Normal with black belly scales?

[Tanziny]

I picked up this girl today, she is about 4-5 years old, and was a pass along snake until her current owners came into the petstore I work at to buy mice for her. Long story short - they found out I had snakes and balls in particular, and asked me if I wanted their 6foot long female ball. Had been the sons snake but was left in the care of the father who doesnt like snakes at all. I went and picked her up this afternoon after I got off work.

First 'she' (no clue) is not 6foot long, she is a big snake and probably at leat 4ft but by no means is she as tall as I am lol. She seems to be a fairly dark normal but has some really bright yellow on her sides and black belly scales. I got a few decent pics of her to show her off before I put her in her new tank for the next week.

I am by no means a morph expert so I was wondering what you guys thought of her. I have never seen a normal bp with black belly scales and was wondering if this was just another variation?

Thanks for ur help

[python_addict]

im still thinking a normal though i havent seen a black belly either only yellow bellies and white bellies i have a normal male same color and little smaller but a few black scales here and there but normals are never the same looking they have different patterns and colors but still considered normal

[Krista]

Maybe the pic just isn't clear enough (or it could be my monitor lol) but it almost looks like some old scarring to me :/

[RichsBallPythons]

Pictures shows like stated scarring thats healed up.

[Tanziny]

ah, scarring I never thought of that, if that were the case would it feel differently or would the scales look differently than a normal bp's belly scales. I will have to take a peek at her belly a bit closer.

If it is scarring what might have been the cause. When I picked her up she was in a 15g tank with no heat what so ever. Would a to hot UTH or Hot rock do something like that?

[RichsBallPythons]

Belly scales should go perpendicular to the spine . From the pictures the black area is disfigured form either a burn or some kind of rot that healed up.

yes heat sources can do this when not controlled.

[Tanziny]

I took a better look at the pics that I had taken and I see what you guys are talking about. The scales on her belly seem to be almost round, or oval shaped rather than the long rectangle shape of my other bp, who has no scarring issues.

I also noticed that it looked like she had a couple of damaged spots on her back, and a few places where her scales almost look creased(?) like she had been bent in that spot for a very long time.

She is now in a bigger tank, and will eventually get into a 40g breeder. She has the sweetest personality and likes to be able to stretch out.

If all that is scarring from either to hot or a scale rot issue, I am just really glad I have her now, and that for the rest of her life she wont have to worry about things of that nature (knock on wood).

She seems otherwise healthy, no mites, no upper ri issues. eyes and vent both look good. At worst she is a bit on the plump side.

I am glad I have her.

[sookieball]

Yeah looks like she got belly burned an scarred that way! However that's some veerry close together black on that belly so I would say very nice dinker!

[Tactical_308]

It looks like it could be newsprint stained...

[MS2]

I just hatched a few balls that have black bellies also. No scaring or belly rot. Any ideas? New morph?