Help with my BP please. Underside scrapes?

[epicbobman]

pics at bottom

1. How long have you had your ball python?
6 months


2. How old (or how big) is your snake?

he is a year old

3. Does it eat on a regular schedule?
Yes. Every 11 days


4. How long since its last meal?

about 7 days

5. What type/size prey is being offered?
Small rats


6. How often do you offer food?
Every 11 days


7. What type and size of enclosure does it live in?
He lives in a glass 20 gal but in moving up to a 50 gal today


8. What are you using as substrate? If it has depth, how deep is it?
1 inch of Peet moss


9. What type of heating do you use?
UHT


10. Do you use a thermostat to control temperatures?
No, we use a preset exoterra uht

11. What do you use to measure/monitor temperatures?

Gauge

12. What are the surface and ambient temperatures in the enclosure?
26 c


13. What is the average humidity level?
50-70


14. How many and what type of hides does the snake have?
1 "cave" hide


15. Is water readily available at all times?
Yes


16. Does the snake live alone or does it share the enclosure with anything else?
Alone


17. How often and for how long is the snake typically handled?

every couple days for 10-30 mins

18. Does the snake have any medical history (old injuries or illnesses)?

no

19. Do you have any other reptiles? Have you brought in any new reptiles recently?
We do not have any other rebtiles


20. Is there anything specific or unique about your situation that we should be aware of?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

10. Do you use a thermostat to control temperatures?
No, we use a preset exoterra uht

This is a false sense of security any heat source can overheat, and even the so called preset UTH that are not supposed to go over a certain temp do go above the stated manufacturer temps depending on the ambient room temps. (Not hearsay I tested some myself)

You MUST buy a thermostat before the worse happens.

8. What are you using as substrate? If it has depth, how deep is it?
1 inch of Peet moss

How damp do you keep the peat moss.

There are 2 possibilities here based on what you wrote you are either dealing with burn or scale rot.

Burn would due to the lack of t-stat
Scale rot would be due to the peat moss being kept too damp

[epicbobman]

How do i fix these problems?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

#1 By fixing your husbandry, buy a RELIABLE, thermostat (In the meantime you can use this http://www.lowes.com/pd_316275-539-T...lutron+dimmers until you get a t-stat)

Make sure the substrate is not damp, damp substrate promotes bacteria and can lead to several issues.

#2 At this point it is not looking too severe so change your substrate to clean paper towel and monitor your BP, if it get worse take your BP to a vet, if it remains the same way chances are what you see will be gone after one shed.

[epicbobman]

#1 By fixing your husbandry, buy a RELIABLE, thermostat (In the meantime you can use this http://www.lowes.com/pd_316275-539-T...lutron+dimmers until you get a t-stat)

Make sure the substrate is not damp, damp substrate promotes bacteria and can lead to several issues.

#2 At this point it is not looking too severe so change your substrate to clean paper towel and monitor your BP, if it get worse take your BP to a vet, if it remains the same way chances are what you see will be gone after one shed.

If I replace the substrate with dirt will that work to help the humidity issue? I checked the soil with my hydrometer and its at 86~%

[Inarikins]

Put your snake on paper towels, keep him clean and dry and if it goes away with the next shed, put him on aspen or something like repti-bark that will hold humidity. Paper towels or newspaper.

[epicbobman]

I have a uht. Won't the paper towels light if they get hot?

[Capray]

I have a uht. Won't the paper towels light if they get hot?

Uhm..the uth should definitely not get hot enough to light paper towels through glass. So no, it won't. If you have a light dimmer or similar you can hook the uth to that to control it till you can get a reliable thermostat.

[Daybreaker]

I have a uht. Won't the paper towels light if they get hot?

Is your UTH inside the tank or on the outside bottom of it?

[mackynz]

I have a uht. Won't the paper towels light if they get hot?

I have to ask, if you think your UTH is getting so hot that it would light paper towels on fire, why would you think your snake would be okay in there?