New Beardie... Loose Smelly Stools??

[Randall]

Hey!

We have recently bought a new BD. (We sadly lost our Kafka about a month ago, due to a genetic illness RIP .)

Our new BD is called Randall, he is a blood red and gorgeous. Randall was born in July, so he is around 5 months old now. We bought him from a breeder and we have had him for just over a week. He settled in well and is becoming more and more used to us. When we got him home, he smelt really bad.... I think the breeder had just been spraying him and not bathing him. Anyway, he has a bath once a day now and smells much better However, since we have had him, he has not produced a soild stool. His urates are OK, not too hard; but his stools are offensive!! Very watery and smelly.

Randall has greens everyday, mainly water cress, romaine leaves and grated squash. He is feeding Crix every other day. Randall is eating well and seems to be enjoying his food. His food is dusted with Calcium and we dust with Vitamins 2/3 times a week. We check viv temps everyday.... all seems well.

We are due to take him to the vets after Christmas. Since losing Kafka, we are super vigilant and want to make sure we do everything right. I had read on here that loose stools could be anything from parasites to change in diet.

Just wondered if you could offer any suggestions or advice?

Thanks

Lindsey, Ben and Randall

PS - here are some pictures of our beloved Kafka and our new little Randall.

RIP KAFKA

RIP KAFKA

 

[dragonfanatic4454]

First off, sorry for your loss. I have no idea what I would do if I lost any one of my dragons. It would devastate me. About your dragons poop (yah I said it ) it seems like it could be watery because of two reasons, his diet and his once a day bath. First lets go over his diet. At five months old, eating greens is great! you should be very happy your dragon eats greens at this age as a few of mine took until they were over a year to eat their greens properly. Eating greens everyday can and will cause loose runny and smelly stools. Especially if you let your greens sit in water to keep them wet and you hydrate your dragon this way. Another thing I noticed from your feeding regime is that you only offer crickets every other day? At 5 months old, your little guy is still growing and needs all of the protein he can get. I would start offering crickets or roaches to him every day maybe even multiple times a day if he will eat them. Still offer the greens in the morning, but after those are gone, offer the crickets. This may soak up some of the extra moisture from the greens.

Ok now for the second thing. Giving your dragon a bath once a day may be too much, but isn't a bad thing. I have one dragon who will only go to the bathroom in the water which means I give her a bath every day. But she also provides solid well formed stools everytime. Bearded dragons not only can get hydrated from drinking water, but they also soak up water through their vents. This water can come out when they go to the bathroom producing a more watery loose stool.

One more thing. You say you dust the crickets 2-3 times a week with calcium and vitamins. You don't mix them do you? If you do, seperate them from now on and try and get on a schedule of some sort. I use a 5 times calcium, 1 times vitamin, 1 nothing dusting schedule. Makes it easier to remember how much you have given them as far as dusted feeders and while you little guy is still growin he is going to need more calcium.


If you don't see any dark spots from stress on your beardy, the things I have stated above may be the cause of the watery loose stools and not parasites which would save you the money from taking him to the vet. If his condition does not improve after changing your feeding regime, then I would say a vet visit was in order then. But for now, it sounds like it will just take a minor tweak to your feeding schedule to get those less smelly solid poops you are looking for. Let us know how this works out for you and hope it helps! :mrgreen: