Beardie poo issues

[FlamingChicklet]

Hi there, so i am new to the site, and i did try to search this before hand and didnt find anything similar to my situation. so here goes.

My beardie seems to be impacted, i dont know from what (i think the only possibility is too much calcium - which i am cutting back on now). Its porbably been about 10 days and i can get her to poop if i give her a bath and rub her belly but then she has diarrhea. She's probably pooped about 5 times in the last 10 days, but sometimes she goes 2-3 days with out pooping. She did have one solid poo but thats it, the last 2 were pale brown mushy piles and very stinky! Is this normal? What am I doing wrong???

Zilla is about 6-7 months old, shes on a carpet in a 20 gall terrarium. I got her in September and this has been the first problem I've had. She is my first and only dragon. She has not had a fecal but i think i will be doing one in the next week. I have not recently changed the UVB bulb as she will be moving to her big girl tank soon that has a new one waiting for her. SHe eats primarily crickets (its very hard to find supers and roaches where i live) and salad i have given meal worms for treats but not recently (maybe a month ago). She just changed to large crickets, which seem to be appropriate for her (they measure the size between her eyes).

PLEASE Help! Thank you!
Also please feel free to direct me to a link i couldnt find or WHY!!

 

[LilahFaye]

Welcome to the site!

I've never heard of a beardie having too much calcium. Their poop is usually a little mushy, and quite stinky. But if it seems abnormal, I would suggest getting a fecal done as soon as possible, as your beardie may have parasites, causing her poop to look odd. What kinds of salads have you been feeding her? If you feed her any kinds of lettuces, those can sometimes cause a beardie to have diarrhea, as lettuce has little nutritional value. If your beardie is constipated, many people here would suggest giving her applesauce, or applesauce with a little bit of olive oil in it. If that doesn't clean her out, think about taking her to the vet. Though, it's a great sign that she's being able to poop in the bath.

Also, crickets are a good staple for her. I would steer away from mealworms and superworms, especially at this age, because they can lead to impaction because their exoskeleton is hard for these guys to digest.

Hope I helped!

 

[FlamingChicklet]

Thanks!

I feed her parsley, cilantro, red pepper, sweet potato, yam and the occasional peas, carrots and broccoli but not very often. She is offered salad every day. I have only fed her meal worms maybe 3 times since i got her and it was only cuz i was low on crickets.

Her poops are seeming to return to normal, yesterday she had 2 poops and they were pretty much normal. I think i am still going to do a fecal. But i cant get one in to the vet til monday. I am just so worried about her.

 

[LilahFaye]

Her problem may be what you are feeding her...Parsley, cilantro, red pepper, sweet potato, and yams, should only be fed occasionally. If you feed these things to her daily, that may be the issue. Some good greens that you could feed to her daily may be: Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, Dandelion Greens, Endive, etc. Leafy greens are the best thing for your little girl. I feed my guy (who is actually about the same age as yours, and lives in the same conditions: 20g long tank) Collard greens and butternut squash on a daily basis. Sometimes I give him the occasional things, but never too often. Here is a great list of things your girl can eat (I honestly live by this list!): http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

I would still suggest doing the full fecal though, because you never know if anything bad may be lurking inside your little girl

Hope I helped you out!

 

[Gail]

As dragons age, they stop going poo everyday, 2-3 days in-between isn't that bad for a 6-7 month old. If you can get her eating squash, you should see a change in frequency and consistancy.
To much calcium can cause hard, yellow urates but it doesn't sound like thats the problem with your girl.

 

[FlamingChicklet]

Yeah while i was looking into the issue i discovered i was feeding the wrong veggies. Many other sources dontstate how often you shouldfeedthe veggies i feed, they justlist them as ok. So stupid question what are collard greens?

Good to know about too much calcium poo, atleast im not killing her. I am also not feeding herptivite. I think i will start though... for some reason ithought it was all in the calcium powder...

Thanks for all the help! I really appreciate it.

 

[LilahFaye]

It's fine, I didn't know what half of the things I fed my lizard looked like until I googled them! If you want to know what they look like, I would suggest just searching them up on google, and look on the images. If you look in a grocery store in the produce aisle, you should see them labeled (but I'd still check them up on google, because sometimes grocery stores don't keep their labels up to date!)

Sometimes calcium supplements do add other vitamins in there. I used to give my beardie a calcium that had Vitamin A, B12, D3, and sadly, phosphorus, which is bad I stopped using that calcium and got this one: http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-supplements/105551/rep-cal-ultrafine-powder-calcium-with-vitamin-d3.html
You should begin using Herptivite, it has a lot of good things in it for your beardie and it will make him so much healthier Heres a link from where I got mine: http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-supplements/105550/rep-cal-herptivite-multivitamin.html

If you don't get herptivite, make sure you get a different kind of multivitamin that has a normal amount of Vitamin A in it, or has beta carotene instead. Many multi-vitamins have un-safe amounts of vitamin A, which can lead to a disease called hypervitaminosis.

Bye,

 

[FlamingChicklet]

So poor Zilla has Coccidia! My poor baby, i got her fecal results almost right away. I pick up meds tomorrow.

 

[LilahFaye]

Aw poor baby!!! That's terrible Any idea when/where she got it from? I hope your little girl feels better soon. Just make sure you give her her meds and give her lots of love and care

 

[FlamingChicklet]

I have no idea... i dont know how she got it, probably just stress or something I dunno

I dont get her meds til tomorrow when the herp vet is in and will know what to give her. argh!

This sucks though. My poor baby. I hope I can prevent re-infection, but im still researching how to deal with it so that she will eat and what not.