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,

You are very welcome. Try not to worry, I think you are doing a great job & she seems to be doing
a lot better now.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello, today she wiggled like she was going to poop without pooping. Her beard also turned dark. It turned bright soon after she finished wiggling. It was like the moment to poop passed. It all lasted like 10 minutes. Her beard was dark one other time today. But, I’m not sure if that was related to it or not. She eyed some greens and walked around a little that time. She hasn’t pooped for six days, so I’m not sure if she is a little constipated or something else. She has done it before. A couple times she pooped later that day. And a couple times she pooped the next morning. She has also been a bit picky with her greens for three days. She was on and off with them for two days. Today, she didn’t want them plain. Only with butternut squash on it. Maybe getting the squash made her pickier? She’s normally really interested in random objects like her tweezers and measuring spoons. She did This less today. Still interested in some things. But, didn’t care about others. She really liked her greens with butternut squash and crickets though. I gave her a bath but she didn’t go poop. I also gave her 1 milliliter mixture of butternut squash, sweet potato, pumpkin, and applesauce. And a few drops of olive oil. Im hoping she’ll go in the morning. Im wondering if the wiggling could have been her farting? But, I’m unsure if that is possible. Im also not sure why she would need to go to the bathroom, then suddenly not.

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello, today she wiggled like she was going to poop without pooping. Her beard also turned dark. It turned bright soon after she finished wiggling. It was like the moment to poop passed. It all lasted like 10 minutes. Her beard was dark one other time today. But, I’m not sure if that was related to it or not. She eyed some greens and walked around a little that time. She hasn’t pooped for six days, so I’m not sure if she is a little constipated or something else. She has done it before. A couple times she pooped later that day. And a couple times she pooped the next morning. She has also been a bit picky with her greens for three days. She was on and off with them for two days. Today, she didn’t want them plain. Only with butternut squash on it. Maybe getting the squash made her pickier? She’s normally really interested in random objects like her tweezers and measuring spoons. She did This less today. Still interested in some things. But, didn’t care about others. She really liked her greens with butternut squash and crickets though. I gave her a bath but she didn’t go poop. I also gave her 1 milliliter mixture of butternut squash, sweet potato, pumpkin, and applesauce. And a few drops of olive oil. Im hoping she’ll go in the morning. Im wondering if the wiggling could have been her farting? But, I’m unsure if that is possible. Im also not sure why she would need to go to the bathroom, then suddenly not.

She pooped twice today. She got the fist one out ok. She black bearded a little. The second one I kept being unsure she was going to poop again throughout the day. Sometimes her beard would go black and she would walk around. Then, it would go bright again. Sometimes her legs were spread in certain positions. So I’m not sure how much trouble she had with it. She also got worse with her eating again. She was fine most of the day. But, around the early evening and late afternoon. She didn’t want anything except crickets. maybe the poop made her less hungry? The urate was mostly soft. But one chunk of it was hard I think. Her second poop was just. A lot of poop. With a tiny good urate. I might swap her to a liquid calcium. If I give her a few drops several times a week. What do I do with the d3 and herptivite. Should I give those like normal. 7 crickets? Then, maybe 3-4 days of liquid calcium. 4 drops. Would that work?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Not sure what that behavior was but a lot of people mentioning this happening from time to time. If she seems to be constipated to some extent, just give some extra oral fluids, along with the softer foods & a little bit of coconut or olive oil.
That's good she finally went to the bathroom. Switching to a liquid calcium should help her out.
The D3 you can use once weekly or once every other week right now. The Herptivite can be given
once weekly right now since it has calcium in it.
You can keep her a little warmer overnight to keep her metabolism boosted some. A warm bath might help
too.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

Not sure what that behavior was but a lot of people mentioning this happening from time to time. If she seems to be constipated to some extent, just give some extra oral fluids, along with the softer foods & a little bit of coconut or olive oil.
That's good she finally went to the bathroom. Switching to a liquid calcium should help her out.
The D3 you can use once weekly or once every other week right now. The Herptivite can be given
once weekly right now since it has calcium in it.
You can keep her a little warmer overnight to keep her metabolism boosted some. A warm bath might help
too.

Tracie

Ok, thank you very much!!! So, would 4 drops of liquid calcium 3 times a week work for the amount of liquid calcium to give. In addition to the d3 and herptivite. I gave her 4 drops today. And I thought it seemed small. But, when I measured it. It measured 1/32 tsp which I think is about the same as the crickets. So, would it be good?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

You are welcome. Which liquid calcium do you have again? It is hard to dose it without a dosing chart but if it lists a strength or percentage on the bottle, I can try to get you a specific dose.
Though, the 4 drops I would imagine should be fine. I would only give the D3 once weekly & the herptivite once weekly. Monitor the urates to be sure they stay the same & don't get any harder or more chalky.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

You are welcome. Which liquid calcium do you have again? It is hard to dose it without a dosing chart but if it lists a strength or percentage on the bottle, I can try to get you a specific dose.
Though, the 4 drops I would imagine should be fine. I would only give the D3 once weekly & the herptivite once weekly. Monitor the urates to be sure they stay the same & don't get any harder or more chalky.

Tracie

Hello, I use flukers calcium. For the calcium it says not less than 6%. Thank you very much!!!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Thanks for the picture of the label. What is his body weight, & I'll dose that for you. The 6% is pretty
strong, which is 60mg/ml so the dose will be very small. It is likely so small you wont really be able to
"measure it" by way of syringe. You can stick with the 4 drops if you would like, but definitely no more
than that.
How is he doing today?

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

Thanks for the picture of the label. What is his body weight, & I'll dose that for you. The 6% is pretty
strong, which is 60mg/ml so the dose will be very small. It is likely so small you wont really be able to
"measure it" by way of syringe. You can stick with the 4 drops if you would like, but definitely no more
than that.
How is he doing today?

Tracie

Hello, her body weight is 344 mg. If 4 drops is on the higher side of ok, should I give it less times per week to be on the safe side? I was going to do it 3 times a week + days for herptivite and d3. But, should I lower it to 2 instead? Or maybe it would be better to do 3 drops instead of 4? Also, I saw somewhere it said superfine calcium powder was easier to process than regular calcium powder. Is that true? Today, she enjoyed her crickets. She also ate some greens. Her poops have been unformed. I think because of the baby foods I gave to help her poop. The urates have been mostly good. There is sometimes a small part that is harder. Thank you very much!!!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

The dose on the lower end of the dosing would be .005ML but you could round it up to .01ML
That is a little hard to dose if you don't have a syringe. I think 3-4 drops a few times per week
is fine. Simply monitor the urate hardness & the color too.
The super fine calcium powder is usually pretty easy to process. So if you wanted to rotate the
calciums you can do that.
Is she eating much solid foods on her own?

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

The dose on the lower end of the dosing would be .005ML but you could round it up to .01ML
That is a little hard to dose if you don't have a syringe. I think 3-4 drops a few times per week
is fine. Simply monitor the urate hardness & the color too.
The super fine calcium powder is usually pretty easy to process. So if you wanted to rotate the
calciums you can do that.
Is she eating much solid foods on her own?

Tracie

Ok, thank you very much!!! Yes, she is eating her greens on her own! A couple days ago she ate large mouthfuls like 4 times. She pooped today too and I believe everything was good. The poop was formed and the urate was good.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That is terrific to hear she is eating greens on her own now! Hopefully her system is starting to get
back to normal now, they just have a unique digestive system & metabolism which takes awhile.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello, today she pooped 5 times. I was just wondering if that is ok? She has pooped 4 times before. But, never 5. She glass surfed for a while today. She seems to do this when she has. A lot of poops. She did it longer than normal today though. She started at 10. And she took some breaks throughout the day. Normally she stops at 5-6:30. Today, she stopped at 7:40. She did have a poop later in the day though. So maybe that’s why. She also had a bit of a brown beard when glass surfing in the afternoon. It was bright in the morning. It would go away when she stopped. And she pooped with a bright beard. She also head bobbed at me today. She tends to do that too.

Today, she pooped 3 times and glass surfed less. One poop was good. The other 2 were mostly urate. She only glass surfed till 3:30.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That is quite a bit, but somewhat normal. How old is she again?
Perhaps she is taking in too much fluids or greens? If she excretes urates only, that just means she is well hydrated. So, that is a good thing, being hydrated. As long as it isn't a bad stool like diarrhea, then I wouldn't worry about it.
If she is basking normally & eating well, I wouldn't be too concerned about it for now.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

That is quite a bit, but somewhat normal. How old is she again?
Perhaps she is taking in too much fluids or greens? If she excretes urates only, that just means she is well hydrated. So, that is a good thing, being hydrated. As long as it isn't a bad stool like diarrhea, then I wouldn't worry about it.
If she is basking normally & eating well, I wouldn't be too concerned about it for now.

Tracie

Hello, she is 5-6 years old. She did a mix of urates. And good looking medium poops. It was 1 small urate. 3 poops. And one really small poop. I believe the poops had big urates. I believe she is basking normally and eating well. Yesterday, she pooped twice. They both looked good. Didn’t really glass surf all that much. Today, she pooped 4 times. One was a normal looking poop. Two were very small poops. With a liquidy small urate. The 4th one was just a liquidy urate. Thank you very much!!!