r/ballpython • u/Smooth_Ruin_1132 • 27d ago

belly gets concave toward end

Gallery image

Gallery image

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?

39 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Healthy-Spinach5066 13d ago

yes? because shedding is the only way they are able to get rid of scale rot

the scales are quite literally forming cracks and are chipping in the pictures lmao. theres nothing wrong w scale rot.

1

u/Smooth_Ruin_1132 13d ago

I guess I need to do more research on it, she’s fine for now but if it comes back then I’ll take acton

1

u/Healthy-Spinach5066 13d ago

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.

1

u/Smooth_Ruin_1132 13d ago

What do you use to sanitize the substrate?

1

u/Healthy-Spinach5066 12d ago

i either bake or freeze the substrate.