karmakollector
Member
My beardie has seemed strange ever since Monday, and I posted about some issues he seemed to be having with balance and lethargy on the ER forum... but I no longer see a twitch or balance problem. However, lethargy remains (he plops down instead of propping up when basking, and closes his eyes like he is sleepy in the middle of the day, which he never used to do. Doesn't actually seem to sleep, though.)
He has not pooped in almost a week now, and I noticed today that he got down from his basking log several times and went to his "litter box" (yes, my beardie trained me to make a litter box for him -- he removed all the food from his food dish one day and decided to poop right in the middle of the dish. Cleanup was already easy since I use nonadhesive liner as flooring, but removing a dish would be even easier, so I went ahead and gave it a try to see if that's truly what he wanted. Sure enough, he goes out of his way to try to make sure he always poops in the dish!), and he sat there with his rear down and tail up, really looked like he was trying to poop. But every time, he has this pose for about 5 minutes, nothing happens, and he seems to give up and go back to basking spot.
Seems like he really wants to go, but just can't. I'm unsure how much of all of this I should chalk up to getting older (he is now a little over a year old), and how much could be sickness. Unlikely to be impaction as there is no sort of substrate he could have eaten, and I rarely even feed him mealworms.
However, I do feed him a fair bit of dry foods, and I'm wondering if those could have caused constipation? This has been about 5 dried black soldier fly larvae each day, and about 5 red Flukers pellets (in addition to live dubia and collard greens, green beans, peas, and an occasional raspberry.)
If so... what are some good remedies to move things along? Searching the forum, I have seen some recommendations for baby food prunes, squash, sweet potato, or a drop of olive oil. Regarding these: are one of these more effective than the rest? For olive oil, should it be extra virgin or some other type? What about lettuce... I've heard that could cause diarrhea, so could it help?
I tried giving Ash a couple warm baths and massaging his belly a bit, but that didn't seem to do anything, so I'm onto plan B because I'm getting a little worried about his health and I love this little guy.
He has not pooped in almost a week now, and I noticed today that he got down from his basking log several times and went to his "litter box" (yes, my beardie trained me to make a litter box for him -- he removed all the food from his food dish one day and decided to poop right in the middle of the dish. Cleanup was already easy since I use nonadhesive liner as flooring, but removing a dish would be even easier, so I went ahead and gave it a try to see if that's truly what he wanted. Sure enough, he goes out of his way to try to make sure he always poops in the dish!), and he sat there with his rear down and tail up, really looked like he was trying to poop. But every time, he has this pose for about 5 minutes, nothing happens, and he seems to give up and go back to basking spot.
Seems like he really wants to go, but just can't. I'm unsure how much of all of this I should chalk up to getting older (he is now a little over a year old), and how much could be sickness. Unlikely to be impaction as there is no sort of substrate he could have eaten, and I rarely even feed him mealworms.
However, I do feed him a fair bit of dry foods, and I'm wondering if those could have caused constipation? This has been about 5 dried black soldier fly larvae each day, and about 5 red Flukers pellets (in addition to live dubia and collard greens, green beans, peas, and an occasional raspberry.)
If so... what are some good remedies to move things along? Searching the forum, I have seen some recommendations for baby food prunes, squash, sweet potato, or a drop of olive oil. Regarding these: are one of these more effective than the rest? For olive oil, should it be extra virgin or some other type? What about lettuce... I've heard that could cause diarrhea, so could it help?
I tried giving Ash a couple warm baths and massaging his belly a bit, but that didn't seem to do anything, so I'm onto plan B because I'm getting a little worried about his health and I love this little guy.
