My snake is trying to eat weird things!

Question
I have 2 snakes, one corn snake and one rat snake, both about 2-3 years old. Our rat snake is a "brat" if you will and always has been lol. She is different from other snakes, so maybe this whole thing is just because she is weird lol. But obviously what she is doing is not normal and could be dangerous if she succeeds. Recently her body condition has declined due to poor nutrition (other snake eats the same thing and has never been unhealthy, so we didn't really think anything of it). So Vet recommended vitamin/mineral supplementation along with feedings. We did that and she is improving. Due to her poor scale condition, she was getting tiny splinters between/under her scales which we could not see except under a magnifying glass. This was due to their substrate (Recommended by a "snake expert") which was a moist mulch-like substance. Also recommended was carved out wood tunnels so they would have something abrasive to help them shed. Obviously the Vet said to use something else softer and "cleaner" as their bedding. So I put a towel down on the bottom and a washcloth for them to burrow under. Well, one day my boyfriend screamed for me saying Lilly (the trouble child) was attempting to literally swallow the wash cloth. She is about the width of a dime-nickel and maybe 3-4 feet long. She had half of the wash cloth down her throat and was extremely stretched out. So I obviously needed to get it out. I knew not to pull it out, so I gently coaxed her to spit it out by touching her behind the area where the towel had been swallowed. She spit it out pretty quickly but we were still shocked that she had done this. We had fed them just a few days prior so she obviously wasn't hungry. Had I known this was as rare as it apparently is, I would have taken a picture, but was in a panic at the time. Well, she didn't learn her lesson that time so attempted it again, only not just with the wash cloth but the actual full-sized towel on the bottom of their cage. We knew this because we came home to find a 6 inch section of it sticking out and compressed, covered in mucous stuff (her saliva) at the end. She obviously was able to spit it out on her own that time. I am thinking of other bedding options for them seeing how she has "sensitive scales" I guess and can't be trusted not to swallow dangerous things, like a child lol. I just worry that one of these times she will eat something that she will not be able to dislodge or digest and kill herself. Is my snake depressed? Lonely? Suicidal? Lacking something? Or just retarded? lol Hope you can help. Thank you :) By the way, I do love my snakes thought I make fun of her. Trust me, if you met this one you'd think she was a brat too, no matter how many times you hand-socialize her lol.

Answer
Hi Leanne,
   That is certainly an interesting problem. I have a Macklot's Python that swallowed a whole garden glove made of leather. I accidentally left it in the enclosure after a feeding and she ate it. I thought that was it for her. The lump made it to her stomach and sat there for 3 days. She finally regurgitated it and I was simply amazed. I do not have an answer for you on this one. I think the most likely scenario is that the snake's vitamin deficiency  causes her feeding response to go haywire. I am not a vet so I am really just speculating. Have you tried aspen as a substrate? I would remove the cloths and try the aspen. Get a hard plaster or plastic tunnel if you think she enjoys it. I use a gutter spout from Home Depot that looks like a log (with little frogs on top). I think that you have a weird snake and you should enjoy her "uniqueness".

Rat snakes are harder to keep than other colubrids. I have always found them challenging and intolerant of poor husbandry. Not that yours is poor, it sounds like you are doing all that you can to accommodate her needs. Keep at it, try the aspen, try a hard tunnel, keep her on the vitamins and pray!