Potential Nerve/Muscle Damage?

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Originally Posted by Vanouri

I'll try that, he's on Aspen right now. Probably do the paper towels since we don't get newspapers. He seems to do okay when he eats as well, that was something I was worried over. He strikes and wraps up normally, you can't see anything unusual in his tail. I never thought it may be a sensitivity issue, and I'm not quite sure if that can be treated.

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Switching from aspen will probably help your humidity issues all by itself (maybe not enough to make the humidity optimal, but it should help).
I found aspen to be crap for humidity, and apparently it molds quickly if you moisten it.

I like cypress mulch personally. Keeps my BP's around 60% humidity with occasional misting in a rack. You'd want to mist more frequently in a glass tank.

For a while I had my BRB in a glass tank, on a mix of EcoEarth, moss and cypress, and I was misting that tank twice a day to keep the humidity around 70-80%. Good times haha.

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Originally Posted by KitaCat

Switching from aspen will probably help your humidity issues all by itself (maybe not enough to make the humidity optimal, but it should help).
I found aspen to be crap for humidity, and apparently it molds quickly if you moisten it.

I like cypress mulch personally. Keeps my BP's around 60% humidity with occasional misting in a rack. You'd want to mist more frequently in a glass tank.

For a while I had my BRB in a glass tank, on a mix of EcoEarth, moss and cypress, and I was misting that tank twice a day to keep the humidity around 70-80%. Good times haha.

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I've switched one of my snakes to EcoEarth and she seems to like it. I'll be switching the others as soon as I get rid of this last bag of aspen :) I may look into getting some cypress too!

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06...339cd86fb9.jpg
Here we go! This is Loki's belly. You can see a line going down his lower half and a deformity a bit above that. That's where his injuries were.
* sorry if the image is in bad quality, he's pretty wiggly

Are you 100% sure that's from a rat and not a thermal burn? Just wondering, because that's just a really odd place for a rat injury; usually you see those more on the sides and back.

It looks like it runs pretty deep though, especially in the area where the belly scutes are basically divided into three parts. I could see that causing him to be uncomfortable. Seeing that my gut instinct is still that it's probably sensitivity and not nerve damage. I just think nerve damage to cause that sort of rolling motion would have to be spinal.

Regarding the substrate, I use cypress mulch too. It's a good in-between for holding humidity but not staying too wet. Once you've figured out exactly what's causing him to move oddly, I'd recommend trying it.

I'm pretty sure. The original scab didn't look like any burn damage I'd ever seen. The old owner told me it had been from the rat.

I can feel the difference when he's slithering on me, they do feel like deep scars. :/ and he started doing the "arch" thing when I just put him on the carpet. So sensitivity does sound reasonable (this carpet is a bit scratchy)
I'll experiment with cypress after the aspen is gone, I can never find it anywhere here, but I'll be moving soon so the selection may be different there.

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Originally Posted by Vanouri

I'm pretty sure. The original scab didn't look like any burn damage I'd ever seen. The old owner told me it had been from the rat.

I can feel the difference when he's slithering on me, they do feel like deep scars. :/ and he started doing the "arch" thing when I just put him on the carpet. So sensitivity does sound reasonable (this carpet is a bit scratchy)
I'll experiment with cypress after the aspen is gone, I can never find it anywhere here, but I'll be moving soon so the selection may be different there.

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At least that shouldn't pose a problem for breeding him later on. He's a good looking snake.

Most places like Petsmart and Petco have the cypress, but I've not seen it at any of the non-chain stores I go to for live feeders.

Thank you, I think he is too!

I'll try Petsmart :) I'm going to try my hand at a breeder colony of African Soft Furs so I won't need to pay their outrageous prices for live mice though haha.

lol If you ever buy live rodents from Petsmart make sure they don't know why. It's against their policy to sell live feeders and they'll refuse the sale if they suspect you're going to be feeding them (which is a little ridiculous because, I mean... How many albino mice/rats do they think people want to keep as pets?)

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Originally Posted by DVirginiana

lol If you ever buy live rodents from Petsmart make sure they don't know why. It's against their policy to sell live feeders and they'll refuse the sale if they suspect you're going to be feeding them (which is a little ridiculous because, I mean... How many albino mice/rats do they think people want to keep as pets?)

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I'll keep that in mind! Hopefully I won't need to get any more from the chain stores. From what I hear the ASFs breed like crazy, they should be able to keep up with a few snakes :)

Good luck with ASFs. I hate getting anything from the chain stores, but unfortunately they're the only place around that reliably has large crickets...