Ok- upon closer inspection, the snake's head is somewhat a differen't tone than the rest of his body so maybe he is "sloughing" but i think it might be the mites, bc i just gave hime a thoughout bath and his behavior is much less "twitchy" he seems a lot more relaxed. Also, if he does have a start to scale rot, would it be a bad idea to temorarily take out his water dish like every other day or so?? nothing drastic.. <----- thats prolly a dumb idea... but i thought i'd shout it out. Also i clean his cage QUITE often after he's soiled it only a few times (cage is RIGHT next to my bed... don't need to see/smell that) So i highly doubt it's from an over dirty cage- BUT i have a feeling some airborne febreze spray may have found its way into the cage since i was cleaning my room a few days back . I'll keep ya posted