we need very clear, detailed pictures in order to help.  we also need all the detail you can give about his care: temps, diet, setup, etc. - everything you can give us.

also, if your ball python has an obvious medical condition, he probably needs to see a vet.

good luck with him!

and this is his cage we have a heating wire under it
 

I couldn't comment on the yellow scales, but I can tell right away, it looks like you have humidity problems in that tank. Are you aware that he has stuck shed? To help with that, you should bump up his humidity and consider a humid hide. Perhaps even put him in a shallow, warm (as in 80F, not too hot!) water soak with a towel to crawl through to help him get off the current stuck layers of shed.

What are the temperatures in the enclosure? I'm especially curious about the temperatures right above the heat cable. Do you have thermometers in the enclosure, or a temp gun to measure temperatures with? Remember, having the proper temperatures in the enclosure is vital to reptile health, and that includes monitoring temperatures and gradients. If you aren't controlling the heat cable on a thermostat or similar device, I would bet money that it is running MUCH too hot for your ball python. Burns can and will cause damage to ventral scales, as well. I don't have experience with burns and couldn't comment on whether it's possible that that is the cause of the discoloration and swelling, but it is a possibility that you need to consider.

+1

It could also be a slight burn  do you have a heat pad on the tank running full blast ?

Looks like the beginning of a burn! How are you regulating the heat source? Do you have a thermostat? The snake also has some serious stuck shed. Here is my remedy for stuck sheds...

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?171662-My-stuck-shed-remedy&highlight=stuck+shed+remedy

By the pictures it looks like almost everything about your cage is wrong and that is a huge cause of the problem with its scales. The swollen discolorations you are noticing are burns to the skin, if you dont change your set up as  soon as possible the burns will only become worse then you will have even more problems with your snake. First off get rid of the beding you are using and go out and buy either cypress mulch or coconut fiber, make sure you freeze the substrate for at least 24hrs before putting it in the cage. The freezing process kills any bugs that might be in the substrate. Make sure the heatpad if you have one, is the right size for the tank. Also get a big enough water bowl that the snake can fit inside it. What kind of light are you using? If you have a heatpad on the bottom of the tank a heat light is not necessary, if anything it will dry out the substrate which leads to no humidity in the cage which is causing the bad sheds your snake is having.  To treat the burns your snake has clean the burned area and apply neosporin on the area, by the next shed all the burn marks should be gone. Your snake has a horrible shed and if it looks like this all the time when it sheds then there may be many layers of dead skin on it. To treat this soak it in a tub of warm water, you may have to push its body down in the water. Then after its soaked for a bit start to peel all the dead skin off the snake, also check its eyes to make sure it doesn't have eye caps from the bad shed. If it does hold a warm damp paper towel on its eyes and then see if you can peel the eye caps off. If the soaking in warm water doesn't remove much skin there is a sheding spray you can buy at reptile stores.

it absolutely looks like early burns :(

I'm with Leah on this.

Jamejamec NEVER put neosporin on burns!!!!!! *facepalm* OP, if you want to treat yourself, which I don't recommend, I recommend a vet, Betadine diluted and daily soakings may help. I suggest a vet simply because infections usually come along with burns, and your vet can prescibe an antibiotic. I agree, change your set up asap, get a THERMOSTAT (most important!). You don't HAVE to use cypress or coco fiber, newspaper or paper towels are best while treating burns.

There's another medication....errr somebody help me out here....silvadine maybe?? (sp?) that I think works better for burns?

OMG....also it's NEVER recommended to try and remove eye caps...that can potentially cause some serious damage especially if it's a new person to reptile ownership. Eye caps are fine to leave alone until the next shed, and by that time any husbandry problems should be corrected...

Again, never dealt with burns before, but I think Leah is refering to silver sulfadiazine? I think one of the brand names is Silvadene? And if you go the route of betadine soaks, IIRC, you dilute the betadine in water until it's about the color of weak tea. Also very much agreed with the paper towel recommendation while treating the burn. When the burn is healed, then you can decide what you want to use for substrate, but until then you should keep the snake on paper towels. Paper towels are much cleaner, and much easier to clean, than particle substrates, and thereby much less likely to introduce bacteria and cause a secondary infection on top of the burn.

People with more experience/knowledge, feel free to correct me! :)

Going back to the shed issues thing: Agreed with Leah. You just plain do not "peel" shed off. Perhaps that was just bad wording on Jamejamec's part, but, when removing stuck shed, you should never pull/peel it off as you may damage the snake. Soak the snake until the shed is moistened enough to come off on its own, and then simply run the snake through a damp towel. The stuck shed should come off on its own with very little extra persuasion. This is also why I mentioned putting a towel in the soak for the snake to crawl through--this allows the snake to crawl through the towel as the soak loosens up the shed and, in theory, remove the shed on its own. Any stubborn stuck shed that does not come off should be left, and you should correct your husbandry problems before the next shed so it can come off with that next shed.

Regarding eye caps, the most you can try to do is exactly what you should do with the shed. Soak the snake and then gently brush a towel across the eye. Do not force it! If you try to peel off a stuck eye cap, you can cause SERIOUS damage. If the cap comes off with the gentle brushing, great! If not, wait til the next shed and make sure to check the shed to ensure that the caps came off with it.

Oh, and a trip to a qualified herp vet is most DEFINITELY in order, especially since it would appear that you are not very experienced with snakes and probably not experienced in dealing with injuries. If you let us know roughly where you are (state and/or nearest big city), then someone here should be able to recommend a good reptile vet near you.

I've had reptiles almost my entire life, I own 4 balls, 2 boas, 1 carpet, 1 green tree, not to mention various lizards and spiders. Also I worked at an exotic reptile for 3 years while I was in college, my boss was a herpetologist and taught me many things about treating and caring for reptiles while I worked there.  I've had to treat so many ill-cared for reptiles that people brought in, people really need to do research before they think of buying  one. Whenever we had snakes with bad sheds we soaked them and peeled/pulled the dead skin off, it doesn't damage the snake at all as long as you pull the skin in the right direction. Eye caps don't always come off with the next shed, sometimes they build up so much that the snake can't see and if you remove them correctly the snake doesn't suffer any injury from it. I'm sorry I forgot to mention to put the snake on a different substrate while it was healing, but I was focused on fixing the  set up that was there so the snake wouldn't suffer anymore burns or bad sheds. Yeah paper towels and newspaper work but only if the person pays attention to when the snake is going to shed and makes sure to mist it with water or provide a humid spot for it, but this person hasn't been paying attention so cypress/coco fiber is a easy thing for them to do.

Jamejamec, I understand that you have experience in these situations and therefore know what you're doing in treating bad sheds, but let's recall that this person, most likely, has absolutely no experience at all, and therefore doesn't know how to do these things safely, beyond what we can advise here. Perhaps eye caps can be removed safely by a practiced hand, but someone who's barely learning that stuck eye caps ARE an issue, much less how to deal with them, probably shouldn't try anything braver than a good soak and some gentle coaxing--certainly no "peeling," which can be disasterous, most especially in inexperienced hands.

Much of time, if treated correctly, eye caps should come off with the next shed. By "treated correctly," I mean correcting humidity and hydration issues, applying a good soak or two, and lots and lots of misting/humidity boosting, perhaps even a humid hide, when the next shed starts. For someone who doesn't know how to safely remove stuck eye caps, it is generally going to be much safer to gamble on them coming off with the next properly prepared for shed than to go in full-bore and try to remove them right away.

I understand you have experience, but not all experience is correct. It's a very well known fact that Neosporin and other petroleum based products cause a burn to actually become worse. Never put petroleum on a burn, human, reptile, bird...I don't care. Medically, it makes it worse, it traps in all the access heat and causes not only to fry the skin further but also increases the pain! It's okay to use on OLD burns, but certainly not for this type of instance.

I use newspaper year round, and if you're husbandry is correct there's no need to change substrate. I also don't mist. The only time I've ever needed to assist shed (not by pulling it off) is in the winter time when humidity sucks here. (Here's my remedy for bad sheds, much safer than pulling off shed yourself) http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?171662-My-stuck-shed-remedy

Also, as Floof said, giving a newbie advice to attempt to remove stuck eye caps is never a good idea. There are countless threads like this unfortunately http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?165670-Help...-BP-has-her-right-eye-is-bulging. Once husbandry has been addressed (usually as simple as removing lamps) then the chances of built up eye caps are minimal. If not, then refer to safer methods of removing shed, such as my tub idea or the pillowcase idea.

No hard feelings.

I've had a large number of rescue BPs come into our HS with retained eyecaps. I have NEVER tried to remove them myself - it's their eye, for goodness' sakes.

I find that most of the time soaking and fixing the humidity will cause it to come off with the next shed, just as Leah advises. if it doesn't all come off, then I use a q-tip and apply a coat of mineral oil a few times a week until the next shed. this has always worked, and usually the mineral oil is not even needed.

I'm also right up there with the Neosporin comment - if you ever feel you need to use Neosporin, use the CREAM and not the ointment; petroleum products in general are a no-no for reptiles.  Silvadene is definitely the preferred choice.

I'm treating a snake right now for ventral burns, with the advice of a good reptile vet. she just finshed her antibiotics. for the first couple of weeks, every day I gently cleaned the burned area with Chlorhex scrub using a piece of gauze; then wiped with Chlorhex rinse; then coated with a thin layer of Silvadene. she will bear scars, but is healing well.

the problem with trying to treat burns at home is that the possibility of infection is a serious threat.