Is This Scale Rot?

[camilleon]

The pink belly looks much more pink on camera than it is in person. In person his belly is a pale, almost white pink, however several of his scales seem to have their “surface layer” scratched off and creating a pinker spot. The main reason I ruled out burns is because they’re small and scattered across his belly, instead of one broad or bigger spot that stands out. And they look like abrasions rather than burns. While I won’t say it’s definitely not burns because I can’t say for sure, I am fairly certain that isn’t the case.

The heating setup in his 4x2x2 tank is a 100w heat emitting ceramic bulb alongside a second 60w one to create a hot and cool side. Both are surrounded by cages and are warm, but not hot to the touch as you can hold your hand on them for several minutes. The reason I have two is so I can turn off or on the 60w one as temperatures fluctuate in my room ( It can go from 80 degrees to 69 in my room in the same day ). When my room is its average temp of 75 degrees, his tank will have a warmer side of 88 degrees, and a cooler side of 79. When it’s 80 degrees in my room I have to turn off the 60W bulb as it can get up to the high 90’s. Alongside this there is a heating mat on a quarter of the underside of the enclosure that is regulated using a BN-Link Digital Heat Mat Thermostat, set to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The probe for it is in a rock hide under a thin layer of substrate that touches the pvc directly on top of the heat mat. And I’ve stuck my hand into the hide and wiggled my finger down the to the pvc to double check that it’s not too hot, and from what I can tell it doesn’t seem to even radiate heat rather than just make the ambient temperature of that hide 90 degrees.

My snake seems to be healthy other than his belly. He is not showing any lethargy and gets very active at night and dismantles all of his decor during this time (to which I have to fix in the morning lol). While I was taking pictures he was very much trying to explore and escape. Although he’s been on a feeding strike since February. Despite my efforts of trying to feed him prekilled rats that are still actively warm, and making the rats seem alive with tweezers and making it move around his tank, he shows little to no interest. I chocked this down to either him reaching sexual maturity because he’s right around that age, or just some periodic fasting. He’s not losing any weight, or showing any signs of illness, and since it’s only a two month fast I believed it to be normal.

I will keep him on paper towels for the time being, however it is notable that the substrate isn’t all that old, having gotten it mid March

Thank you for your help!!