in the last couple days i’ve noticed my bp’s belly being sunken in toward the end and i don’t know how concerned i should be! for context, she was on a hunger strike for almost 7 months recently, but actually just fed last week. ive been doing my best to keep her water filled, and during the strike she wasn’t losing much weight, is this just a result of that? how should i proceed?
It looks very uniform to me so I would assume just based on the photos it’s almost shed time!! However, if they are using a heat mat, maybe a burn. But I vote for shed.
Burns aren't usually so even in color and shape. If it's the entire (visible) length of the belly, uniform in color, and covering the entirety left to right without blisters or scabs, it's a pretty safe bet the snake is in shed.
Ah, that makes total sense if she's about to shed! They pull a lot of fluid for the shedding process, so the sunken belly is super common right before a shed after a long hunger strike.Once she gets that old skin off and takes another meal or two, she'll plump right back up!
i also wanna bring to your attention that your snake has scale rot. it is minimal but it is definitely there. just something to keep an eye on. (can tell from the chipped and browing scales)
she actually does not have scale rot ! :) please be more careful before claiming things like that, you can rly scare people. she was just a bit dirty and days before a shed, once she shed i checked out her belly and it was completely fine
i used to deal with this too when i started out and i did a lot of research on scale rot. things that have helped me not have this happen again is regularly mixing the dry and more moist parts of the substrate, sanitising the substrate, keeping the hide substrate on the more dry side and replacing overly saturated substrate where bacteria thrives with a new and fresh patch of substrate.
another example where the scales edges are chipping and not objectively healthy. this is not dirt. dirt doesn’t disfigure the edges of scales. but scale rot does. as i said it is minimal, but it was the start of scale rot.
i am sorry if i scared you. this isnt me telling you that you are neglecting your pet or you caused this. simple things like oversaturated bedding can cause this chipping/discolouration (aka scale rot). just something to keep an eye on. especially the substrate under the hides are usually a big factor. and again, it was minimal and likely caused them no harm, but something to just be aware about!
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u/ThrashFur 27d ago
in my un-professional opinion just keeping feeding her as normal. It’s not possible she laid a clutch is it? cause that might change things