Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Might be hard to see in the photo, but his belly is usally milky in color but was slightly tinted red earlier in the week but now has two very dry/red patches, does not look healthy at all....since i have done a serious cage cleaning, but should i try neosporin?? have a heating pad on one underside of hte cage, and he is always laying above it....i mist him maybe every other day, as macklot likes somewhat humid, but not sure what is going on here.........should i switch to newspaper? using reptile bark now, newspaper would be easier to clean.............have had him for about 5 months, first time ive had this problem........help!!

Do you have a thermostat/reostat on your heat pad? If not, it can get very, very hot, and cause burns on your snakes ventral scales if he is on the heat pad most of the time. I took a heat pad and plugged it in to the wall, and used a temp gun and a digital thermometer probe on it to see how hot in got after about an hour. It got up above 135 degrees!!! Very dangerous!!!
Give us more details, and we could possibly find out what is going on here.

well whick ever is the actual problem blisters or burns, scale rot, ect. i would definitly get the animal off of the reptibark, way to dry for liasis' of anykind, and probably for most other snakes as well, i would switch to newspaper until the issue is fixed, then if you wanted to switch to cypress, or aspen bedding,fine. but with that all said the animal is going to need to see a vet for proper determination and treatment

hey thanks for the replies.........i do not have a thermometer but going to get one tomorrow and check.....this bark says it is good for holding moisture, wouldn't newspaper be dry? And would the ink rub off if i mist him a few times a week? Never used newspaper b4........also going to try to find a reptile vet round here..........