How often does your adult poop?

[popsickle18]

Hey there, how often do your adults poop? My boy Kenny will poop in the bath but if left to poop on his own sometimes it will take awhile. He has a great mixture of salad during the week and gets superworms on the weekends. I would like to see him poop more on his own. Otherwise he is very active and alert! Thoughts, comments, suggestions are welcome!

 

[CooperDragon]

All of my guys have been different. One went almost every day and another went every couple few days. I found that it helped to get them used to a schedule so they'd go around the same time in the morning. I've heard of adults going once a week and that's normal for them. As long as his appetite and energy level are good I wouldn't worry about it and just measure based on what's regular for him.

 

[popsickle18]

Okay he will go about once a week on his own, but whenever he is in a bath he will go without fail. I was just worried about my sweet boy! Thank you!

 

[CooperDragon]

A warm bath will often stimulate a poop. As long as the bath doesn't appear to stress him out it's OK to use it to regulate and make cleanup easy. I use warm baths as part of the morning routine to start training them to go around the same time daily. Eventually you can usually get them to go based on the routine if you put them in the same area (linoleum floor makes for easy cleanup).

 

[popsickle18]

Yeah perhaps if I am more scheduled with his baths he will go more often! He has a tile bottom to his enclosure so thankfully that is an easy clean up there too.

 

[GoneForLunch]

My guy used to poop every 2-3 and some times even 4 days. But lately it has been almost every day. I guess it depends how much they eat and what. But as long as he's still eating, it's all good! I wish my guy would go in a warm bath, but he despises bath so that's a every other week thing for him. Newspaper is nice for the times they just go and go and go. How easy is tile to clean? I was thinking of tile, but i like how I can just take out and put in new paper.

 

[CooperDragon]

That sounds good too. Tile is very easy to clean. You can spot clean it with vinegar/water and you can sanitize it by baking it in the oven on low for about 45 min or spraying it down with some F10SC. I have 3 sets of tiles so I can swap them out easily for cleaning. The paper towels are easy too because you can just toss them when they get dirty.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Rex does a poo each day in the main.

 

[kingofnobbys]

That sounds good too. Tile is very easy to clean. You can spot clean it with vinegar/water and you can sanitize it by baking it in the oven on low for about 45 min or spraying it down with some F10SC. I have 3 sets of tiles so I can swap them out easily for cleaning. The paper towels are easy too because you can just toss them when they get dirty.

Tiles in Rex's enclosure, with paper towelling overtop of the heat-slab (ceramic tile sandwiched heatpad) , and F10 is used to sterile soiled tiles , log, hubbahut or when she has an accident on the carpet or lino.

 

[popsickle18]

Tile is super easy to clean! I pick up the big messes and then sanitize more with vinegar/water solution (as was mentioned above)

Kenny doesn't tend to eat too much nowadays. He will pick at his greens/veggies throughout the week but it is never very much though. He will always eat his insects but I do not offer them more than 2 days out of the week because he is an adult now and doesn't need insects as often. I think he would gladly eat them everyday though, little piggy haha :lol:

 

[SLDragon]

Personal opinion is to leave the lizard to go at his own schedule.

Providing he has the correct temperatures, is fed appropriate food and and is hydrated there should be no reason to intervene. I'm uncomfortable forcing involuntary defecation on an animal, which is what bathing appears to do.

Bear in mind that lizards reabsorb water and salts from waste held voluntarily in their cloacas. It's known they do this at differing rates according to their hydration needs. So to remove this inbuilt mechanism for controlling hydration levels seems foolish - although i don't know for a fact it is harmful, i wouldn't personally want to take that risk as i'd worry a about effecting hydration and if it puts additional internal stress on the animal - although again to reiterate, i'm not say that does happen. Likewise as it is a two way process, i don't know if forcing bowel movements effects the excretion of unwanted salts either.

 

[CooperDragon]

That's a good point and certainly something to consider.

 

[popsickle18]

SLDragon, thank you for your insight! I have been nervous to get into a bath regimen to make him poo, because I really would like him to do it on his own. Without fail, whenever he has a bath, he poops! When he does poo on his own, they look mostly normal, besides larger than average urates at times.

 

[SLDragon]

The faeces wouldn't necessarily appear different, tbh i don't really see the value in lizards full stop.

(Giving certain lizards the opportunity to bathe in their enclosures if they want is a different matter of course)

 

[popsickle18]

The faeces wouldn't necessarily appear different, tbh i don't really see the value in lizards full stop.

(Giving certain lizards the opportunity to bathe in their enclosures if they want is a different matter of course)

Sure, sure. Kenny has a larger water dish if he ever wanted to go in there on his own. I have never seen him do it, but its there!