My bearded only poops every 3-4 weeks

[shannonr]

Hi,

I'm caring for my daughter's bearded dragon while she's gone to college. We have a female bearded dragon, about 1-1/2 years old. She does not poop as frequently as I see mentioned here - she averages about three weeks between poops. We have a reptisun 10" light, and a ZooMed dome light with a PowerSun 120w bulb in there. The substrate is tile, the tank is a 40 gallon (though we learned we need to expand that to a 4x2x2 tank and will be doing that in the next week). My daughter built a structure out of styrofoam and covered it in grout material, like we've seen some here do. The temp up at her basking level is between 100-105 from what I recall.

I feed her salad in the morning, a mix of the approved foods from your food list, and bugs in the afternoon. Usually a rotation between Dubia roaches, silkworms, hornworms, and superworms. She refuses crickets, waxworms, and earthworms, and right now is only interested in superworms - which I've read should not be fed daily. I'm trying to entice her to other bugs.

I bathe her 1-3 times a week, with temps between 100-105, and for the past week I've been giving her a bit of prune or pumpkin with olive oil mixed in. I've been bathing her every other day this past week, feeling urgent about her not having pooped. I massage her belly after about 10 min in the bath, and she does move around in the bath.

She does not seem lethargic or uncomfortable, she is alert and hops on and off of her structure, etc. I do notice her occasionally resting at an inclined angle - as if she is pausing in the process of climbing from one level to the basking top of her structure, and sometimes she stays like that for an hour or until I move her up higher where it's warmer (when I am worrying about providing enough warmth for her to digest her food). I wonder if that inclined position is her effort to relieve bowel discomfort or whether she's just hanging out.

I can send a pic in the morning when i have lighting, in case there's something we've done wrong with her enclosure, but wondered what else I might need to do. There is a reptile vet about 40 min away that I can take her to if needed.

Thanks
Shannon

 

[shannonr]

Here are pics of her and her enclosure:

Besides needing the larger tank, which we are getting asap, do you know of anything else I'm doing wrong that would contribute to this issue? Or should I just take her on in to a vet?

Thanks
Shannon

 

[AHBD]

Hi Shannon.....she looks pretty healthy and the tank is nicely designed temps + lights all sound good. Has she always gone that long between poos or has it been maybe the last few months ? I ask because it is the time of year for many beardies to slow down, be less active, etc.

The canned pumpkin should help though, and if you can offer water via syringe/eyedropper for her to drink off her snout that can help as well. Another thing you can try is a deeper than usual bath in which she has to swim a little bit. That can get things moving....also if you let her run around the house [ not wet though ] for exercise. If you do, just be sure to pick up any small objects on the floor because beardies will swallow rubber bands, coins, small pieces of fabric, paper clips, etc.