Chalk poop

as you can see Ranger Is a big guy. He's maybe 2 years old... give or take a few months. He's not my dragon but my neglectful sisters. I've been doing my best to keep him happy healthy and alive. After some great tips on the beardie ER side for his jaw making weird noises I've since upped his calcium intake and his UVB light is now proper. Well I haven't really been able to check on him this weekend due to work, but today I noticed he was gonna shed again so I put him in the bath to help that along. (He LOVES water. Loves it almost as much as bugs. Weird I know) but. When I put him in the warm bath (I'll be honest it was a smidge warmer than warm) he squeezed out a LARGE SOLID white chalk stick from his butt. I thought oh great now I need to change the water... well when I reached over to pluck out the chalk stick he (for the first time EVER) puffed his beard and hissed at me. So I pulled back thinking ok there must be more you're not done yet. Ok continue. Sure enough out came more but it was normal dark with the mucus gook. You know... poop. At this point he was ok with me removing it. I changed the water and the second I put him back in the warm water he let out the WORST poop in the history of poops. It turned the entire tub into black floating bug bits. (Crickets and superworms. That's all he eats he refuses to be normal. I've tried everything even a force feed of veggies. He spits them out. Spoiled I tell you...) this diarrhea like poop continued for 3 more water changes. Each completely filling the tub. Finally he stopped and I turned the shower head on him where he fell asleep on my hand.

He's fine now... but my big question is this. Wtf. Am I over doing the calcium? His crickets come dusted from the pet store and I bought calcium/vitamin dust from the reptile store reccomended by the owner who gives the same stuff to his beardies both in store and at home. (My dad gets the crickets from petland per store. He gets 2 dozen. 1doz for Ranger and 1doz for this glass snake we have. Both show no mercy for crickets lol) ranger typically will eat the entire doz unless 2 or 3 manage to escape somehow then drown themselves in his water dish. He then sits in front of his food troff waiting for 6 superworms to drop from the sky. He then retires to the rock after literally LICKING the dish clean (I told you... weirdo.) He acts like it's his last meal in life. He says every few days. Some days he's not hungry and let's the food escape. Other days..... ^^^^^ yeah.
He was obviously corked up. So how bad of an owner am I...? What should I do or not do... remember he's not having any of that green food I've even tried starving him out. But he's so stubborn.. he would -no lie- rather die than eat a fricken strawberry. Help me out you guys. I'm literally all he's got. My sister has moved on to Rats and left poor ranger sitting in the dark (seriously).

Hi there, Ranger is very healthy looking from what i can see and yes, it may be too much calcium powder plus not much hydration. A few things you can try....most beardies will like at least one of these natural laxatives....baby food squash or sweet potato, applesauce, canned pumkin. Any or all of those with or witho]out about 1/4 teaspoon raw honey or a bit less veg.oil. Some dragons love honey and if you give him honey, add a bit of warm water for extra hydration to soften the poo.

Very nice that you've taken him in. If I could make a suggestion on his cage decor, add a nice thick basking/climbing stick that goes from the bottom propped on one side to the top on the other side of the tank.

He had a resting tree thing but he fell off of it and hurt his leg at one point. He doesn't do well with heights lol he's always taking tumbles. That and the location of his tank Is inside an entertainment center. His lights are just the right distance away not to be too harsh. There's about maybe a foot of space between the lid and the top shelf. (She really didn't plan his living quarters well before splurge buying him) her rats on the other hand have a 6 foot multi shelf ferret cage sat on top of her dresser while poor ranger gets stuck in a hole. ? if I had space in my room he would be moving in. But for now he seems quite content. I have to keep eyes on my parents though they keep trying to put a real boulder rock in there under that basking light. The LAST thing I need is for him to burn himself on that rock....Wake up the next day and he's fused to the rock like melted wax to a pool deck. Yeah not on my watch.

You should have seen the cage decor BEFORE I took over. She had one side tree branch and a real rock (bathroom light bulb for heat and a small blue uvb light.) And the other side..... a JUNGLE of plastic leaves and vines suction cupped to the walls that she would spray daily with water. Not him....the plastic jungle. His food would immediately run in the jungle and he would not even bother chasing. he would just sit and wait for it to come out. It was ridiculous. I took all of it out. He has reptile carpet but for now he's rocking the glass bottom house. ? trust me that cord you see running from the water dish is not plugged in either. It used to be a heating pad for inside the jungle. But it stopped working so she unplugged it (thank god) to keep it from starting a fire. Its just glued to the underside.