2 weeks since prolapse, is it okay to give solid foods?

Hello,

My 5-6 year old bearded dragon unfortunately experienced a prolapsed about two weeks ago. It retracted on its own on the same day after a sugar water bath and applying sugar/water paste onto the prolapse.

Unfortunately, he has not been seen by the vet due to me being broke and while I will take him there if necessary, I'm hoping I'm able to get through this by myself.

Since his prolapse I have fed him mainly butternut squash baby food and given him water from a dripper to avoid having large/any bowel movements that may cause the prolapse to reoccur. I'm hoping to get him back on insects and was considering giving him small crickets and waxworms in small portions as well as soft vegetables like shredded butternut squash. I'm wondering if there are any other insects that I should feed him that may encourage softer bowel movements, and perhaps a hornworm to give him more fluids as he has been a bit iffy about drinking all the water that I've tried to give him.

Thanks for reading.

Hello,

Wow that is very good to hear he hasn't had anymore issues with his prolapse.
Do you know what caused it possibly? We would be happy to run over your tank setup to
be sure everything is correct for him.
You can try some silkworms or hornworms either one, which are higher in water content &
are soft bodied. Go easy on the amount though. You can continue to give the soft squash
right now for nutrition. You can also try some sweet potato baby food also. You could add
some wheat grass powder to his food for a bit of protein, too.

Let us know how he is doing.
Tracie

Thanks for the reply, I unfortunately don't know what caused it but I suspect it could be a bit of dehydration since he hadn't had any hornworms for a while before this happened and in general can be bit of a picky eater on top of not drinking out of a water dish as beardies tend to do.

I'll look into getting him some silkworms and a hornworm probably tomorrow, but are small crickets not okay? They're much cheaper than silkworms as I don't raise them myself. I'm sure they're softer but unless I order some eggs online and raise them they aren't sustainable for a staple feeder.

Dubia roaches are a much better feeder and less expensive as they last longer than crickets - you can order them here www.dubiaroaches.com if you cant find them where you live also they sell hornworms and this place is fast and good
Karrie

Hi there, you can feed him smaller insects as you mentioned and hornworms would be great. Don;t give on on offering water. Drip it slowly on his snout with a small plastic container under his head to catch the drops. You can do the dripping with or without a catch container because you're not using a lot of water but the benefit of the container is that some dragons will lower their heads and drink sometimes and will get more that way. Just use a syringe, eyedropper or spray bottle. You can drip, stop, repeat until he starts drinking, be patient.

Hello,

How is your dragon doing this evening?
I hope you were able to get a little bit of food into him & that he doesn't have any trouble
passing anything through. How are his colors looking?
He should able to take fluids pretty easily with the dropper method that AHBD suggested.
Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie