blackened

[ayiaskepi]

Hello again.

I watched a bearded dragon video about feeders the other day which was hosted by a well respected bearded dragon breeder. He spoke about superworms as a fine feeder for beardies, as long as the worms are not too big (space between the dragons eyes should be the same as the worm folded in half). Now, I had always thought that these worms were NOT ok for beardies. This breeder disregarded this as mostly a myth saying that he has never in all his years had problems with superworms and his dragons. Ok... now I have about 75 or so superworms sitting around that I used to feed to another herp who has since passed away. I decided to give it a try. Well my dragon (about 6 months old) gobbled up like 15 in a row! Now, about an hour or so later I went in to check on him and his beard (I think it is a he but am not positive yet) was completely black. This stayed like this for a few hours and eventually went back to normal. Now this morning I went in to give him his veggies and his first round of crix and I noticed his beard was black again. There was also one piece of poop (quite dark) laying there (he usually lets a WHOLE LOT go). A little after that I went back in and found various pieces of undigested superworm on the cage floor. He has not eaten anything today and when I tried to bathe him to see if he would poop (which he always does), he let out some urates with a little brown goop, but no poop.

This is the background. Should I be concerned? Any advice?

THANKS

 

[fresnowitte]

Okay you say your beardie is about 6 months old but how long is your beardie?
Superworms are fine to use as feeders for beardies that are atleast 14 to 15 inches long.
When beardies are small they have a kink in the intestines making digestion of supers very hard for them.

Plus you mentioned that these 75 superworms were leftover from other herps...how long have these supers been sitting around? Have your kept the supers well fed and hydrated? Were they still fat, juicey looking and active?

I had an incident a couple of months ago with a few of my beardies vomiting back up some supers that I hadn't grown but purchased from a pet store...which were not so healthy.

But when you try any new items on beardies you should start out slowly first to see how their systems are going to react.

I suggest a nice warm bath and possibly some probiotics to sooth the tummy ache.
You can offer him some SOY yogurt not a dairy yogurt this will also settle the tummy ache.
I say the black beard is his way of saying he doesn't feel good.

 

[ayiaskepi]

Thanks a lot for the response.

I actually dropped him off at our local herp vet who is going to call me after she looks at him. I will post the results. THANKS!!!

 

[ayiaskepi]

Ok...

It turns out, according to the vet, no impaction (the dragon actually had a movement during the exam). She claims the twitching could very well be due to the dragon having a difficult time passing the insect matter but she does not think there is any impaction. This seemed a relief until she then told me that the fecal she did came back with above normal levels of coccida and also positive for HOOK WORM! I can understand the the coccida, since it is in there bodies anyway, but hook worm??!! Where did this come from? She came from a great breeder and her crix come from a good source that prides itself on being parasite free. I guess there is no guarantee of anything. Anyway, I have to pick up two meds tomorrow which will be given orally. That should be interesting. Ugh.