I'm worried about my dragons, I haven't seen them poop in a few days. They are in separate tanks in different rooms, I got them recently. Both have been in a mix of regular and vita sand , which is why I'm getting concerned. I'm going to the store for slate tiling tomorrow morning.
Currently their diet is kale, collard greens, bok choy, bell pepper, carrot, cucumber, zuchinni, freeze dried meal worms, and about 10-15 live crickets a day. They are both young adults.
I've given them warm baths and tried massaging them, but they haven't gone.
They seem otherwise healthy, they are looking and acting pretty normal.
Is their something in their diet I should change? What should I look out for as far as impactation, I'm really worried about that.
When did they get off of sand?
They could be impacted possibly. You can get some sugar free applesauce & canned pumpkin
to mix together along with a drop or two of olive or coconut oil. Try to get that into them a
couple of times per day.
Are the crickets smaller than the space between their eyes?
I hope that they aren't impacted, but it is definitely a big possibility. Let us know how they
are doing.
I'd bet they are impacted, a combo of the sand (Vitasand is Calcium sand, which is lethal to beardies, it turns to cement rocks when it gets wet, please remove all the sand, disinfect, and just put paper towels down until you can get a permanent substrate), and the freeze-dried mealworms. They are horrible for them and have no nutritional value at all. They contain no moisture at all, and are basically like feeding them cardboard, and are notorious for causing impactions, especially freeze-dried mealworms, live mealworms cause impactions so the freeze-dried mealworms are almost certain to, especially with the sands. Please only feed them live insects, they get most of their hydration from their live insects so freeze-dried insects have no purpose but to cause health issues.
If you could please answer Tracie's questions above that will help too, but I'm guessing too that they are impacted and need fed laxative slurries and then given warmer than average baths.
So first I have great news, they both pooped today! I'll be continuing to watch closely though and giving them the pumpkin and applesauce for a few days, just to get back to normal. That and the warm baths really helped, thank you so much for that advice Tracie!
Also I had no idea about the freeze dried mealworms, thank you SO MUCH for that info Ellen.
I'm removing the sand now, replacing with paper towels until all the black Friday stuff calms down and I can make it to the hardware store for slate tile.
The crickets are usually smaller than the space between their eyes. I've had a couple that may have been bigger but no more than 3 of those within the last week.
Again thank you both so much for all the advice. I am so relieved to finally be figuring all of this out, and making sure I'm taking proper care of them!