Hello,
I've come to this forum once before because my bearded dragon, Echo, had an infestation of coccidia and pinworms. That was about a year or so now. She was given a clear bill of health-- but her feces has not changed in consistency for that entire time, albeit very briefly during treatment. When she was being treated, it was fairly normal but sometimes it's hard to tell because she usually goes in her bath. (She usually gets a bath every two or three days.)
I will admit that when I bought her from the pet store (this was two years ago now, so I'm fairly versed in BD husbandry now) I was out of my depth and not familiar with all the ins and outs of bearded dragon care. Since then, I have made a lot of effort in learning everything I can. Here's a detailed list of my care practices:
Echo is in a 40 gal. breeder tank. I wanted to upgrade her to something larger, but I don't really have the space or money at this time. She is not a very large dragon, but I don't have exact measurements on hand at the moment because I'm not home. She is on tiled substrate that I manually cut, has a nice desert backdrop, and a hammock that she absolutely adores.
I have a laser thermometer that I use to monitor her temps. Her basking spot is pretty close to the heat lamp. (She can get within 3-4 inches from it. Maybe closer.) I have considered that this might be the problem, so I may change the arrangement of her tank. I don't really want to stress her out, but I'm at a loss at this point. Her basking temp is usually at 95 degrees.
I will say that, in the past, she would never use her basking spot unless her hammock was underneath it. Wherever the hammock is moved, she goes. 90% of her time is spent there. She also tends to become erratic in her tank, running back and forth and glass surfing. This happens a few times a week, and I usually attribute it to her being too hot or maybe that her enclosure is too small for her. I'm not sure.
Her UVB light is coming up to its replacement date soon. (January.) It is mounted inside her enclosure so that she can better soak up the rays. She can get quite close to this as well. On average, I feed her salad every day -- sometimes I skip a day with no food at all -- and she is fed four dozen crickets a week with her multivitamin. Her calcium powder is put on her salad every other day.
My gut tells me that her diet is the problem. When she was younger, she only really ate kale and crickets. I was misinformed about bearded dragon diet and nutrition then. For about a year she has been on a staple of collard greens rotated between endive and escarole, sometimes kale, sometimes dandelion greens. That's a lot of water intake, and that's why I thought her poops were so rancid! I would also like to note that I had the local vet test her fecal just a few months ago. (Four months ago, to be exact.) She came up clean!
But the problem is, is her poops are absolutely horrible. They are always filled with excess water, always mushy, never solid or formed. Her urate always looks almost completely normal, but that's saturated as well. The smell is bad, it can leave an odor in my room, not a huge pungent odor, but enough to be able to tell she's gone when you walked in the room. She is set behind a closed door, too, so the smell does get through that.
On top of all of this, I thought that I wasn't offering her enough variety in her foods. Escarole, endive, kale, collard greens... all these are just greens, no vegetables. So I thought I'd add some different things into the mix. I fed her carrots on top of her salad twice this week and gave her a lot of acorn squash, too. All of this on a bed of endive. I thought that maybe it would help her diarrhea. Instead, it just made it worse. Now it's uniformly undigested. I can make out the carrot and squash. When I came home, I thought she had thrown up until I saw the urate. It was literally just a pile of mush.
Everytime her poops look strange, I get worried... and most are way too mushy. Usually I can't tell because, like I said, she goes in her bath and it's formed well *in* water. But other than that, nope. And sometimes it's so bad that it's smeared down her tail and she tracks it all through the tank. At that point, I have to give her a bit more of a bath and that stresses her out even worse.
I do happen to feed her too much, I think. I bought a water dish from the pet store and I use that as her feeding dish. How much, in proportion, should an adult bearded dragon get? Is there anyway someone can give me an idea of HOW much should be offered?
In addition, she does not like me very much. She is very jumpy, very skittish, even after two years. She used to bite a lot, but she doesn't anymore. She's fine when I pick her up, mostly, but she's always squirming and trying to run around. Eventually she calms down, though. I think it's just an initial reaction when I pick her up.
In any case, I am so completely at a loss now. I don't know what's wrong, I can't seem to find the source of the problem, no matter what I do it either makes it worse or has no effect whatsoever.
I've come to this forum once before because my bearded dragon, Echo, had an infestation of coccidia and pinworms. That was about a year or so now. She was given a clear bill of health-- but her feces has not changed in consistency for that entire time, albeit very briefly during treatment. When she was being treated, it was fairly normal but sometimes it's hard to tell because she usually goes in her bath. (She usually gets a bath every two or three days.)
I will admit that when I bought her from the pet store (this was two years ago now, so I'm fairly versed in BD husbandry now) I was out of my depth and not familiar with all the ins and outs of bearded dragon care. Since then, I have made a lot of effort in learning everything I can. Here's a detailed list of my care practices:
Echo is in a 40 gal. breeder tank. I wanted to upgrade her to something larger, but I don't really have the space or money at this time. She is not a very large dragon, but I don't have exact measurements on hand at the moment because I'm not home. She is on tiled substrate that I manually cut, has a nice desert backdrop, and a hammock that she absolutely adores.
I have a laser thermometer that I use to monitor her temps. Her basking spot is pretty close to the heat lamp. (She can get within 3-4 inches from it. Maybe closer.) I have considered that this might be the problem, so I may change the arrangement of her tank. I don't really want to stress her out, but I'm at a loss at this point. Her basking temp is usually at 95 degrees.
I will say that, in the past, she would never use her basking spot unless her hammock was underneath it. Wherever the hammock is moved, she goes. 90% of her time is spent there. She also tends to become erratic in her tank, running back and forth and glass surfing. This happens a few times a week, and I usually attribute it to her being too hot or maybe that her enclosure is too small for her. I'm not sure.
Her UVB light is coming up to its replacement date soon. (January.) It is mounted inside her enclosure so that she can better soak up the rays. She can get quite close to this as well. On average, I feed her salad every day -- sometimes I skip a day with no food at all -- and she is fed four dozen crickets a week with her multivitamin. Her calcium powder is put on her salad every other day.
My gut tells me that her diet is the problem. When she was younger, she only really ate kale and crickets. I was misinformed about bearded dragon diet and nutrition then. For about a year she has been on a staple of collard greens rotated between endive and escarole, sometimes kale, sometimes dandelion greens. That's a lot of water intake, and that's why I thought her poops were so rancid! I would also like to note that I had the local vet test her fecal just a few months ago. (Four months ago, to be exact.) She came up clean!
But the problem is, is her poops are absolutely horrible. They are always filled with excess water, always mushy, never solid or formed. Her urate always looks almost completely normal, but that's saturated as well. The smell is bad, it can leave an odor in my room, not a huge pungent odor, but enough to be able to tell she's gone when you walked in the room. She is set behind a closed door, too, so the smell does get through that.
On top of all of this, I thought that I wasn't offering her enough variety in her foods. Escarole, endive, kale, collard greens... all these are just greens, no vegetables. So I thought I'd add some different things into the mix. I fed her carrots on top of her salad twice this week and gave her a lot of acorn squash, too. All of this on a bed of endive. I thought that maybe it would help her diarrhea. Instead, it just made it worse. Now it's uniformly undigested. I can make out the carrot and squash. When I came home, I thought she had thrown up until I saw the urate. It was literally just a pile of mush.
Everytime her poops look strange, I get worried... and most are way too mushy. Usually I can't tell because, like I said, she goes in her bath and it's formed well *in* water. But other than that, nope. And sometimes it's so bad that it's smeared down her tail and she tracks it all through the tank. At that point, I have to give her a bit more of a bath and that stresses her out even worse.
I do happen to feed her too much, I think. I bought a water dish from the pet store and I use that as her feeding dish. How much, in proportion, should an adult bearded dragon get? Is there anyway someone can give me an idea of HOW much should be offered?
In addition, she does not like me very much. She is very jumpy, very skittish, even after two years. She used to bite a lot, but she doesn't anymore. She's fine when I pick her up, mostly, but she's always squirming and trying to run around. Eventually she calms down, though. I think it's just an initial reaction when I pick her up.
In any case, I am so completely at a loss now. I don't know what's wrong, I can't seem to find the source of the problem, no matter what I do it either makes it worse or has no effect whatsoever.