Mazikeen progression thread

[Starscream]

Hey all, it's been a hot minute since I last replied to this thread. Maze is doing okay, though she is back in her quarantine tub for now. I'm pretty sure I found the source of the problem -- when I first made the soil mix for her bioactive, I used a different soil base than I was used to, and I'm pretty now that sure it had manure in it. At the time I was just desperate for dirt, since the brand I usually went with had stopped producing the kind I like. Since then, I've found another brand that's worked pretty well for my Japanese rat snake, and switched over Maze's bioactive to that as well.

Unfortunately, when I got back from the trip mentioned in my last post, Maze had a few new spots on her, so she had to go back into quarantine and resume her soaks. She's been eating fine, and her belly's been clear the past couple sheds, but I want all her scales to finish regrowing before I put her back into her enclosure. I would rather not repeat the last 6 months of struggle.

She did 1 last shed last month and it looked clear, and then a couple weeks ago two scales developed a brown line along the edge, and they don't really look like the scale rot so I'm not entirely sure what they are. It's possible she bent the scales while roaming around at night, so I'm hoping it'll go away after another shed. I'm not going to lie, after 6 months of this, I'm starting to wonder if it'll ever go away completely. Her quarantine cage is cleaned often, and there isn't anything in there beyond her hides, her water bowl, and paper towels, so I'm not sure how it could've come back.

Some pics since August, and two pics of the spots on her belly I mentioned above.