Its been two months since he pooped on his own.

Tressaranucci · Mar 30, 2018

For perhaps about the past two months or so my almost a year old bearded dragon has not been pooping on his own but continuously eats as though he's starving. I haven't been feeding him as much lately because every time I feed him he swells, his diet consists of mostly apples and kale but with a fair amount of crickets. I tried baby food prunes mixed with vegetable oil and honey and that worked for a little bit but now he shows no interest in them. I have also tried a warm bath, feeling his stomach for any sort of impaction, and a few drops of olive oil in his food. He recently started shedding for the first time in maybe 3 months and acts completely normal, he spends most of his time basking or sleeping in the corner of his cage, the temperature of his basking area is 80 degrees and his cool down area is approximately 70-75 degrees and the humidity is 50. I have called the nearest vets office with an exotic specialist but the specialist is only there some days of the week and it varies from week to week, I was also informed that they are booked until the second week of April. If you have any information, tips or tricks that I can use to help him please help me! Thank you for taking the time to read this and for any assistance you may be able to provide.

AHBD · Mar 30, 2018

Hi there, just a quick answer , I'm running out of the house. Your basking temp. at 80F is way too low, get it up to 100-105 ,that will help digestion.

CooperDragon · Mar 30, 2018

I agree the issue is likely lighting related. You want the surface temps of the basking zone to be between about 100-110f and a gradient down to about 75-85 on the cool side. In addition to offering a proper temperature gradient you need to provide adequate (sunlight levels) UVB. This requires an appropriately powered UVB light over the basking area. If you can provide details on your lighting I can try to help you get that fine tuned. Heat and lighting has a direct effect on digestion as well as overall health so it's quite important and likely related to the issue you're seeing.

Tressaranucci · Mar 31, 2018

CooperDragon":3chs2xxf said:
I agree the issue is likely lighting related. You want the surface temps of the basking zone to be between about 100-110f and a gradient down to about 75-85 on the cool side. In addition to offering a proper temperature gradient you need to provide adequate (sunlight levels) UVB. This requires an appropriately powered UVB light over the basking area. If you can provide details on your lighting I can try to help you get that fine tuned. Heat and lighting has a direct effect on digestion as well as overall health so it's quite important and likely related to the issue you're seeing.

There has been a lot of lighting issues in the passed week or so, his heat lamp went out and I'd asked my dad to grab me one but he didn't get paid until a few days after so I let some sunlight in to try and keep him warm but I struggled to keep the temperature over 70. After he got paid he purchased a blue 100W light that got the tank up to about 100 in maybe 10 minutes, I had heard through the grapevine of my lizard owning friends that the temperature was never suppose to exceed 90 in the basking areas which I thought was strange since they're desert animals but I went with it because I'm a first time owner so I scrapped the blue light and went down to a 75W heat lamp and a UVB lamp that I think is 75W but I'm not entirely sure because it came from the previous owner of the tank he's in. In the tank he's currently in there is not much space to allow for such a drastic decline in temperature from basking to cooling areas but just yesterday I came into contact with a tank a foot longer so maybe this will help with temperature dispersion? Thank you both so much for your help, I truly appreciate it! I was very worried there was something internal with him

AHBD · Mar 31, 2018

Good, you def. need a larger tank. Then you'll need a more heat for sure. The heat is a MUST, not just for digestion but to keep him from developing a respiratory infection which can develop very quickly just as it can in humans. So get everything done ASAP. And can you post pics of the set up + bulbs ? Most store bought uvb bulbs are not very reliable and the wrong kind.

Tressaranucci · Mar 31, 2018

The problem with the tank and the blue heat lamp bulb is just that my current tank is too compact and focuses the temperature too much on his basking areas and I feel that he gets too hot because often times when the bulb is in he curls up in the far corner of his tank, often under the turf/carpet material that I use as flooring in the tank. Also, it seems that I've made a mistake in relaying the information about my bulbs, I was under the impression the heat lamp bulb I was using was a 75W but it turns out it is only a 60W, however, as I said, I will not be continuing to use this bulb for much longer, I would even be willing to say that before the weekend is out I will have him in his new tank with the new bulbs! Also, I believe that the All Living Things bulb is a UVB but I cannot say I am entirely certain

Tressaranucci · Mar 31, 2018

The All Living Things light is a basking light, not a UVB, oops!

CooperDragon · Mar 31, 2018

Yeah that looks like their neodymium coated basking light. I don't like those because of the coating which filters yellow. That makes the light look daylight to us but may make things look distorted to them. I've had the best luck using halogen flood lights for basking light and heat. You'll want to pick up a good UVB light. It's well worth investing in a high quality one. I suggest a 22'' T5 light (24'' fixture) An Arcadia 12% or ReptiSun 10.0 bulb will be your best bet. Either of those should serve you well.

kingofnobbys · Mar 31, 2018

Tressaranucci":amn19lnq said:
The problem with the tank and the blue heat lamp bulb is just that my current tank is too compact and focuses the temperature too much on his basking areas and I feel that he gets too hot because often times when the bulb is in he curls up in the far corner of his tank, often under the turf/carpet material that I use as flooring in the tank. Also, it seems that I've made a mistake in relaying the information about my bulbs, I was under the impression the heat lamp bulb I was using was a 75W but it turns out it is only a 60W, however, as I said, I will not be continuing to use this bulb for much longer, I would even be willing to say that before the weekend is out I will have him in his new tank with the new bulbs! Also, I believe that the All Living Things bulb is a UVB but I cannot say I am entirely certain

those analogue dial type thermometers are not very good and extremely inaccurate (can be 25 degrees out). I suggest ordering a set of these https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Aquarium-LCD-Electronic-Digital-Thermometer-Fish-Tank-Water-Detector-Practica-BU/252762165947?_trksid=p2385738.c100677.m4598&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908110712%26meid%3D6ac464a2a1b24339be32c744b2ff5cf9%26pid%3D100677%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D201577608563 , very cheap , and very accurate ( the ones I have are good +/- 1 degC which is way better than any dial thermometer.

All Things brand are very poor quality , it's probably a Neodymium basking globe , so supposed to produce UVA and light and heat , but is has very poor quality phosphors and bad quartz in the bulb which will be leaking UVC as well , best place for it is the bin.
I'm not a fan of Neodymium globes at all, but the brand you have is a Chinese clone and very very bad quality.

Plus you have it mounted ontop the mesh lid which will mean up to 50% of the UV will never even get into the tank.
I suggest a par38 incandescent or halogen spot globe for the basking globe , aim for a basking spot temperature at NO MORE THAN 100F and warm zone at 90-95F.

A t5HO 12%UVB Arcadia tube in a reflector hood mounted UNDER the lid is also ESSENTIAL. It should be 12 inches from the basking spot and not more than 18inches from substrate , aiming for about 180-200 microW UVB / sq.cm at the basking spot and 100 microW UVB /sq.cm elsewhere.

The "nightlight" is not going to be helpful to your dragon, if it throws off any visible globe , it will disturb the dragon's sleep. I'd remove it.
If your beardie needs the tank warmed overnight your best bets are
>> a ceramic heat emitter (emits no light at all)
>> or a heat pad placed under some tiles (like this works well - viewtopic.php?f=75&t=224976&p=1746469&hilit=safe+way+to+use+heatpads#p1746469

Its been two months since he pooped on his own.

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