1.5 Year Old Beardie not pooping/eating veggies

[brettinlj]

Hi everyone. My beardie, Fluffy, has never really taken to veggies. For the past 6 months or so he has rarely eaten any, even when I try all the tricks. He used to occasionally eat his collard greens, but no more. Also, he appears to have been in brumation for about 6 weeks and has seemed to come out of it for the past week (hes interactive again and running around).

My big worry is that he did not poop before brumating and has not had a bowel movement for over 6 weeks. He his still hungry for superworms, but will not eat any collard or mustard greens. His weight seems pretty steady (not bloated or thin) but he has always been a runt since he was a baby. Is it time to take him to a vet to check for impaction? A stool sample does not seem possible at this point. I am going to give him another bath after this post and keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Ethelia]

Hi there,
As well as giving your beardie baths you can feed him unsweetened apple sauce or canned pumpkin. Both are natural laxatives and should help to get things moving.
If you dont have either of those to hand you can give him one or two drops of olive oil. I rescued a very impacted little boy and the olive oil and baths got him poop regularly within three days.

When you have him in the bath massage gentley from him armpit down to his vent. Id recommend giving him two baths a day until he passes something for you.


Holly

 

[brettinlj]

Thank for the advice. I'm not sure he would voluntarily eat any applesauce or pumpkin since he won't touch veggies. How do you give a dragon drops of olive oil? Is there a technique to get them to open their mouth?

 

[Judah'sHuman]

You can pick up a baby med syringe at the pharmacy. This is how you would admisiter the olive oil baby food mix. If you put a few drops on his lips they usually will lick it off. Sometimes they will even grab the syringe and start shaking it to get the stuff out they like it so much. You can also try babyfood carrots, squash and peas even before Judah started eatting his salads and greens he woudl eat babyfood. they tend to love the stuff even if they wont eat there veggies. Oh you only need a few drops of olive oil in the mix 2 times per day is pretty good, you can feed the baby food 1cc or more several times per day, whatever he will eat.

 

[brettinlj]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I gave him some applesauce over the past 2 days (had to roll superworms in it and have him eat them) and today while I was at work he left me a present. The first 1.5 inches or so was urea that was as hard as a rock... I hope it didn't hurt.

Since it could be hours old, does that mean I can't take it into the vet for a stool sample? The other portion of it was still moist so I saved it with a wet paper towel in a ziplock bag in the fridge.

BTW, before I got a bearded dragon, I never thought I would be saving lizard poop in my fridge. :?