Baby bearded dragon's lack of appetite and undigested poop.

[shawnmatthew]

Hi there,

This morning I awoke to find my baby bearded dragon in the same exact spot he was in the night before when I turned off the lights. I figured he just had a good rest. After having the lights on for ten minutes to warm him up, I picked him up, placed him on the floor of his enclosure and put down two live crickets. But he seemed to very little interest in eating the crickets. His tail did go up in hunting mode, but he didn't go after them and instead went back up onto his branch.

I guess normally this wouldn't worry me, but this is only his second full day here at my house and I realized he had not pooped yet. Also today I planned on giving him a bath to make sure he is hydrated, because he didn't seem to lap up any water drops I put on his head.

So I went to work and came back a few hours later to find that he had pooped in a few places, but the poop consisted of visible cricket parts (bodies, legs, etc.) that were obviously not fully digested. Is this normal?

I then tried to feed him another cricket with no luck. So I took him out and gave him a ten minute bath, where he did lap up the water a couple of time and got a good soaking. After putting him back in his enclosure, he is still not going after the crickets. He watched them, and has climbed up his branch, but otherwise not eating.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to if he is having a problem or if this is normal? And if he is having a problem, what could that be? Impaction?

Here is a video of him so you can see his size. He's about 6.5' long, and I'm not sure how old he is. He is a Citrus German Giant x Chris Allan Red: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQMSA8v1Chk

 

[AHBD]

Hi Matthew...your set up looks great and the beardie looks very healthy ! Beardies can go through relocation stress which would affect the appetite, and he is in a big, new wondrous place that he needs time to get used to. Two things that might have caused the undigested crix, one being a temp. that is too low to digest food properly. Have you taken the temp. in there ? Most people use a probe thermometer or else a temp. gun to be accurate. The basking spot should be around 110, and the rest of the tank from 90 down to a cool side of about 80. And after he eats, let him bask for at least an hour or so before taking him out into our " cold" world. Another thing to be aware of is that the crix should be no longer than the space between his eyes, or they may cause impaction or he could have trouble digesting them. For an easy way to feed him, get a small Tupperware container, get 4-5 crix, dust them + shake them up in a jar so they are dizzy, then put the container right under his basking area so he can jump down in, or else just set him inside of it . Sometimes when the crix are crawling more slowly [ from being shake ] the baby will go for them . If he eats the 5, then repeat again, 5 more and so on until he gets his fill. But it may be a little while before he has a big appetite, try not to worry too much, he already looks good + healthy.

 

[shawnmatthew]

Thanks AHBD,

I have a temp gun and in the basking side the highest it gets is 105ish with the 75 watt. I've been considering getting the 100 watt and just raising the distance to get the right temp.

Also I believe he might have ate crickets that were too big. When we brought him home the first afternoon, he ate a dozen tiny crickets no problem. The next day I went to a local pet store and got their smallest sized crickets. Most of them were larger than the previous day's, and some were definitely too big and I didn't feed him them. Actually after I picked up those crickets I went to Petsmart looking for smaller ones but they ended up being the same size. So with those slightly larger crickets, yesterday he probably ate over two dozen. He was crazy.

So while in the video he seems super healthy and seemed to have no stress, today he just seems the opposite. He can walk fine, so there is no paralysis in the legs. But he seemed to just be interested in sitting around mostly. I just gave him another bath and after soaking for five minutes, he eventually started to run around.

Hopefully this isn't a major issue and he'll get along just fine. I'm going to make sure only to feed him the tiniest crickets from now on until he grows more.

 

[lucyandbertha]

I totally agree about the temps, and also relocation stress, but also we've found the babies need quite a while to wake up and warm up in the morning before they're interested in feeding- so 10 mins with his lights on may not have been long enough for him to get ready for feeding.

My son got two rescue Beardies one of which laid eggs a week(ish) after we got her, so we ended up with 19 babies, I was really nervous and scared but with the help of the rescue, and the internet I read loads and we have managed fine- just like you will.
One thing is that sadly we did lose 2 babies (but that is nature- they just didn't thrive despite us trying our best with help from here and the rescue), but what I wanted to say is that it was obvious that they weren't right. Their eyes went droopy and they didn't hold themselves right- I am sure you'd notice anything like this in your guy and that actually he is OK just adjusting to his new home, and maybe not being quite ready for his breakfast when you gave it to him.

 

[shawnmatthew]

Update: Dreki ate a few more crickets last night. And a few more today at noon. I also upgraded to a 100watt bulb in order to get the temperature up a few in the terrarium, hoping for better digestion.

Thanks for the comments and help. I guess I'm just overreacting because he's my first beardie and I'm trying my best to give him everything he needs. I also bought a pair of tweezers from Petsmart so I am able to select exactly which crickets to feed him, in order to avoid ones too big.

Question: For hydration and also digestion, is a bath every day a good idea? Or is that too much?

 

[shawnmatthew]

Another update: Dreki has been eating more crickets, although he only eats one or two and then he's done. Today I gave him his first leafy greens - organic dandelion greens. He ate a few right up, along with some crickets.

So he seems happy, healthy, and alert. Not eating as much as I anticipated - and I wonder if this is due to the fact that he has only pooped once (or a few times at once) since Wednesday. Hoping he starts going more often (never thought I'd say that).