Bearded dragon black beards when poop and probably hard urate

[Toadleagend]

Hello, my bearded dragon sometimes black beards when she poops. This time it happened again. Her beard is still dark after it. I’m not sure if she will poop again, but it looks like she will. Her previous two poops before this one were fine but watery. She acted normal before them. Almost two weeks ago she had a similar situation. She had a black beard and pooped twice. shes Had black beards before with the poops. It normally returns to normal after she poops. This time it hasn’t yet. She doesn’t want her greens. She will eat crickets. She wanted her greens this morning. Her beard went bright after she pooped. But, returned dark within 5 minutes. The urate seemed very hard. And dry. Her poop was a bit formed. And lots of water. I have tried lowering the calcium. The only thing I can think of is that I might put too much calcium on. She has a tube uvb bulb. It was recently changed. I’ve made two diet changes between this poop and the last poop. I put on orange cube cricket food. And gave her a very small amount of sweet potato. I’m very confused what is happening. I feel like if it was the amount of calcium it would have been fixed by now. Can anyone help me figure out what is causing this?

UPDATE: she pooped again. So far she still doesn’t want greens and her beard is still dark. This poop looked fine. But, seemed like a pain to get out. A lot of wiggling.I’m not sure why her beard is still dark? It looks darker than before.
Now her eyes keeps closing and seem semi-closed too. Kinda tired looking.

UPDATE 2: her beard seems to have gotten better. I’m not sure how permanent that is. She still doesn’t want her greens. The hard urates seems to happen when she has two poops in a row. Like all of the calcium goes to the first poop. Making it too much. I would not know how to fix that. Does anyone know if there is a liquid calcium with d3? I have one without d3. But, I cannot find one with it. Maybe that would help?

Update 3: the beard isn’t as bad as before yet. But, it isn’t the brightest right now either. I was thinking maybe if there is now liquid d3. Give all liquid calcium. And then, for her vitamins. One day of herptivite. And another day of Reptivite with d3. Im not sure if that would work. I just looked at the calcium instructions. Based on them, I think I could have been dusting it too much. It seems i should be giving about 1/8 tsp a day on the greens. If I also give it on her crickets. I feel like my light dusting probably ended up being more than that. So, maybe i should try fixing that.

UPDATE 4: she pooped a third time. This was just a really watery urate. No poop. There might be poop soon to come. But, not as far as I know at the moment.

UPDATE 5: her beard is a bit brighter again. Right now it is good. But, sometimes it is brown. She wanted a green. So hopefully she is feeling a bit better. I also saw multivitamins can also cause hard urates. Is two times a week a good amount? Or is that too much?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

She is doing well it sounds like! I'm glad that her
beard turned bright too.
They do change their colors according to their moods
& temperatures.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

She is doing well it sounds like! I'm glad that her
beard turned bright too.
They do change their colors according to their moods
& temperatures.

Tracie

Ok, thank you very much!!!

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello, today this morning she pooped again. I believe this was still a hard urate. There might have been good/ more liquidy urates with it. But, I believe the bigger one was hard. It was hard to squeeze and dry. She acted normal with this poop. Her beard was bright and she ate. Do you know how much time it takes for a urate to be fixed? I’m not sure if it should have been fixed by now.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

The urate is still hard? Try giving some sweet
potato babyfood, squash babyfood, & unsweetened
applesauce mixed together. Add a couple drops of organic coconut or olive in with the mix. You can give
this mix daily for a week or so, to see if this helps out
for softening up the urates some.
It can take some time for their systems to get back
to normal but hopefully soon it will normalize. At least
her beard has stayed bright.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

The urate is still hard? Try giving some sweet
potato babyfood, squash babyfood, & unsweetened
applesauce mixed together. Add a couple drops of organic coconut or olive in with the mix. You can give
this mix daily for a week or so, to see if this helps out
for softening up the urates some.
It can take some time for their systems to get back
to normal but hopefully soon it will normalize. At least
her beard has stayed bright.

Tracie

Ok, thank you!!! I will try that. How much should she have a day?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

You can give 1ML daily of the mix, for a week or two.
Hopefully that will help improve the urate hardness.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

You can give 1ML daily of the mix, for a week or two.
Hopefully that will help improve the urate hardness.

Tracie

Ok, thank you very much!!!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Let us know how she is doing & her progress, too.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

Let us know how she is doing & her progress, too.

Tracie

Ok, i will! Thank you very much!!! Today, so far, she ate the greens I handed her and she ate some greens on her own as well. She also has a bright beard for the most part. It has gone occasionally brown. And at one point a little black in the morning. But, that beard seemed to only last less than a minute. Or till I arrived to feed her. Today she has also been changing where she is sitting a lot. I don’t know why she does this. Most of the time she will do it in the morning. She will just change where she sits more frequently. Within like 30 minutes. She also will sometimes just stand in the middle of her tank for a while sometimes before sitting on her log or branch. Today her beard is bright. Occasionally it will be a little darker when she is standing in the middle. She doesn’t do it everyday. And when she does stand in the middle it will be dark for the day only one of those times or none Most of the time bright. And sometimes a little brown. She stands in the middle for like 10-20 minutes mostly. She hasn’t had a black beard doing that today though. Sometimes it seems like it means she will poop later that day or the next day. But, that could just be a coincidence. It also seems to me like she is a little bit restless or energized, just because she moves so much.

 

[Toadleagend]

Ok, i will! Thank you very much!!! Today, so far, she ate the greens I handed her and she ate some greens on her own as well. She also has a bright beard for the most part. It has gone occasionally brown. And at one point a little black in the morning. But, that beard seemed to only last less than a minute. Or till I arrived to feed her. Today she has also been changing where she is sitting a lot. I don’t know why she does this. Most of the time she will do it in the morning. She will just change where she sits more frequently. Within like 30 minutes. She also will sometimes just stand in the middle of her tank for a while sometimes before sitting on her log or branch. Today her beard is bright. Occasionally it will be a little darker when she is standing in the middle. She doesn’t do it everyday. And when she does stand in the middle it will be dark for the day only one of those times or none Most of the time bright. And sometimes a little brown. She stands in the middle for like 10-20 minutes mostly. She hasn’t had a black beard doing that today though. Sometimes it seems like it means she will poop later that day or the next day. But, that could just be a coincidence. It also seems to me like she is a little bit restless or energized, just because she moves so much.

She only did that behavior during the morning. For about 3 hours. The rest of the day she was chilling, mostly on her basking. And her beard bright.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That's great her beard isn't black!
I hope she continues to eat more greens & is feeling
a lot better!
If she is spending more time basking now, she should
really be improving pretty quickly. Let us know how
things are going.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

That's great her beard isn't black!
I hope she continues to eat more greens & is feeling
a lot better!
If she is spending more time basking now, she should
really be improving pretty quickly. Let us know how
things are going.

Tracie

Ok, thank you very much!!! So far, she is about the same today with everything. She is eating her greens. Her beard is mostly bright and occasionally brown. It was also dark in the morning again until she had crickets.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That's great her beard is bright most of the time. They
do tend to fluctuate their colors often according to their
mood & temperatures, also.
Keep us posted on her progress.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

That's great her beard is bright most of the time. They
do tend to fluctuate their colors often according to their
mood & temperatures, also.
Keep us posted on her progress.

Tracie

Hello, today she pooped in the morning. I believe the urate was softer. It was very squishable and felt wet. The poop itself was very watery. Maybe the applesauce and baby food mixture helped it be more watery. Her beard was dark in the morning before she pooped. I don’t know for how long because she pooped pretty early. I didn’t get a chance to see if she would eat any greens because it was also early. She did eat a cricket like 1 minute before she pooped. Her beard was bright from chasing it and eating it. So, technically her beard was brighter when she pooped.

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello, today she pooped in the morning. I believe the urate was softer. It was very squishable and felt wet. The poop itself was very watery. Maybe the applesauce and baby food mixture helped it be more watery. Her beard was dark in the morning before she pooped. I don’t know for how long because she pooped pretty early. I didn’t get a chance to see if she would eat any greens because it was also early. She did eat a cricket like 1 minute before she pooped. Her beard was bright from chasing it and eating it. So, technically her beard was brighter when she pooped.

She pooped today as well. I think the urate was ok. It didn’t feel hard. It was wet feeling and squishable. The poop was watery again. Her beard was bright when she went. And she ate greens right before she went as well.