Fecal Problems

[silverblade760]

Hey everyone,

For the past couple months Jake's been eating very rarely, close to once or twice a week. For about 2 weeks now, he's been eating pretty good, i give him worms 2-3 times a week and veggies twice a day, and he eats everything now, there's never anything left. However, his feces have gone from solid, cylindrical, and dark brown/black, to sort of greenish and mushy. Today when i got home it looked like someone rubbed vanilla ice cream against the tiles. It looked like a white, dried up smear about 2 inches wide. For worms i feed him phoenix worms, but i've ran out so i ran to petsmart and got some mealworms and wax worms for now (yes i know there not the best). For veggies i give him kale and romaine lettuce, and toss some fruit in there. I just started to give him fruit. I normally put in chopped up strawberries cause he loves those, but i also give him cantaloupe occasionally. Here are the Stats of my tank:

How old is your dragon? 1 year this month
How long have you had your dragon? 9 months
How long is your dragon? 12-13 inches
What is the sex of your dragon? male (atleast when i checked he was)
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in? 30L
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank? Tiles
Do you use UVB lights? yes, reptisun 10.0
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb? fluorescent tube
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)?
How old is your UVB bulb? 6 months
How close can your dragon get to the UVB? 8 inches roughly
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage? yes, zoo med 100 watt
What are the basking temps? 107.7 (just adjusted the probe and re-measured)
What is the cool side temp? 78
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun? digital/wire & probe
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps? where he sits on the basking spot
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad? No
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific. phoenix worms, wax worms, mealworms, romaine lettuce, kale, occasional carrots, strawberries, and cantaloupe
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)? Twice, morning and night
Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc? i do worms and no i don't gut load them
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of the? the reptical ones, don't have them in front of me, but it's a pair, ones has a pink label the other blue. There pretty good i hear
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)? yes
Do you bath your dragon? How often? once a week
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath? mist twice a day
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon? no
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done? no

 

[peera]

Well, I'd say the gushy poo is due to the veggies. Romaine and kale aren't particularly healthy for your dragon, and romaine in particular is a known cause of diarrhea. This site- http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html has a lot of suggestions for much better food... Mine are particularly fond of cactus & squash!

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Hello,

Sorry to hear your beardie is not doing well. From looking at your set up...everything looks great! I would suggest getting a new Reptisun soon, those should be replaced every 6 months.

You mentioned feeding worms 1-2 x a week. How many worms are you giving him with each of those feedings? At his age he should still be getting live feeders everyday. Unless it is genetics, he is a bit small for a one year old beardie.

As for the runny poo, it could possibly be the fruit you have recently started feeding him. Then again if it is runny and green and he doesn't have much of an appetite, I would suggest taking him into the vet for a fecal exam to rule out parasites. Does his poop have a strong odor?

Dawn

 

[SJM]

Sorry to hear that! but, it sounds like a correctable problem. If he isn't displaying any other signs of unhealthiness, it's most likely his diet. Lettuce is high in water and less nutritional for beardies, and can give them the runs. Kale is alright, but I wouldn't use it as a staple. If I were you I would feed him mostly collard greens, turnip greens, and mustard greens. He should be eating more live feeders then veggies at this point, and I wouldn't offer fruit everyday. Fruit is high in water and sugar content, and should only be used as a treat.

The link Peera gave you leads to a site that I use. It's very accurate.

This is a good site that can also help with choosing veggies:
http://www.anapsid.org/iguana/cal_ox.html
You want veggies with LOW oxalate content.

Hope this helps and everything gets better!

 

[silverblade760]

thanks everyone, when i give him worms i give him about 30 but i'm sure he can eat more. He has a very good appetite though, he eats two or three times a day. So I'll change his Veggies And lay off the fruit, but what should his live feeding schedule be? As far as how his feces smell, oddly enough they smell a little sweat

 

[SJM]

If they smell a little sweet it's probably the high sugar content of fruit.

You should feed 2-3 times a day. Thor gets live feeders and veggies at around 8:00-8:30, live feeders at 1:00-2:00, and a few more live feeders at around 4:30-5:00. Feeding time should be for around 10-15 minutes, let him eat as much as he wants. If he stops the feeding time is done. If he keeps eating then keep providing food. I, along with many other people, leave his leftover salad in the tank for a good part of the day, and sometimes he'll go back to finish it if he gets hungry and I'm not feeding him. Sometimes I just dump his leftovers in the cricket tank for them to eat.