Bad babysitter

I recently was out of town for a little over a week and had my snake watched by a friend
I came home and he had this up with his scales.. I think she kept the rank too wet or something, i'm hoping this isn't the beginning of scale rot.. his front scales are also like.. flaky? i guess you could put it like that. Could anyone give me a hand on how i can correct this?https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...m%2Fscgxea.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...%2F35izzt2.jpg

What does your setup look like? Temps? Type of thermometer and where it is located? Thermostat? Heat source? Substrate type?

Also, :welcome:

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

What does your setup look like? Temps? Type of thermometer and where it is located? Thermostat? Heat source? Substrate type?

Also, :welcome:

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So right now the tank is in the 90's on the hot side.
and humidity is around 60%
also has a heating pad under his little rock cave
His bedding is Zillas jungle mix, but i just put that i about four days ago when i brought him home
he used to be on repti bark, and that's the bedding when he was on while i was out of town.
Here are some pictures
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...%2F2d6jsc9.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...%2F20ze1wk.jpg

I think he has a burned belly. Unplug the under tank heater. You will need to get some probed thermometers to get a more accurate temperature and a thermostat to regulate the heating pad. Change out the bedding with some paper towels until the burn heals. Should be good as New after his next shed.

Touching the soil that's there, it's not very hot. I don't think its hot enough for a burn

Similarly to how a hand isn't a good measure of finding out if someone has a fever, your hand won't be able to tell if it is hot enough to burn the snake. The round dial thermometers that you are using are notoriously inaccurate. A digital thermometer will give you a much more accurate reading.

The hottest point in the tank (under the substrate right on the glass where the UTH is) should be no hotter than 95. If your snake was laying on temps higher than that for a week, its very possible he has a mild burn.

Has he moved any of the substrate around?

Do you have a thermostat to regulate the UTH? The heat pad can easily reach over 100 degrees without a thermostat and can burn the snake.

The glass under the substrate will be hotter than the actual substrate. I recommend getting a temp gun so you can get a better reading.

Looks like a burn. Touching the substrate doesn't help, because it is cooler then underneath.

Ball Pythons often move the substrate around and end up laying directly on the bottom. If you don't have a thermostat attached the the under tank heater, the temps it reaches will burn a Ball Pythons belly. Sadly..it happens very often.

Perhaps your friend forgot to turn on the lights sometime, and the BP tried to get warm and burrowed down to the bottom over the heat pad..

Mild burn. You need a thermistat to run a UTH. It even says it in all their directions. Just a simple chain store ZooMed UTH unregulated gets 130 degrees.