I had Emily out last night and she was crawling around me when suddently she scratched me with her tail - her tail has always been a bit harder than the rest of her but it's never prickled me before so now I'm wondering if it's all old shed and how I can get it off of her or will it come off on its own with a good shed? If it's old shed it may have been there for quite a while and I wonder if it will ever come off. About a couple of months ago I switched from bark substrate to newspaper and her last shed wasn't as good as normal with a few bits being left on her body. I feel like switching back to bark but the newspaper/paper towels seems much more hygienic. I use plain topsoil for my monitor but I guess soil isn't any good for snakes ... or is it? Just something I've wondered since having a monitor as the humidity is never a problem in the sav enclosure.

I just thought of another thing - when I spray the enclosure I tend to spray around and about but never make the paper wet at all. One thing I noticed when I got my boa from the breeder is his tubs had paper in and they seemed quite soggy - I thought that was a bit too wet - but maybe I'm not making them wet enough - the boa, by the way, had a perfect shed and has perfect skin.