Ethelia
Extreme Poster
Hello all,
My question regards Ruben, my 10 month old boisterous boy.
A little background on the problem:
Ruben has proven to have a delicate digestive system, which I believe has something to do with the fact that Rube is on his stomach 95% of the time as he is missing two legs on one side of his body.
When I brought Ruben home at 3 months he was quite nastily impacted with sand, but we managed to clear all of that gunk out of him.
For the next month or so he had obvious digestive issues, passing large chunks of undigested veg and bugs. In time it settled down, but locusts did prove to be an issue for him, often seeing chunks of locust in his bowel movements.
After about 3 months at home with me I would say his digestion was back to normal and other than an odd incident here and there.
He has a bath every day which he passes his bowel movement in. Usually he will poop within 5-10 minutes of going in the bath, and so doesnt get a long soak, but every two days I will refill the tub and he'll get a nice 20 minute soak.
The problem:
Ive had issues in the past with him having chalky urates but they have come and gone, however recently they seem to be quite persistant.
Rube has always had to strain to pass his bowel movements but recently he seems to be giving it two or three great heaves before a urate with poop attached SHOOTS out of him in the water.
The poop part of the bowel movement is fine, but the urates are getting increasingly solid.
So what do I do about this to try and soften them up?
The only ideas that spring to my mind are dehydration or too much calcium.
Calcium wise he gets a dusting 4 days a week and is under a 100w MegaRay bulb.
Hydration wise he is in the bath daily, which I understand to be the best form of hydration for a dragon. He will only drink from the bath himself maybe once every two weeks.
My issue is how else to hydrate him if you think this may be a factor?
Ruben is housed on toweling to help him move around so I cant really mist him without dampening his towel. I toyed with the idea of putting in some foliage JUST to spritz it?
He does not lick from a syringe without being suprised. Ive only managed the whole "dripping on his nose" thing in the bath and maybe twice in his viv.
Any ideas would be appriciated to make my monsters life a little easier ^_^
Holly
My question regards Ruben, my 10 month old boisterous boy.
A little background on the problem:
Ruben has proven to have a delicate digestive system, which I believe has something to do with the fact that Rube is on his stomach 95% of the time as he is missing two legs on one side of his body.
When I brought Ruben home at 3 months he was quite nastily impacted with sand, but we managed to clear all of that gunk out of him.
For the next month or so he had obvious digestive issues, passing large chunks of undigested veg and bugs. In time it settled down, but locusts did prove to be an issue for him, often seeing chunks of locust in his bowel movements.
After about 3 months at home with me I would say his digestion was back to normal and other than an odd incident here and there.
He has a bath every day which he passes his bowel movement in. Usually he will poop within 5-10 minutes of going in the bath, and so doesnt get a long soak, but every two days I will refill the tub and he'll get a nice 20 minute soak.
The problem:
Ive had issues in the past with him having chalky urates but they have come and gone, however recently they seem to be quite persistant.
Rube has always had to strain to pass his bowel movements but recently he seems to be giving it two or three great heaves before a urate with poop attached SHOOTS out of him in the water.
The poop part of the bowel movement is fine, but the urates are getting increasingly solid.
So what do I do about this to try and soften them up?
The only ideas that spring to my mind are dehydration or too much calcium.
Calcium wise he gets a dusting 4 days a week and is under a 100w MegaRay bulb.
Hydration wise he is in the bath daily, which I understand to be the best form of hydration for a dragon. He will only drink from the bath himself maybe once every two weeks.
My issue is how else to hydrate him if you think this may be a factor?
Ruben is housed on toweling to help him move around so I cant really mist him without dampening his towel. I toyed with the idea of putting in some foliage JUST to spritz it?
He does not lick from a syringe without being suprised. Ive only managed the whole "dripping on his nose" thing in the bath and maybe twice in his viv.
Any ideas would be appriciated to make my monsters life a little easier ^_^
Holly