to capture the hearts of Thais lately.

On 19 July, a four-legged hen made headlines and became a celebrity on a farm in Nong Khai province in north-eastern Thailand.

See: A 4-legged chicken is born in north-east Thailand

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