Heya guys, been a while since I've posted anything here. Things with Apollo have been a little bit of a roller coaster - I've been checking on him religiously as last year he went on a 10 month fast on me - long story short I had to flee a worsening housing situation and I believe the stress there caused him to stop eating. He's been voracious in his appetite since about mid summer but I've been checking on him religiously out of concern for a repeat after such a long time without food - more so now as he refused his prey last week.

I lifted his hide today to check on him - trying to ascertain that he wasn't in another shed cycle as he hadn't come out much the last few days to see if it would be ok to offer him another rat in the next day or two here - and I noticed a long line of seemingly dented scales. He doesn't appear to be in any pain and is to all appearainces being his normal derpy self - he's been sniffing round his viv now since I so rudely disturbed his sleep. But there is a notable "softness" around the area of that dent, wheras everywhere else his skin feels firm and muscular.

Temps are 86-80, humidity is generally kept about 50% (raised to 70 when he's in shed). I know I've read a lot of sources saying that temps should be more like 95-85 but I had found that when I raised them that high he failed to thermoregulate and was 100% on his cool side so I had lowered them to a point where I saw thermoregulation happening again as I was worried I was making it too hot for him.

https://imgur.com/a/4xgP1Fz

^Some photos of the dented skin.

I know I had been considering whether it's time to increase his hide size as they are looking a bit snug... but he seems to have reached a point of no further growth and did not want them to be too large for him either. Could this have been caused by the hides being too small? I've got two exo tera large reptile cages in there, a plastic log that is relatively smooth, a large smooth fake stone dish for water and some vines and artificial plants. His viv also has one of those "sticky nono" humidity guages that I had peeled the velcro off of and just have sitting on the ground, a light fixture inside, and a ceiling mounted RHP on a thermostat for his heat.

I've handled him very sparingly since last year when all this eating worry started, mostly just to examine him and make sure he's still looking healthy. Otherwise he only comes out of his tub to eat - I got into the habit early of doing separate tub feeding and at this stage feel as though he's so set in that pattern I don't know if I can change it - when I put him in that tub he's immediately coiling to strike - when he was refusing food I tried feeding in tank and he simply ignored it. He eats one small frozen/thawed rat about once per week.

If you guys need any other info just let me know, I've provided about everything I can think of. Can also share pics of setup if those might help.