Bearded Dragon Pooping Problems?

[DrummerBB]

Hi all,

So I have this Bearded Dragon who is 3 months old, and he is already over ten inches. He is a good size and super healthy. It amazes me how adventurous he is, and he is waaaay alert to everything. He is also already attached to me, and crawls into my hand so I can hold him. He has been acting perfectly fine as well, and there doesn't appear to be a problem.

My one concern however, is that he isn't pooping very often. Now I know normally this means they are impacted, and I have given him baths which indeed cleared him out and made him poop. That's the only thing, though. Obviously I shouldn't have to give him a bath every day just for him to poop; because he should be able to do that on his own. I do not know what could be causing him to become impacted, because there are no conditions to where he could become impacted.

The crickets I buy for him are maybe a centimeter or half a centimeter smaller than the distance between his eyes, just to be safe. There is no substrate, but instead I have a reptile "carpet" for his flooring. I feed him the crickets, as well as collards for his vegetables. I also make sure to dust the crickets with the vitamin D supplements every time I feed him. He is currently in a 40 gallon tank, with a UVA/UVB combination light and heat lamp, with the lampside being around 103 at the bottom, and around 125 at the peak of the log where he basks. The coolside is usually around 80-85 degrees. At night I also use an infrared heat lamp, which is on the opposite side of my regular lamp that I turn off at night. The infrared is just used to keep the temperature from dropping at night.

The way the poop looks also concerns me, because it is very large and has a peculiar stench. It is either typically colored green, though occasionally it will be brown. I know this might be because of the collards, but I just thought I would be safe and mention the coloring just for good measure.

Here are some pics of him, his tank, and his poop:

Here is my Bearded Dragon, Eragon. He was smart enough to almost climb out as I was about to feed him.

This is his tank currently. Please ignore the white powder, I accidentally spilled some of the vitamin D on the carpet today. Yes, it is a current picture.

This is actually underwater, so it might of made it look a little broken up and the such. Also there are some wet pieces of toilet paper in there from me bathing him.

I really do hope I could get some insight on this matter, because he is a very healthy beardie and I plan to keep him that way. Thanks!

 

[ruben0311]

so as far as pooping goes, it looks like an ok poop to me... one thing to consider is the basking spot though, maybe angle it down a bit so the temperature change is not as drastic. 125 is pretty hot, and i only see the one bulb is it a mercury vapor bulb? if it is then you'll wanna check with some of the light guru's here as i think being that close to it can be dangerous in terms of UVB and Heat levels, lowering the basking spot will fix that. how much does your buddy eat at the moment? he could just be pooping occasionally because he isn't eating a lot? he's probably not impacted, i'd think it would either be low food levels, (not saying he NEEDS to eat more just that people tend to overfeed their pets and start to think that it's the norm), or perhaps is just use to waiting for the bath to poop.

 

[CooperDragon]

I agree that the poop looks OK. The basking spot is too hot though. I wouldn't allow it to get more than about 110 with a majority of it closer to 100-105. Which model/wattage of mercury vapor bulb are you using? In most cases the UVB emitted at closer than about 10-12 inches can be dangerous so they're better off mounted further away. If additional heat is needed, you could add a second basking light or use your infrared heat emitter along with the MVB over the basking site to get the appropriate temps.

 

[Varalidaine]

I just want to clarify that there really is no such thing as an " infrared heat lamp." If you can see the color red or any light at all, then it's visible red, not infrared. It's probably also putting off infrared heat, but if you can see the light, so can your dragon. Since you said "heat lamp" I assume that means it's a bulb and I would recommend switching to a Ceramic Heat Emitter as that is true infrared heat as it emits no light. Anything that puts off heat, puts off infrared heat, but if you can see the light, it's also putting out visible light/heat. So when the bulb packaging says "Infrared Bulb," it's not lying, it's just manipulating the truth. And using a bulb at night can disturb their sleep cycles because their enclosure is lit up 24/7.