Is this urate a bad color or normal?

[Jacob1289]

Can anyone tell me if this urate is unhealthy? My beardie's diet consists of superworms, collard greens everyday, and roaches every once in a while.

 

[kcarello]

A healthy bearded dragons urate should be white. I recommend a Fecal test to rule out parasites

 

[EllenD]

It's true that a bearded dragon's urate should ideally be bright white. There are many things that can cause their urates and fecal matter to turn abnormal colors or consistencies, usually it's due to dehydration when the urate is yellow or pink. The fecal matter part of this bowel movement looks well-formed, not at all runny, and doesn't seem to have any undigested food in it, though it may be a little greenish in color.

How long have his urates been discolored? Has his poop itself been runny or extremely smelly lately? Those are both signs of parasites, worms, or a bacterial infection such as coccidia, more so than the color of the urate. So if his poop has been normal in shape, consistency, color, and odor, it's probably not a high parasite count, though a fecal is never a bad idea if you at all suspect something is wrong. Fecal testing is inexpensive and the medications to treat parasites, worms, and bacterial infections are not expensive either, so if you would feel more comfortable taking him for a fecal then by all means, take him, but I think he's just a little dehydrated. I would start offering him water dropped on his snout from an eyedropper multiple times a day, or better yet go to Walmart and buy a bottle of unflavored Pedialyte (Walmart brand is fine and over a dollar cheaper) for $3.50 I think, and a pack of 2 eyedroppers in the eyedrop/contact solution/ear drop aisle in the medical section of the store for $1.90 I believe. Or you can use an oral syringe as well, I think an eyedropper is easier to use. Offer him the unflavored Pedialyte dropped on his snout, and keep doing it until he stops licking the drops off. Do this several times a day, and after a day or two of doing this his urates should whiten up. If they don't look normal after a day or two of giving him additional hydration then I'd take him to the vet. But I really think this is just a little dehydration.

How old is your beardie? How long is he head to tail, and how much does he weigh? The reason I'm asking is because of his diet. The collard greens are great daily, so are the Dubias, but superworms are not the best staple feeder insects for bearded dragons. They are full of fat, and if they are fed as their main staple insect long-term they can actually develop Fatty Liver Disease. If he's an adult and eating mainly his greens then it's not such a big deal, but if he's under a year old and eating a lot of superworms every day, that's when it can become a problem...How many superworms does he eat daily? What size do you feed him?

 

[kcarello]

Also, how much calcium are you giving and how often?

 

[Jacob1289]

This is her, I've had her since she was a baby. Her urate has been this color for a few months. I changed her diet to superworms months ago so I don't know if that has to do with anything. She isn't a fan of drinking water, but I try to trick her into drinking it by making it smell good with baby food or diluted juice. I feed her calcium 3 times a week and vitamins 4 times a week. She hasn't lost any weight and still maintains a healthy looking tail.

 

[diamc]

What a cute beardie. The urate is quite discolored and looks hard. Would be a good idea to increase the oral fluids and also be sure to mist the green heavily.

She should be getting one feeding of insects dusted with calcium 5 days a wk, the 2nd daily feeding should not be dusted. On the other 2 days, dust the insects with calcium but again, on only 1 daily feeding. Hopefully with the fluid and calcium increase and cutting back on the vitamin intake will help with the way the urate looks. Please keep us updated on her.

 

[Jacob1289]

So how many days a week should I feed vitamins? I heard beardies who are getting close to adulthood should have more vitamin intake than calcium intake. I used to feed calcium 5 days a week but was told it was too much.

 

[kcarello]

For dragons under 1 year old, calcium 5 x week,,vitamins 2 x week

 

[EllenD]

If her urates have been discolored like that for months but her poop itself has been normal, then she's not getting enough hydration from her food. She looks very healthy and of good weight, just a bit dehydrated. If she's over a year and a few months old then she should be eating more greens than insects by far, but either way, beardies usually don't get their hydration from drinking water, they get it from their food, both their greens and live insects. My almost 10 month old girl has never once taken a drink from a bowl, her bath, or from being misted or having water dripped on her snout, she just refuses. I've tried and tried, but eventually I gave up and realized that she was eating enough greens and juicy, live, gut-loaded insects every day to keep her well hydrated. Gut-loading their live insects has a lot to do with their hydration as well. I feed mainly size large (or "Giant" depending on where I get them) Phoenix Worms as all 3 of my beardie's live, staple insect, and I feed the Phoenix Worms numerous veggies, fruits, and recently I saw the tutorial on here about feeding them bread with jelly on it. They get huge and very bloated with fluids before I feed them to my beardies. Dubia roaches or other species of roaches that are gut-loaded are the other extremely nutritious live staple feeder that provide a ton of hydration to beardies. Even gut-loaded crickets are better than just feeding superworms as their staple feeder. I have always considered superworms as big mealworms honestly, they obviously contain more protein than mealworms because of their size, but they still have a very hard shell and have just as much fat.

So I'd first consider stopping the superworms as his live staple feeder, you said that you switched to superworms months ago and his urates have been discolored and hard for months, so I'm guessing that the superworms are your issue.

 

[Jacob1289]

I switched to superworms because one day she flat out topped eating crickets. I was left with over 100 crickets because she wouldn't eat them. So I went to my local pet store and the only other things they sell are wax worms and supers. So I bought supers and read they are a good staple for larger dragons. I can try buying crickets again but I doubt she would touch them.

 

[CooperDragon]

Supers can be fairly high in fat so I wouldn't use them as a staple. I would focus on veges as her primary diet now and offer bugs just occasionally. Offering a wide variety and trying to find her favorites should keep her healthy. Just rotate based on what looks good at the store each week. I like to reference this list for ideas http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

 

[kcarello]

If you dont live in Florida I would suggest trying dubia roaches