New Bearded Dragon hasn’t pooped yet

[BMaryS]

Hello! Brand new bearded dragon owner here. She’s a 5 month of Hypo and I’m already obsessed with her. I’ve had Pippa for 2 days now, and she hasn’t pooped for me yet.
The thermometer is saying that the ambient temperature of the cage is around 90 degrees, and she has a basking spot with her UV light and Heat Light right above her on her hammock. She chose to sleep on the cool side of the tank last night though. In terms of food, she LOVES her greens and is consistently eating her collard greens. Yesterday she had 15 small crickets while we waited for her Phoenix worms, which came in today so she had 15 of them. I’ve soaked her for short stints but am not seeing any signs of poop. Is it possible that she’s just not comfortable yet? Or is there maybe a problem?

 

[KatieMoo94]

Congrats on your new baby!

Pippa will probably be experiencing what is called relocation stress which will settle down shortly and can affect their behaviour in a lot of ways including appetite and bowel movements while she settles in to her new environment. It can take a couple of weeks to settle down fully but the worst should be over quite quickly and some dragons are fine within days they are all so different!

Just a couple of questions and observations about set up in case they are any help to you as a new owner of a scale baby:

You say the ambient temperature is 90... what are you measuring this with? If it's a stick on dial thermometer I would highly recommend binning it as soon as possible and buying a digital thermometer with a probe or even better an infra red temperature gun. Dial thermometers are rubbish and very inaccurate.

And can you measure the temperature directly on her basking spot? She may be a bit too cold or too hot. Basking temperature should be around 100-110. Are you using a thermostat to control the temperature?

And on to your UVB bulb.. what type are you using? Is it a long tube bulb or a spotlight type bulb? And what brand and strength is it? And how far away is it from her while she is basking? It should also always be positioned above her out of her line of sight as they can cause eye problems.

That's amazing that she's eating greens for you! My two both at over a year old are still not big fans of fruit and veg despite my best effort but you've got her off to a good start if she is eating it right away!

 

[BMaryS]

Thank you! My infrared thermometer actually just came in the mail. I was able to see that while the basking spot is 103, the ambient is actually a little bit low (75) so I’ll have to make some adjustments.

I also discovered that little Pippa is probably a boy dragon and not a girl like the Pet store said ? they told me that they could tell from his tiny pores on his legs. Yesterday I read that this isn’t a reliable way to sex, and when I lifted Pips tail I’m pretty positive there were two bumps and not just one. I’ll know for sure once he’s an adult.

Luckily Pip pooped the day after I posted this, Pip did poop. Unfortunately it was on me!

If you see this reply I do have a question about food. I’ve been getting mixed responses whether (since Pip is 5 months old) he should be starting to get 50/50 greens and insects or whether it’s still 80/20. Do you know the answer? Right now I’ve been operating on 50/50

 

[KatieMoo94]

That's great that pip/pippa has settled down!

At 5 months a beardie should be eating as many bugs as they want in 10 minutes twice a day up until about a year old but you should only dust one feed with calcium/vitamins. They have so much growing to do at this age so lots and lots of protein is essential for good growth and health!