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?

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

Just monitor the amount of calcium intake to be sure you don't give too much which can cause the harder, & more chalky urates on average.
Have you started her on probiotics & kept her on them for awhile to try & get the system normalized some?

Tracie

Ok, I’ll make sure I don’t give her too much calcium. I was doing it on crickets. 4 times a week. And 7 crickets. I didn’t think I was giving too much. But, I’ll keep a closer eye on how I dust them. Sometimes I’m not sure if I dust them too heavily. Especially one I’m also putting herptivite on the cricket. I have not used a probiotic. Do you know what probiotic I should use and how much I should use of it? I have gargeer probiotic, but I can get a different one if one is better. Thank you very much!!!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That amount of calcium should be fine. Just adjust the amount, if needed depending on the urates'
consistency. Herptivite is a good multivitamin so you can use that once weekly, twice at the most.
You can get a non dairy acidophiliz, or a non dairy organic soy yogurt.
Keep him well hydrated to help flush out his system, too.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

That amount of calcium should be fine. Just adjust the amount, if needed depending on the urates'
consistency. Herptivite is a good multivitamin so you can use that once weekly, twice at the most.
You can get a non dairy acidophiliz, or a non dairy organic soy yogurt.
Keep him well hydrated to help flush out his system, too.

Tracie

Ok, thank you very much!! How much can I give her of any of these? I’m having trouble finding any yogurt that matches. I found a couple non dairy acidophilus, but they always say something else with it. Are any of these ok? Or I saw some that come in capsule form, but I didn’t know how I would give her that. Also, the gargeer probiotic does have acidophilus if that will work. And I’ll make sure to keep her well hydrated.

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello, today she pooped. I think it was a hard urate again. Once I pressed down on it. It felt like it crumbled into a million pieces. It was very crumbly and powdery again. I could feel some moisture in it. But, it was mostly a drier feeling. There were two urates with the poop. The other one was liquidy. I tried to adjust the calcium on the days I give it and herptivite. I did this yesterday. So, maybe it will be better after that. I also gave a bit of the gargeer probiotic Monday because I didn’t have anything else yet. I’m also trying to keep an eye on how much calcium I put on the crickets and make sure I don’t go overboard. I believe her beard was bright when she pooped. But I’m not too sure. She ate a green in the morning before she went too. She didn’t want a second green, but she does that a lot in the morning when she hasn’t been up for long. The pictures of the crickets are it with calcium and herptivite on it. I mixed them together. Than shook a container with crickets inside.

She pooped another time today. This poop looks like it was just from too much hydration. I was giving her extra hydration to flush out her system. But, I will do less. I think I did too much.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Any of those should be fine, they are milk & dairy free for her which is the main thing to avoid. It does
take time for her system to adjust. Once their hydration gets out of balance it is slow to balance out.
Yeah, just lightly powder the crickets for her. It honestly doesn't take much. The vitamin mix or the
Herptivite is a good vitamin. You will only need to give that once weekly, twice at the most. It also
has calcium in it I think, but check the label to be sure.
Let us know how things are going.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

Any of those should be fine, they are milk & dairy free for her which is the main thing to avoid. It does
take time for her system to adjust. Once their hydration gets out of balance it is slow to balance out.
Yeah, just lightly powder the crickets for her. It honestly doesn't take much. The vitamin mix or the
Herptivite is a good vitamin. You will only need to give that once weekly, twice at the most. It also
has calcium in it I think, but check the label to be sure.
Let us know how things are going.

Tracie

Ok, thank you very much! I think it does have calcium. I’ll use the gargeer probiotic. it says once a week 1 teaspoon per pound of food. Should I give her like 1/16 teaspoon on her greens once a week? Or should I do less?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

That is a pretty small amount, so 1/16th teaspoon weekly should be fine, no problem, on her greens.
You can use the probiotic daily or as needed. Hopefully it starts to help out for her tummy. Let us
know how things are going.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

That is a pretty small amount, so 1/16th teaspoon weekly should be fine, no problem, on her greens.
You can use the probiotic daily or as needed. Hopefully it starts to help out for her tummy. Let us
know how things are going.

Tracie

Ok, thank you very much!!!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Be sure to keep us updated on her progress. Hopefully she will continue to improve & the
probiotic will help settle her system more.

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

Be sure to keep us updated on her progress. Hopefully she will continue to improve & the
probiotic will help settle her system more.

Tracie

Ok, I will! Thank you!

 

[Toadleagend]

Today, she has been occasionally black bearding. She has also been real picky about her greens. Wanting them on and off. Her beard gets better for crickets. I don’t know if this is related to her needing to poop or not. She has shedding on her tail, so maybe that’s it.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

They are very picky about their greens that is for sure! A lot of people have the same issues. Keep trying a variety of greens.
They change the color of their beard for a number of reasons but I wouldn't worry about it if her beard isn't black for a prolonged period of time.
I hope her tail sheds soon!

Tracie

 

[Toadleagend]

Hello,

They are very picky about their greens that is for sure! A lot of people have the same issues. Keep trying a variety of greens.
They change the color of their beard for a number of reasons but I wouldn't worry about it if her beard isn't black for a prolonged period of time.
I hope her tail sheds soon!

Tracie

Ok, thank you! She pooped today. The urate was very moist and wet. Perhaps from the extra hydration still in her system. However, I did notice some hard crumbles of urate as well. Not a lot. Some small ones in the urate. And maybe a small amount in her poop. I’m not sure if that is normal. Or if the urate was good from the extra hydration. And the small hard crumbles were from calcium. Would this be a good urate? Or should I adjust the calcium more? Or give time for the adjustments I made? Her beard was bright before she went to the bathroom. She has been iffy with her greens, so she didn’t want them before she went to the bathroom.

 

[Toadleagend]

Ok, thank you! She pooped today. The urate was very moist and wet. Perhaps from the extra hydration still in her system. However, I did notice some hard crumbles of urate as well. Not a lot. Some small ones in the urate. And maybe a small amount in her poop. I’m not sure if that is normal. Or if the urate was good from the extra hydration. And the small hard crumbles were from calcium. Would this be a good urate? Or should I adjust the calcium more? Or give time for the adjustments I made? Her beard was bright before she went to the bathroom. She has been iffy with her greens, so she didn’t want them before she went to the bathroom.

About an hour later, it looked like she was going to poop again her beard turned dark for about 10-30 minutes. And she was in a position like she was going to poop. I could’ve seen wiggling but I’m not sure. Then, her beard got brighter and she left the position. Kinda over time. But not too long. She sat somewhere else. Which also had her in a position where it looked like she was about to poop. Her beard was bright that time. And she got up to eat something where she also moved like she was going to poop a little at first. She never pooped. And showed no sign of needing to poop after that. This happened within an hour or two. Should I do anything for her? Like give her something to help her go? Or a bath? I would have given her a bath. But, it didn’t seem to be bothering her and she doesn’t like baths. Im not sure if she had/ has to go or not.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

You can certainly give a bath from time to time, & try to get her to swim around more, for exercise. That can help to get things moving through.
How many times, weekly, are you giving calcium? I
think the frequency is fine. Perhaps cut back on vitamins, they might be too much if given too often.
I am not sure why she would be having trouble with
going to the bathroom, if she isn't impacted.

Tracie