Please help, beardie hasn't pooped in 2 days

Status
Not open for further replies.

Steble

Member
Please help, my bearded dragon, Sherbert, hasn't pooped in two days. I'm getting worried and want to prevent any other complications. He's a 3 month old juvenile that is 13 inches long.

There is a fire emergency in south california right now, so my family and I have evacuated. We took everything that our pets need, but I'm also worried that the moving will really stress sherbert out more, preventing him to defecate.

Over the past few days, I've noticed that Sherbert stopped pooping everyday and only every other day. Here is my setup:
50 gallon tank
Shelf liner substrate
70 watt Heat lamp heats fluctuates basking surface 105-115 (10 inches away)
Reptisun 10.0 T5HO (10 inches away)
Hot side 80-90 degrees, cool side 70 degrees (new location here is warmer than old location, so temperatures should change)
Has shoebox hide with blanket
His lights are new and don't need to be replaced.
Lights on weekdays 7 am - 10 pm, weekends 10 am - 10 pm

I feed him collard greens, escarole, and dandelion greens every morning, then 2 meals later of dubia roaches. They are smaller than the space between his eyes. I feed the roaches 3:30 and 7:00 pm. I feed him like 20-40ish roaches everyday? I don't count but he eats a lot. His poops are healthy and he's hydrated. He's not showing any other sign of illness. Thank you.
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
I'm sorry you're going through what you are with the fires, that must be stressful for everyone...he should be fine as long as he is able to get at least 14 hours every day of both his bright white basking light and the UVb tube, even a few hours less while your're going through this is okay (honestly, if you cannot get him under his UVB tube for even up to a week due to this situation he'll be fine, but he does need proper heat in order to digest his food). As an FYI, keep his lights on (I'm talking under normal circumstances and not under your current emergency) for at least 14 hours every day, including the weekends.

Also an FYI, the hottest temperature anywhere inside his tank needs to be 110 degrees, anything higher than that can be lethal, and 115 degree basking spot temperature can cause dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke if he sits in it for long periods of time. 110-115 degrees is the "dangerous temperature" zone, and 115 and higher is the "lethal temperature zone", so please, when you get back home and get his permanent tank set back up, raise up ONLY HIS BASKING BULB a couple of inches to lower the Basking Spot Surface Temp, and then remeasure it to ensure that all 3 temperature zones are still within the correct ranges. They should be, usually just raising the bright white basking bulb up an inch or two will only drop the Basking spot Surface Temp a few degrees and not really effect the Hot or Cool Side Ambient temps much at all. You just need to get that basking spot surface temp down below 110.

As far as his pooping schedule goes, he's fine if he doesn't poop every day. Most dragons don't poop every day, or even every other day, and the older he gets the less often you'll notice that he poops. I don't get worried until at least 10 days have passed without a bowel movement. So while babies and juveniles definitely go more often than adults do, I wouldn't be worried at all about a day or two or even 5+. It may be due to stress right now, it may just be his natural aging. You can try to drip some water or unflavored Pedialyte on his snout several times throughout the day to see if he'll lick it off, some dragon owners do that anyway on a daily basis if they think that their dragons aren't getting adequate hydration from their live insects and their greens/veggies, and that can help a bit with "constipation", but honestly I don't think you have a problem.

Only worry if 10 days have passed without a poop, or if he loses his appetite, he becomes lethargic, he black beards for no reason, etc. Your husbandry and feeding schedule is amazingly good, your lighting is setup correctly with great lights, your temps are good other than the Basking Spot Surface Temp being a bit high, but other than than everything looks great. I don't think you have an issue at all.
 

Steble

Member
Original Poster
Thank you so much Ellen, I will take your advice in consideration. I'll change the height of the bulb and measure the temps. Everything is just a mess right now down here.
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
Steble":10m19z3a said:
Thank you so much Ellen, I will take your advice in consideration. I'll change the height of the bulb and measure the temps. Everything is just a mess right now down here.

I bet it is. Some people on the forum went through this not so long ago with the hurricanes down south in Texas and Florida, they lost power for weeks at a time and were trying to keep their dragons warm...but they do fine for a week or so without UVB light, it's just keeping them warm enough so they are able to digest their food that's a problem. So if he's not been basking recently at 105-110 degrees for 1-2 hours before he eats or 1-2 hours after he eats, then he may be a bit impacted/constipated, because they do depend on basking in that temp zone to properly digest their food, specifically their live insects. So that could be an issue. You might want to try a warmer than average bath for 15-20 minutes max, try to get him to swim around in the warm water as much as you can by passively moving him, that can help to get them to poop...but other than that, his normal setup is great except for that basking spot temperature being a bit high...
 

Steble

Member
Original Poster
Thanks Ellen, Sherbert pooped just now. Turns out I was just too much of a worrier. And yea, I still can't get over how destructive those disasters were as well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Members online

Latest resources

Latest profile posts

Day 3 of brumation. It's a struggle. I really miss my little guy. 😔
Mirage entered brumation yesterday, I'm gonna miss hanging out with my little guy.
Getting ready for another day. Feeling sleepy. 😴
I just walked into my room and instead of looking at me, Swordtail's eyes darted directly to the ice cream drumstick I'm holding
Finally replaced Swordtail's substrate

Forum statistics

Threads
156,086
Messages
1,257,595
Members
76,070
Latest member
El heffe
Top Bottom