Hi everyone,

First, thanks all for the advice. Second, sorry to post and then go all quiet, but I had my settings wrong and wasn’t getting email notifications of replies (now fixed), so I thought that BP.net was not very busy. Boy was I wrong.

So to cover off questions/comments in a bulk format:
-No, I don’t feed live. About 95% of what I’d read before I started keeping snakes recommended against it.
-It doesn’t seem to be improving really, but it also isn’t getting any worse either.
-I normally would never have anything in the tank with sharp edges/points, and when I find them I go crazy with my hot glue gun. I’m currently wracked with guilt that this one got somehow missed during the initial setup of the tank – I’m actually quite diligent. So no, no tape anywhere.
-No overhead heat source – right now all the tank heating is handled by UTHs.
-The two shed’s he’s had since we brought him home have both been horrible, but the head has always come off cleanly in one piece (with eye caps), so not a shedding problem I think.
-The area is no warmer than any other part of him, and there is no sign of it getting any bigger or thicker.

Thanks again everyone for the help. My limited experience with snakes has all been with corns so far, and it is a huge "security blanket" for me to know there is a huge crowd of passionate snake lovers out there on the intertubes that are so ready to help out.

Thanks,
Ian.