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, together with vocal-like clicking sounds from the young preceding feeding. That places a form of milk-like provisioning in an amphibian, alongside behaviour previously described only in mammals and a few birds.
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.