Good poop bad poop?

[soundawake]

Here's a picture.

As you can see its fairly runny, but what I'm most concerned about is the fact that the urates is brown today. Never been like that. Dragon is about 6-8 months old, is fed daly with crickets dusted in powder and also some bearded dragon feed, which can be seen in the little dish. Doesn't seem to eat much of that though. I've been perusing this site for a few months now and am confident everything is set up properly with regards to UVB, temp, etc etc.

Any clues? Dragon otherwise seems happy.

 

[Gail]

How much calcium does he get and is he drinking any water? Urates that color can be a sign of too much calcium or dehydration. Also, the dragon pellets are ok for a snack or supplement but he should be getting fresh greens daily along with his insects.

 

[Vacren]

Definitely not good. Could be the dragon chow. As above, your beardie needs greens. I would also consider removing the substrate. All loose substrates are a serious risk. Replace with tile, newspaper, repticarpet, paper towels, etc. Read on enclosures for ideas.

 

[soundawake]

I just gave them a bath (I have two) seeing as they hadn't had a bath in about 6-7 days.

As far as the substrate goes.. Its recycled newspaper, I was concerned in early days especially when I saw one of them accidentally eat a bit (normally they spit it back out straight away)but as soon as the substrate gets any moisture it literally disintegrates and the dragon passed it no problems at all the next day. I always watch carefully when they feed, they spit back out the substrate straight away. (except for that one time). So I'm not too concerned about that. They do get greens as well, I'm trying to source collard greens but no one here in Australia including fruit and veg shop owners have heard of it!! Otherwise they get chopped up parsley, rockmelon, carrot, celery, etc which they love.

Really would like some collard greens though! Whatever the bloody hell they are!! LOL. It would save me lots of money on crickets.

I may back off on the calcium powder for a few days and see what happens.

 

[Vacren]

The concern with sand is impaction. The concern with loose substrates in general is the inability to clean it. Your Beardie has soiled the substrate. Even if you've removed the poo you can see, you can't get it all. The next time you put crickets in there, if one of them brushes up against the soiled substrate then gets eaten, your Beardie just ate poo. Hypothetically, and not to condone dual housing, if one dragon had pinworms and the other ate the cricket, you now have two dragons with pinworms. Looking at the picture you posted, there is soiled substrate in the food dish.

Anything you put in there should be removable and easy to clean. I use rough faced porcelain tile. I can remove it and run it through the wash. Very easy to clean.

As far as the greens go, collard greens are readily available in the states. I don't know of anywhere else you'd find them. I use mustard greens and my babies love them. Romaine once a month or so because they like it, but never as a staple. Juno loves dandelion greens, but none of the others will touch them.

 

[soundawake]

Yeah I see your point. I try to keep it as clean as I can, and I am on my last bag of substrate so will probably switch to something better once the bag runs out.

 

[changilass]

Can you get spring greens in Aus, cos if so its the same thing.

 

[diamc]

Hi, by looking at the color and consistency of the urates, looks like your beardie(s) are at least somewhat dehydrated. The urates should be white and not hard like chalk or even rubbery. Giving too much calcium can also cause the urates to be like that.

I agree with the others on the rest of the issues.

 

[Vacren]

Diane, any chance we can sticky http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html?