Juvenile Bearded Dragon Eating Less - None and No normal sized BM in 2 days.

Sulitlana

Member
Original Poster
Here are my stats and info at the moment:

Will/Can add pictures of dragon and enclosure later today.

Dragon : Under a year old, not totally sure on age, but we have had him from when he was a baby since about November of 2021 so roughly gonna guess 8 months of age. No signs of MBD, seems a healthy weight.

Enclosure Size : 75 Gallon Glass Aquarium

UVB: Arcadia 12%
Mounted - Resting on large hole screen
Coverage - 2/3 of tank, overlapping basking area, past uvb measurements have seemed okay, was able to get to appropriate levels.

Basking - 100W Zoo Med basking - going to switch back to my Arcadia Halogen now that I got a dimmer for its fixture, it gets super hot, so I haven't been using it.

Basking Temps - Previous 2 days it ran a bit high in some spots, highest seen 114F, we have been having warmer weather. This morning when I got a dimmer switch I attached it to achieve a max basking temp of about 101F when I checked earlier.

Air Temps - About 89F above basking, house temp, roughly low - mid 70's on cool side of the tank.

Humidity: Low - Mid 30's. There have been times in past months when I had to use a fogger on the lowest setting during dry times. I would place the hose laying flat on top of the screen lid so just a small trickle of mist would enter the middle of tank to raise it near the basking area where he stays. Sometimes it could dip during the dry winter months below 30%, I have gotten lows of 25% where even keeping water bowls in the tank wouldn't work. I work hard to make sure its never above 40% when doing this. Only time it raises above 40% is if our natural air around the tank is a high humid day, when that happens I cover the top of the tank with a blanket except part of it to create kind of an air lock to burn out some of the humidity.

Substrate - Ceramic tiles resting on top of paper towel - cool side of tank is missing a tile with just paper towels only in hopes for poop to happen there. TILES HAVE BEEN A NEW ADDITION

Other Changes: NEW SEAGRASS HAMMOCKS

Diet:
Appropriate sized dubias in days leading up to current concerns, a few supermoms also given, maybe 3 - 4 total?
8-12 dubias given twice daily that are the size of the space between his eyes.

Fresh collard greens given daily, also sometimes given mustard greens and dandelion greens when fresh ones are found. (Looking to grow some this spring). I also will give some kind of other vegetable or fruit as an additive a few times a week, like bell pepper, carrots, cucumber, or apple.
Supplements not recently given on a normal basis due to the coccidia. Trying to get back on a routine for both his general vitamin and calcium powder. I use the powder about 2-3 times a week now for one meal a day, he has straight little arms and legs and seems healthy.


Water: He doesn't like baths, water drips on noses, or drinking from water bowls - I don't often give baths because of this, and I don't keep water bowls in the tank. I was mostly relying on him getting the moisture he needed from veggies, he seemed to be passing plenty of moisture in his poop so it never seemed to be an issue.

I did attempt to give him an electrolyte bath last night with a belly massage, no poops happened. I am starting trying to give him ore baths now that I have gotten a small portable pet swimming pool just for him.

Behavior - Mostly basks all day, sometimes sleeping most the day. In days prior to concerns he was tank surfing some, but he does often while I work. Unfortunately I don't have a pen for him yet to let him run about, and he doesn't chill much when being handled either. He never hisses, bites, or shows beard though.
The week or so prior he slept in his cave a lot during the day but was eating fine and pooping, but now he spends most all day basking or sleeping on the basking rock.

He is alert when you open the tank lid and does perk up, he doesn't have any stiffness in his legs or limbs either, and doesn't look overly bloated. When he wanted out of his bath he moved around fine and could jump and run/

Past Treatments Also has a recent recovery of coccidia (with a clean poop test), but his poops still always seemed kind of green and wet. When he was tank surfing in past weeks he might leave behind a little bit of liquid urate and tiny bit of poop from time to time.


Shedding: Hasn't had a full body shed in a bit, but the back of his head is looking a bit ashy and his feet so those might be coming soon.

Current Issues:
He hasn't pooped for 2 days and normally he poops every day, he also is eating little to none of his food.

He has been eating a few bugs, but nor as much as normal and one day I don't recall him eating any. He also will maybe eat one out of tongs but then ignores any more if you try to give him another. He normally gobbles up his veggies too and also hasn't really been eating those either.

The soonest vet visit we could get was for this Thursday. It so far has been 2 days of little to no eating and no poops. They told me I could try to just show up as a walk in but given the distance from my house, and having to borrow a car currently. I am a bit leery to try that. Since he seems alert and alright, would waiting till Thursday be a bad call?
 
Last edited:

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Here are my stats and info at the moment:

Will/Can add pictures of dragon and enclosure later today.

Dragon : Under a year old, not totally sure on age, but we have had him from when he was a baby since about November of 2021 so roughly gonna guess 8 months of age. No signs of MBD, seems a healthy weight.

Enclosure Size : 75 Gallon Glass Aquarium

UVB: Arcadia 12%
Mounted - Resting on large hole screen
Coverage - 2/3 of tank, overlapping basking area, past uvb measurements have seemed okay, was able to get to appropriate levels.

Basking - 100W Zoo Med basking - going to switch back to my Arcadia Halogen now that I got a dimmer for its fixture, it gets super hot, so I haven't been using it.

Basking Temps - Previous 2 days it ran a bit high in some spots, highest seen 114F, we have been having warmer weather. This morning when I got a dimmer switch I attached it to achieve a max basking temp of about 101F when I checked earlier.

Air Temps - About 89F above basking, house temp, roughly low - mid 70's on cool side of the tank.

Substrate - Ceramic tiles resting on top of paper towel - cool side of tank is missing a tile with just paper towels only in hopes for poop to happen there. TILES HAVE BEEN A NEW ADDITION

Other Changes: NEW SEAGRASS HAMMOCKS

Diet:
Appropriate sized debias in days leading up to current concerns, a few supermoms also given, maybe 3 - 4 total? 8-12 Dubias given twice daily. Fresh collard greens given daily, also sometimes given mustard greens and dandelion greens when fresh ones are found. (Looking to grow some this spring). I also will give some kind of other vegetable or fruit as an additive a few times a week, like bell pepper, carrots, cucumber, or apple. Supplements not recently given on a normal basis due to the coccidia. Trying to get back on a routine for both his general vitamin and calcium powder. I use the powder about 2-3 times a week now for one meal a day, he has straight little arms and legs and seems healthy.


Water: He doesn't like baths, water drips on noses, or drinking from water bowls - I don't often give baths because of this, but am changing that, I was mostly relying on him getting the moisture he needed from veggies, he seemed to be passing plenty of moisture in his poop.

I did attempt to give him an electrolyte bath last night with a belly massage, no poops happened. I am starting trying to give him ore baths now that I have gotten a small portable pet swimming pool just for him.

Behavior - Mostly basks all day, sometimes sleeping most the day. In days prior to concerns he was tank surfing some, but he does often while I work. Unfortunately I don't have a pen for him yet to let him run about, and he doesn't chill much when being handled either. He never hisses, bites, or shows beard though.
The week or so prior he slept in his cave a lot during the day but was eating fine and pooping, but now he spends most all day basking or sleeping on the basking rock.

He is alert when you open the tank lid and does perk up, he doesn't have any stiffness in his legs or limbs either, and doesn't look overly bloated. When he wanted out of his bath he moved around fine and could jump and run/

Past Treatments Also has a recent recovery of coccidia (with a clean poop test), but his poops still always seemed kind of green and wet. When he was tank surfing in past weeks he might leave behind a little bit of liquid urate and tiny bit of poop from time to time.


Shedding: Hasn't had a full body shed in a bit, but the back of his head is looking a bit ashy and his feet so those might be coming soon.

Current Issues:
He hasn't pooped for 2 days and normally he poops every day.

He has been eating a few bugs, but nor as much as normal and one day I don't recall him eating any. He also will maybe eat one out of tongs but then ignores any more if you try to give him another. He normally gobbles up his veggies too and also hasn't really been eating those either.

The soonest vet visit we could get was for this Thursday. It so far has been 2 days of little to no eating and no poops. They told me I could try to just show up as a walk in but given the distance from my house, and having to borrow a car currently. I am a bit leery to try that. Since he seems alert and alright, would waiting till Thursday be a bad call?
Are you getting basking temps w/ a digital probe thermometer? IR guns are good but digitals are the most accurate- as dragons get older they tend to poop less and can go a long time w/ out pooping- like weeks - the basking temp is a surface basking temp? I would try getting that down to 95-100 see if his behavior changes -- does your uvb cover the whole length of the tank? And what is the distance from the uvb to the basking decor?
 

Sulitlana

Member
Original Poster
Are you getting basking temps w/ a digital probe thermometer? IR guns are good but digitals are the most accurate- as dragons get older they tend to poop less and can go a long time w/ out pooping- like weeks - the basking temp is a surface basking temp? I would try getting that down to 95-100 see if his behavior changes -- does your uvb cover the whole length of the tank? And what is the distance from the uvb to the basking decor?
I use an IR gun, I have a probe I can test with it too, in the past they have both reflected relative temps to one another.

With the pooping, it was just so sudden going from once a day to none that I have been afraid of an impaction.

I will try to lower the temps again when I get off.

The uvb covers 2/3ds of the tank. For the distance I will have to check, I do have a uvb meter and when tested in the past where he was at under the screen he was okay but I will test again and measure when I get off work.
 

Sulitlana

Member
Original Poster
@KarrieRee

Distance from uvb approx 13 inches. When I use the UVB meter under the screen, about back level with him, and pointed towards the uvb light I get a reading of about 4.7, when I moved it a bit it would get to about a 5. From my understanding they can be in a range from 4.0 - 6.0 so I thought he should be okay. Here are some images of him and his set up
20220503_162900.jpg
20220503_162954.jpg
20220503_162351.jpg
0.jpg
20220503_162936.jpg
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
@KarrieRee

Distance from uvb approx 13 inches. When I use the UVB meter under the screen, about back level with him, and pointed towards the uvb light I get a reading of about 4.7, when I moved it a bit it would get to about a 5. From my understanding they can be in a range from 4.0 - 6.0 so I thought he should be okay. Here are some images of him and his set up View attachment 70111 View attachment 70112 View attachment 70113 View attachment 70114 View attachment 70115
I am not sure if solar meters can read off hammocks I know they can't read off hammocks
@CooperDragon
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
That all looks great. I wouldn't be too concerned at the moment if the issue is not pooping for a few days. That could be due to shedding or could just be changes in energy level. That sort of thing is pretty common and not a problem.
 

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