My BP died suddenly?

[redshepherd]

He was completely fine until 3 weeks ago. He was very active and what not. He had only one spot that was red at the end of tail, and then it slowly moved up. It was only on one side. And then like I said, in one spot his scale was completely gone and you could see his flesh I guess? It was just a white spot.

I'm sorry for your loss. I'm not sure if someone had already mentioned this, but without a thermostat, it sounds like he might have been burned by the unregulated UTH.

This picture is a severe burn from UTH without a thermostat, but a burn causes scales to fall off: http://s816.photobucket.com/user/lad...urned.jpg.html

As someone said, this forum is the perfect place to start research and learning about their care. Pet stores and even vets who don't have experience with reptiles are notorious for providing incorrect information that can even cause the death of the snake, like in this case...

A useful fact is that ball pythons should be eating prey that is around (just a little bit smaller) the width of the thickest part of their own body. Hatchling ball pythons right out of the egg are often fed mice hoppers, which are larger than pinkies.

Here's the ball python caresheet on the forum... http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet

And an underweight ball python will have a prominent spine, like a visible line down their back, and their skin will seem to be "falling" down around the spine. A health weight ball python's body shape is thick and round, and their body should be much thicker than their head width.