Good morning all,

I have a 2yr old phantom spider BEL, she is around 12-1400 grams. She has a regular eating pattern that was just disrupted by her shed about a month ago. She has sense eaten and is from her behavior acting normal. She does have a heavy head wobble but she is my baby and I love her.

I reduced the humidity after her shed almost a month ago (80%<+, to 40%-60%), I use a fogger – I have her in a glass terrarium so I compensate with the coco husk and the fogger. I also use a 150 watt ceramic bulb – due to my tanks height – which keeps the bottom at 84-88 for her cool/ shaded side, and 90-92 on her hot spot with the UTH.

My issue is leading up to, during, and after her shed, she has gotten a very “pink” almost “Reddish” on her belly. Her pre shed pink belly is always very obvious due to her being a pretty much all white snake. As I look at her scales it does not seem to be from the coconut husk, though it was my initial assumption. I have had her on nothing but the husk sense I got her and never have I had this type of color issue with her. I fed her yesterday and she ate like normal back into her enclosure.

I guess what my question is, before I to take her to the vet, even though she shows no signs of irritation – bathing in her water bowl or anything out of the usual, could this be a mutation or a health issue? Maybe just blood flow situation due to the shed – which was one solid piece she has not had a “bad” shed in the 1.5 yrs of ownership. I did try to wipe her belly with a white rag with soap n water and even tried a little rubbing alcohol, after about a week after her shed and no residue or coloring was left on the rags and no reduced pink/redness.

I WILL SEND NEW PICTURES OF HER ASAP

There is a spot on her neck that makes me think "ringer" - but of what? which makes me think it may be a mutation, but I am a novice when it comes to this. I always wanted a white snake and she is my dream animal. I contacted her breeder – Dynasty- Chun- and he said her parent paring was BEL (No idea what BEL) to spider phantom. I do have a spider HET Clown, (for my clown project) and his “high white” is more of a “high yellowish/orange” and instead of him getting whiter he is getting yellowish/orangeish on his sides. So I am not sure if anyone with a Spider BEL of any other combination has experienced any color change as dramatic as this girl is. Or is this just a temporary thing I shouldn’t really concern myself with / or take her to the Vet ASAP - not many retile vets in NJ.

But again she is my baby and I want her to be healthy, happy, and safe, so if this is a health thing I will take care of it, if it is a morph thing I do hope one of you could help me identify WTF is going with my Spell (her name). I would appreciate any assistance on this if you all could enlighten me and or set my worries at ease please.

thank you