Feeding and excreeting difficulties in 1 year old

Hello,

I have a 1 year old (this next Fri) beardie that used to have a really good appetite, but as he has gotten older, he eats less and wants less variety. He also has never really taken off with greens and veggies.

We feed him black solder fly larva (which we grow ourselves 9 months of the year, but not currently), home-grown dubia, kale, mustard greens, dandelion greens (when available at our organic store), butternut squash (which he'll eat one day, then not for some time). He used to tear up crickets, but no more as he has no interest in them. Has has enjoyed occasional butter worms, hornworms, a rare wax worm, and silkworms. All he seems to want now is superworms. He never seems to get tired of them, but we only feed them once a week normally for fear of impaction.

He hardly eats any greens. Not near as much as an adult female a local PetSmart has as the store's own pet (evidently that can eat a man-size salad twice a day).

He used to have a bowel movement once a day. For some time, he has not been having them (perhaps a week). I have given him baths, but that has not stimulated.

He is also cracking his mouth open more often than not, which is a completely new behavior for him. I feel around on his belly (I am a physician, so I can't help "examining") finding it to be soft unlike what I think an impaction would be. It caused no apparent discomfort to palpate his belly. When I gave him a bath a few days ago, he did really drink a lot. Yest, he drank nothing.

He wouldn't eat any dubia or greens (or berries) yest, so I in desperation tried some superworms, and he tore them up so appetite (at least for the right thing), seems to still be there.

He is getting vertical against the back wall which he has occasionally done, but has done it a few nights this week, and stayed there the whole day the next day until I got him out for a bath. He does wander around the viv from time to time.

Any ideas on how else to stimulate BMs and get him to eat more greens, fruits, and other veggies? We got some "salad dressing" at a pet store we will try later today.

I also would like some thoughts about this new cracking his mouth open thing. This is different than how he props his mouth open when he is basking and regulating his temp. He is not panting or coughing. He exhibits no behavior that would result in my classifying him as "sick" for which I'm used to looking.

Advice welcome.

Kindly,
Nathan

Hi Nathan,
The holding the mouth open could be signs of a couple d9fferent things. It could be starting of RI issues, or could be he is starting a shed and his nose may be a bit plugged up. If I were you I would leave out the kale in their diet and try collard, turnip or mustard greens instead. If these issues continue I would suggest taking him to a vet to get checked out.

Hi Nathan, sorry to hear that you are worried about Praxis. That's good that he is enjoying the superworms since he isn't interested in anything else right now. Their tastes change SO frequently so next wk, he might want crickets or even the dubia. Supers are good for them but can be very drying causing them not to have as frequent bowel movements as they did when eating softer feeders. While in the bath, have you tried rubbing his right side from armpit to vent area? If not, you could certainly try that. You can also give him a couple drops of vegetable oil or even feed very warm baby food applesauce, prunes or even 100% canned pumpkin. Any of those should help get things moving along.

You mentioned that he has been standing vertical against the back wall and even did that a whole day. Is he basking much? Might be a good idea to double check his basking temp if you haven't recently, sometimes it needs a slight adjustment.

Since he is about a yr old (Happy Birthday on the 14th Praxis), he isn't done growing yet so his body is still calling for more feeders. Rather than feeding them once a week, might want to try feeding a few a day instead and since he only wants the supers, give more frequent baths to make sure he can pass them ok. If he isn't basking much, that could very well be the reason for more infrequent passing of his stools.

You also might want to try a few different greens to see if there is one he will really like, collards, turnip greens, escarole, endive, all of those are very nutritious ones. Wouldn't give him an awful lot of kale though as that does bind calcium. You can also mix in different things like small pieces of green peppers (a new favorite here recently), a little cilantro or parsley over the top (the smell of those seems to attract them), melons are very good too to mix in, like watermelon, muskmelon (cantelope), can even put a few pieces of apple on top.

As far as the cracking of his mouth, our beardies do that too sometimes and doesn't mean anything is wrong necessarily, sometimes it's just their way of smiling and showing they are happy & content. As long as there are no breathing issues, no discharge around the mouth or nose, no drooling, no darkening of beard and/or tail and no lethargy and still eating (although picky lol), I wouldn't worry. Any chance he is getting ready to shed the skin around his mouth or nose perhaps? Might be a good idea to check the humidity level in his tank though to make sure it isn't too dry. If you want to post a picture of him with his slightly open mouth, we can take a look at it though.

Hope this helps a little.

I took the below pic earlier, but hadn't had a chance to upload. He is shedding around his "lips" so that could be it. He doesn't shed nearly as much as even a few months ago, though.

I massaged his belly like I saw on a youtube vid, but that didn't help, but didn't try on the right side. Will try that.

I was wrong. I thought it was kale, but my wife said it was mustard greens (I don't buy them so I didn't know, and I don't know what greens look like very well).

I'll recheck the basking spot, but he does spend a bit of time there, but not as much over the past few days.

I do want to be clear that I didn't mean we were feeding him feeders only once a week, just the supers once a week, but we have had to do it more frequently lately, or he wouldn't eat.

Thanks for the tips on how to help get him moving. I know mineral oil can help humans, but didn't know how that would do with beardies, but sure can try vegetable oil.

Here is his pic:



Since I took the pic, he got vertical.

He looks very good size wise and the top of his head shows that he is very well hydrated.

What temp do you usually try to have for his basking temp? Usually when a yr or so, they like it about 102 or 103 but not sure what Praxis prefers.

They do tend to bask less when they are shedding any part of their bodies, guess the heat makes their skin feel even drier and more itchy so they avoid the heat a little more.

Good that you are offering mustard greens daily. Hope you find something he really likes, sure can be hard sometimes.

I'm sorry, I thought you meant you were offering other feeders that he didn't want so you were giving the supers once a week because you were worried about impaction. It's fine to feed them more frequently and hopefully he will clean out soon. Does he appear to be bloated?

Guess he's more comfortable in that position right now, could be that it's wintertime and he prefers standing that way or he might be a little uncomfortable from not pooping for about a wk. One of the things I mentioned should help. You could bathe him daily too if you feel the need.

He is just so cute, I just want to cuddle him.

Thank all for the input.

Diane, your comment has me curious as to what the head looks like when a beardie is dehydrated.

Hi Nathan,
Sorry that Praxis is worrying you. The pads at the top of the head look flat or sunken when they are dehydrated. They're side by side above where the vertical spikes are in the picture. His are nice and puffy looking.
I hope he improves soon!
Esther

A dehydrated Beardie will be inactive, perk up after drinking water, have sunken eyes and have a winkly belly. Try misting him with water every other day and you can maybe offer a bowl of water. Give him a 10 minute bath twice a week and keep offering food.

Hope this helps
~Abi

How is Praxis doing? Was he able to clean himself out?

Was hoping to wait to have some good news but I have none. Have given daily baths with armpit to vent stroking but no go. Have tried sunflower sprouts, cilantro with green bell pepers with herp salad dressing, and canteloupe. He would eat none of it. Tomorrow morning, he is getting syringed vegetable oil and later purine juice.

Behavior is normal. No more getting vertical. Occ cracking of the mouth.

Was thinking he might truly be anorexic but he tore up the super worms tonight. Tried putting super worms in among canteloupe but he ignored them. Pulled worms out and he snatched the worms up. Tricky boy!

Temp was 97 to 98 at basking. Added another layer of brick, and it is 105.

Thank you for checking in on him.

They sure know what they want, don't they? And can be stubborn at times too. :lol: Let us know how the vegetable oil & juice work out.

Perhaps having the basking temp at 105 will help him out. What substrate does he have on the bottom of his tank? Is it tile? Just want to make sure it isn't something that he might have ingested.

Good luck, hope he cleans out for you tomorrow.

The substrate is soil, vermiculite, and sand combo. We don't feed on it. I've watched him very carefully. He does ingest it or tongue it.

Hard to say what temp he prefers. There have been so many variables.

Oh, ok, just trying to not leave anything out.

You had asked me how I could tell that Praxis was well hydrated. The others explained it well but I just ran across this picture that shows a VERY dehydrated beardie so you could see the difference.

diamc":2u975ez4 said:

Oh, ok, just trying to not leave anything out.

Click to expand...

It is an important question. He likes to dig. Used this before we knew he was male as we were told he was female. Strax is on herp carpet.

I still worry about it now he is not going.

Very warm baby food applesauce works well too if you can get him to take it.