Belly scale oddness

A trip to the vet might not be a bad idea. I have heard a couple of differnent places that Repti Bark sometimes leeches out a bit of its wood color when moist. I've never used it and have no idea to the authenticity of this or not, but it could be.

It does indeed - as does Forest Bark but I have only seen this in wet conditions or when the chips make it into the waterbowl - vader tipped and spilled his bowl so often he convinced me to get him on newsprint.

hmm, well, I will start with the scale rot treament and see how that goes next shed, the thing is I have to up the humidity, because i know it is not high enough and hasn't been for a while. In light of this, should I still change to paper towels? If it hasn't cleared up by next shed I suppose I will take him to the vet. He shed a few weeks ago, when do you think he will shed again?

My ball had that when she was a baby, right when I first got her. I just kept her on paper towels and when she shed it was completely gone... I'm not sure what kind of substrate she was kept on before though... I really don't know what it is, but I've seen it before and it went away with no effort on my part. I think paper towels would be a good idea.

I'd still switch to paper, either towels or newspaper, whichever you prefer.

oh, the last time I had paper in the bottom it didn't stay put. Somehow he bunched it all up and the bottom was left bare with nothing to soak up urates or anything. What should I do?

Weight it down. With newspaper, you can generally just do this by adding more layers, and with any kind of paper you can add hides and/or baked stones or similar to make sure the bottom layers stay put. If he wants a layer or two to hide under, that won't hurt anything.

ok, so a few layers and the things I keep on top should do ok. this is good to know. How often do they generally shed?

That depends on age, food intake, and health, but little guys are generally going to shed about monthly.

He's not so little anymore. I have had him for a year and he is pushing 3.5 feet. He usually eats weekly, I say usually because we are in transition now and figureing out eating scheduals, and other than this belly thing, is all healthy as far as the last check up shows