Please Help! Beardie hasn’t pooped for 3 months

[TimmyDragon]

Hello,

My bearded dragon has gone into brumation 3 months ago and hasn’t pooped since. I am very scared.

I just recently heard not to feed them during brumation, and I am worried food could be rotting in his stomach.

Thank you to whoever can solve this issue,

[loljelloclowdz]

Hello,

My bearded dragon has gone into brumation 3 months ago and hasn’t pooped since. I am very scared.

I just recently heard not to feed them during brumation, and I am worried food could be rotting in his stomach.

Thank you to whoever can solve this issue,

Not pooping during long brumation periods is normal. They slow their metabolisms so much that they digest things about as slow as a snake does. When your beardie is ready to wake up, they will take a poo. They don’t usually have a final-final poo before as it would kill them if nothing was in their intestines at all. Just don’t feed them anything until they wake up and start looking for food.

[TimmyDragon]

Thank you!

I was going to stop feeding him until he wakes up anyway, but what about syringe feeding applesauce, vegetable oil and honey? I have heard it helps them go, but I suppose I shouldn’t feed him anything until the end of brumation.


About food rotting, about how long does this usually take? I have slowed down the feeding during brumation, but won’t feed him anymore until he is active again. (Usually around February)

[CooperDragon]

I haven't run into issues with them having a bit of food in their stomach during brumation. From what I've seen, they pass it, just much more slowly than usual. I would probably offer water if he wants some but hold off on further feeding until he wakes up as long as his weight is remaining pretty stable. Once his activity level comes back up, then he is likely to return to a more normal schedule without much interference. Plenty of hydration is helpful, but you can offer a little bit of plain applesauce, or plain canned pumpkin if you want to.

[TimmyDragon]

Some history on my beardie:

He is 6 years old, and has been really healthy for most of his life. Not too long ago he had to get surgery because of what I think was an impaction from the walnut shell bedding we used. He has been fine since. He only had that 1 health problem that I listed in his entire life, and since we got him at petco... that’s crazy. Not too insanely surprising though considering we got him before petco started to not take care of the animals properly. We feed him crickets, super worms, and different kinds of vegetables such as lettuce, blueberries, carrots, etc. This is the same diet we have been feeding him since day one, besides for the different sizes of the portions for different ages. We give him medium crickets these days, usually 3 at a time once or twice a week when he is not brumating. We have always gave him the correct sizes of food for the age so he gets a good meal, but doesn’t choke, or have any bad reaction at all. And there you have it! Some history on my dragon!

[CooperDragon]

Sounds like he has a good life with you =). Hopefully he will wake back up soon and be back to his usual self! It stinks when they go into brumation. I miss my buddy when he does it.

[TimmyDragon]

He seems to be a little more alert and energetic than he has been. I think he might be coming out of brumation When you get near him he perks up, and looks around. He doesn’t sleep as much during the day either.

[TimmyDragon]

He seems to still sleep during the day, but when I enter the room and he hears me, he opens his eyes and looks around. I’m not sure if he is coming out of brumation or if this is normal for their brumation time. He seems to start waking back up around February, but I’m not quite sure. When do they usually come out of brumation?

[CooperDragon]

They tend to have some days more awake than others. They also seem to come out of brumation over the course of several days or weeks rather than suddenly (generally speaking based on observations). The length and dates of their brumation varies quite a lot between dragons so it's hard to say when he will wake back up aside from estimating based on his own history. On days he is more alert, you can take him out and check his weight and offer some water.

[TimmyDragon]

Can I get a little more info on the syringe feeding canned pumpkin and how to do it? I am thinking about giving him some because it has been more than 3 months now.

[KarrieRee]

You can water the pumpkin down and make it a smoothy consistency see if he will lick it off the spoon you can also use unsweetened applesauce or baby prunes as well --- keep feeding till he poops -- make sure hes hydrated as well -- has he come out of brumation or is he in semi brumation where he will wake up and come out and bask for a while
Karrie

[TimmyDragon]

He is in semi brumation, almost ready to come out of it. He is awake sometimes, but still is sleeping a lot.

[KarrieRee]

Is he coming out to bask?

[TimmyDragon]

Yes, every now and then.

[KarrieRee]

Ok have you fed him the laxatives that we posted?