Mouth rot or..

[ewarwoowar]

Does he just need to brush his teeth?

My beardie recently had conjuncitivtis but has since recovered but when he was checked at the Vets they noticed he had small amounts of black on his teeth. The vet said that this is most likely tartar build up but I thought I would post it here anymore in case anyone notices anything else. He's 8 years old.

He had a fecal exam 3 weeks ago that came back clear.

His beard has also been relatively black recently but I think this may be due to changes to his UVB and heat lamp that he is still adjusting to but we are keeping an eye on him for other causes.

His diet consists of Dubia Roaches, locusts, occasional leafy greens (he chooses not to eat a lot of them) and butternut squash. He has Exo Terra Calcium during the week and Exo Terra Multi-vitamin at the weekend. He is a huge fan of bugs and won't eat half as much veg in comparison to roaches or locusts so I'm quite sure this is just bug build up. His mouth also seems very pink and not yellow like mouth rot symptoms are.

Here are the photos (trying to get another photo of the roof of his mouth but I haven't been in during the day recently when he basks more and has his mouth open):

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, those are just stains on his teeth. Other than that it's fine, most beardies will have some stains from their diet.

 

[ewarwoowar]

Hi there, those are just stains on his teeth. Other than that it's fine, most beardies will have some stains from their diet.

Hi AHBD,

Thanks for confirming and clearing my doubt!

Is there any procedure to clean this off or are they fine with it?

 

[CooperDragon]

Crunchy bugs such as the roaches and locusts you are offering should help quite a bit. If you want to manually clean them you could try dabbing the teeth and gums with a q-tip. You could also use an oral cleanser like MaxiGuard if you wish but it's probably not necessary at this point.

 

[AHBD]

I was going to suggest the same as Cooper with a Q-tip but DO be careful that your dragon does not decide to eat some of it, you know these guys !


A toothbrush can be used too if silly dragon cooperates + doesn't want to bite that as well.