I think there is something your missing here. In the wild a snake may use basking sites as high as 100 degrees to digest their food and speed up their metabalism. The scale indention is because the snake is becoming "fat" because of the heat gradient that you are forceing upon it. At 81 degrees your Milk doesn't have the temps. it needs to properly metabalise it's food and therefore is displaying the artificialy indused symptoms of obesity. A perfect thermal gradient of 50's to high 90's is pretty impractical to reproduce in captivity, but a more realistic gradient of mid 70's to 90 is not. If you do try this, you'll notice a very big increase in growth and activity by your Milk Snake. Another good tip is to throw away those stick on thermometers and get an infra-red thermometer. Pro-Exotics has them for pretty reasonable prices now. They will make a huge difference in your husbandry skills. Good luck!

-Phil
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Work is the curse

of the drinking class!

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