Quote Originally Posted by Armiyana View Post
Hard to say without photos to peek at...

Do the marks fade away by a later point in the day?
Are you feeding live or frozen?

My guesses if there's no real way to injure themself is that live food is doing it, or it's just the little skin indents and creases they sometimes get from being balled up in a hide, but because it's white belly scales the color is noticable.

The only other thing I could think of, is I've seen "red scratches" on a snake that was self harming. He would panic and bite at himself. In that case, when the snake stressed from handling and even a bedding change sometimes, it would bite at itself.
He's not getting live food.
The scratches really look like a cat scratch. They are straight and very thin but you can clearly see that the scales are cut into. It's deep enough to turn red/pink but not deep enough to be considered a wound.
I have a plant with sturdy leaves inside the cage but I highly doubt the leaves are sharp enough to make paper cut like scratches.
And the cork wood is obviously rough but everyone uses these and why would my snake be that much more hurt by that.
I also use cypress mulch which has peaces of wood in it but again that's commonly used so why would it be a problem here.
I can't seem to find the cause.
I test the surfaces with my own hand and if I don't get cut I assume that my ball will be safe as well. I figured scales would be more sturdy than skin but I don't know.