Beardie also not excreting

[ErinK]

Hello, Ninja is a male, a bit over a year, is about 15" (but I am notroiously bad at measurement so he could be longer), has a 40 gallon tank, 100 watt Heat cage lamp and separate UVB lamp. We live in Colorado and at the moment his thermoter (which is cheap and I don't trust it) says it's only 87 degrees F. I do have Zoo Med Repti Bark but I feed him in a separate small tank. He eats crickets several time a week (large 20 at a time), Nature Zone Bites for Bearded Dragons, greens, small amts zuc & squash, some grated carrot, fruits,, and VERY RARELY I've given him giant mealworms per petstore advice. I am a new member of this site today and worry that I've been given terrible advice through petstore.
Problem: He has only passed a bowel movement twice since last Sat (today is Wed), and is suspiciously inactive preferring to hide, and his belly looks a bit distended, but he can use his legs. I have canned pumpkin and olive oil on hand.
Advice?
Thx, Erin

 

[tf2185]

Unfortunatly, pet stores are known to give horrible advice. First thing you should do, remove the bark and put in paper towels or something. Any loose substrate isn't recommended, even if they aren't eating in the same tank, because of the amount of bacteria it can harbor and dragons still lick everything. You can use tile, paper towels, reptile carpet, anything that isnt loose. I'm not sure how much you mean when you say crickets several times a week, 20 at a time, could you please be more specific? Are you dusting his food with calcium and vitamins on a regular basis?
what type of lights are you using, as in the brand? the basking temp needs to be a lot higher than 87 degrees. It needs to be at least 100 in order to digest the food properly.
Giant mealworms can cause impactons because they are hard to digest. If you want to give him worms, I would say try superworms, although dragons have been known to become addicted to them. Their outer shell isn't nearly as hard as giant mealworms. A nice soak wouldn't hurt and try feeding applesauce, pumpkin, and chicken or squash baby food and see if that will help him go. The reason is because it should be easier for his stomach to handle. When you are soaking him, massage his stomach and that should help too.

 

[ErinK]

Thanks so much. Got Ninja a ceramic heat lamp, put another 100 watt lamp in for good measure and replaced the UVB. Bad advice indeed from petstore, ANd I've spent a fortune. Want to know where I can get a Mercury vapor tube light. Do you know? Anyhow, he did go poop quite alot after soaks but is still not eating much. Maybe he's just on the mend. He is very yellow in color. I am going to reserach how much he should be eating at this age. Thanks for advice, Erin

 

[vampy]

If he's trying to hide in the cool end of his tank, and he's otherwise healthy, it might just be that he's preparing for brumation. There's plenty of threads on here about it with people giving different experiences...from dragons who pretty much sleep for 3 months solid, to those who spend a few days napping, then get up and eat for a couple of days, then go back down again.


ETA: mercury vapour lamps aren't tube lights, they are like big lightbulbs that have the basking light, heat and UVB from one lamp. They are certainly cheaper online than in stores in the UK, but I'm guessing you're in the states, so I can't recommend anywhere specific I'm afraid.