Nicolas Cage gifted two-headed snake to zoo after it became 'a little too freaky'

Nicolas Cage gifted a two-headed snake to a zoo after it became a "little too freaky" to live with at his home.

During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday night, host Jimmy asked the National Treasure actor about his collection of exotic pets, and whether it was true that he once owned a very rare snake.

Nicolas replied, "Does that make me impossibly strange?" before revealing that he splashed out roughly $80,000 (£61,000) on the reptile.

"Why I don't know, (but) I was dreaming about two-headed eagles. One night I had this dream and then the next day my manager at the time got a phone call saying, 'I've got a two-headed snake that I found in Northridge and I think your client Nic Cage would be interested.'"

While Nicolas was initially pleased with his purchase, the two-headed snake turned out to be rather high maintenance.

"They would fight," the 58-year-old sighed. "One head was more dominant than the other. Why? It was going to the same stomach. But I would have to put a spatula between the two heads to feed them and it just got a little too freaky for me. So, I took it to the Audubon Zoo (in New Orleans). It lived for 14 years and it died just recently. It was a good time for the snake and the folks who visited the zoo."

Elsewhere in the chat, Nicolas admitted that the experience hadn't put him off owning exotic animals, and he recently purchased a "very friendly" African Pied crow that has black and white feathers.

"He looks like he's wearing a tuxedo," he smiled. "He likes to say hi to me when I walk in the room. He's very smart and when I leave, he says bye. I didn't teach him the words. He just came with the vocabulary. And then one day, he called me an a**hole and I don't know why. It just came out."