BRB head rub?

So my roommate and I got our BRBs at around the same time and I recently took over care as it seemed his was a bit neglected (was in a very dry glass tank). When I got her, it seemed like she was missing a scale right from the top of her head and had a little indent and some dryness there. Over the past few weeks, it seems to have gotten worse and after she just shed yesterday, it now looks quite deep. Does this look like head rub? Right now she's just in a small plastic tub (the one that's in-between shoe box and sweater box) with a hide where she seems to spend most of her time. I think I'm going to upgrade her to a larger sweater box tub to maybe quell her desire to push and get out.

For now I left the little bit of shed that was stuck over the wound in place and put a tiny bit of neosporin on it.

Here's a pic:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...2007.25.26.jpg

My other BRB seems like he has a little rub in the same spot as well, but not nearly as bad (and his scale is still intact). Is this a normal place for BRBs to get rub issues?

What kind of substrate are you using? I gave my juvenile BRB's tubs with minimal stuff: one inch of cypress mulch to burrow in, one hide, and a water bowl. Usually they ignored the hide and stayed under the mulch. None of them were "pushers".

Mine has never had a rub mark.

Mine also has never been a big fan of hides. If there is substrate to burrow in he will but he really likes his soaking bowl and can be found there most of the time.

Take a good look at your setup and see if you can find a spot that could make such a mark on the snake. Maybe near the area of any molded handles on the tub side? If you can find such an area you should be able to smooth it out.

Right now they are just on paper towels with small hides (that they use). There are some plastic bits on the lid that could be causing such a mark if they were pushing on them enough.

I have some ReptiChip, so my current plan is to put them in bigger (sweater box) size tubs and give them a burrowing substrate along with some moss.

I also wonder if I should feed them more. Both are around a year old, though the girl pictured is considerably smaller than my little guy I raised, so maybe she is trying to make up lost weight. Currently feeding them rat pups on a 10 day schedule.

Seems like at a year they could be taking a meal larger than a rat pup. Though I'm certainly not against growing them slow. I tend to do that.

Rat pup is slightly bigger than my big guys largest part. Leaves a bulge in each. I've always been cautious with the BRBs for giving them too large of prey. I'd rather up it to a pup once a week than a weaned at the moment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by treaux

Rat pup is slightly bigger than my big guys largest part. Leaves a bulge in each. I've always been cautious with the BRBs for giving them too large of prey. I'd rather up it to a pup once a week than a weaned at the moment.

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Sounds like a plan.