Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I noticed yesterday when my girlfriend picked up my ball his belly was a little pink. I have heard this can be the begging phase to scale rot. Or maybe he was on his heater to much. He moves the substate and lays directly on it. Any ideas and what should I do?

Keep an eye on the snake. Make certain that it is not laying in fouled substrate (cage bedding).
Keep the humidity up for a while. I bet it is just getting ready to shed. They often get a pink hue to the belly just before they turn blue/gray.
Keep us posted.
Good luck.
Harlin Wall - WALL TO WALL REPTILES!
970-245-7611

Yeah he appears to be getting close to shed he has a blue hue when you look in the right light but no grey eyes yet. thanks for your reply.

Even though your snake is simply getting ready to shed, you should still make sure that he's never laying directly on the Glass above the heat pad. If you're not using a glass aquarium then this doesn't apply to you...plastic doesn't get that hot... But if you are using a glass aquarium, then over the long term this glass can and will BURN your snake, but there's a very simple solution: lay down a couple layers of newspaper beneath the substrate so that even if the snake shoves all his bedding aside, there's still a thin layer of insulation and you won't have to worry about burns.

~kasey

I would think the newspaper would be a firehazzard. the heatpad ingeneral scares me. I have to go on a wek trip and im worried about it.

I use newspaper in the bottom of all my tanks with the substrate on top of that.... Paper is made from wood, substrate is made from wood. They're both equal "fire hazards".
Personally I've never heard of a reptile heat pad causing a fire (especially through the glass). I have however seen a massive, deep-tissue burn on the belly of a ball python that was allowed to bask directly on hot glass above a heat pad and it took several months to heal.

Many breeders use only newspaper as substrate, so unless your heat pad is INSIDE the tank (bad idea) and the wire is all chewed up and exposed (again bad idea), then newspaper will be fine underneath your normal substrate.

~kasey