Siphonops annulatus practises dermatophagy. The mother's outermost skin layer thickens and becomes enriched with lipids while she broods, and the hatchlings use specialised deciduous teeth to strip and consume it. Feeding bouts are episodic, roughly every few days, allowing the skin to regenerate between them.
Observations published in 2024 added a second channel: young were recorded soliciting and ingesting a lipid- and carbohydrate-rich fluid released from the maternal vent, preceded by clicking sounds from the young. It is the first milk-like provisioning reported in an egg-laying amphibian. Comparable nutritive secretions are already known outside mammals, in some birds, fish, cockroaches and jumping spiders, so the novelty is the group, not the behaviour.
Caecilians remain among the least-known amphibians, and dermatophagy has been documented in only a handful of species; it should not be generalised to all caecilians, some of which are viviparous and feed young inside the oviduct. Caecilians are also routinely mistaken for worms or snakes; they are amphibians, with a vertebral column and a skull built for pushing through soil.