Poop Concerns

[VerriKerri]

Hello everyone!

Been a member here for a while but haven't had the need to post lately. I have a question about my beardies poop but first I will give you some backstory and tank set up since I know you'll want to know all that.

Dixie is a 6 year old beardie. For the last couple of months regretfully, she was not being properly taken care of. I had moved out of my house (personal issues with my husband) and I left him to take care of her which was a dumb mistake. She ate maybe every 2 months once a month just some crickets. Her temps were all off and she was not doing well. I recently took back over her care and she has been doing great. She's been getting baths every other day and is back on her regular diet which consists of dusted crickets, phoenix worms, and reptile munchies omnivore mix (which she LOVES and devoures.) She is always moving around her tank, basking and walking around the bathroom.

Her tank is:
-70g I believe.
-Reptile carpet and sand mat substrate.
-75w basking light (temp between 85-92 degrees f)
-Cool side temps 65-75
-Zoomed reptisun 10.0 uvb

Now onto my question. Getting her poop back to normal has been a challenge. The first few days after her normal diet she only had urates and no poop. Last week she had both but the poop was very small. The past few days she has been pooping sometimes twice a day and every time she goes it seems like there is water around her poo. At first I thought this might be diarrhea but I did some research and saw that it could just be her getting rid of excess water. I don't think she's impacted as she does pass urates and small poop without struggling and almost always poops in the bath but this morning she had this poo which looks a little weird. Her urates are very soft the other day she was walking and leaving a trail of white behind her while she was walking around the tank.

I'm just wondering if maybe I'm over hydrating her with the omnivore mix and the baths? Is she having too much greens and not enough protein? I'm trying to find a health balance for her. Any advice/info you guys could offer would be great. <3

This morning's poop:


Here's a pic of her set up:

 

[CooperDragon]

I don't usually see it as a bad sign when they have excess water in their poop at least for a little while. I'd rather they are well hydrated than dehydrated. It may take some time for her system to adjust to a healthy diet (or any diet change really). Her setup looks pretty good although I'd probably move the UVB light so it's sitting over the basking log next to the basking bulb if you can. I'd increase the basking temps a bit. The mid-top part of that log should be around 100-105 and I'd keep the bottom of it in the 90s. Cool side temps are OK though. Adjusting that may help her digest a bit more easily.

As far as her diet, is she getting fresh veges in addition to the omnivore mix? At her age I'd focus mainly on a variety of fresh veges for her. Lots of dark leafy greens and things like squash, green beans, bell pepper, peas, etc are good for her. The variety of bugs you're offering is good but I'd keep that to maybe 20-30% of her overall diet and try getting her used to eating lots of veges.

 

[VerriKerri]

Thank you for your reply!

I came home from work to find this,



Do those seem normal? That first one seems very big for her size and she didn't eat yesterday or today and I think it was because of this. I want to get her diet right so she can go back to having normal poops and not too loose or hard. I don't feed additional veggies aside from whats in the omnivore mix, I am posting the ingredients to the omnivore mix below.



So I should be offering additional veggies on top of this? I thought maybe I was giving her too many veggies and that's why her poop was so loose.

 

[CooperDragon]

That looks dry but I think it's all due to dietary changes really and may just take time to sort out. I'm not a big fan of the dehydrated/rehydrated food vs offering fresh veges. That may or may not be a contributing factor. The veges listed in those ingredients are good though and similar to what I offer as fresh options for my dragon. I'd find a routine and meal rotation that works for you and give it a try for a few weeks and see how it goes over time.

 

[AHBD]

Hi Verri, nice to see you posting again ! I just wanted to add that the basking temp. should be about 100.

 

[jjkima]

I personally don't feed my babies premade veggies. Adult bearded dragons diet is primarily veggies. My adult gets some superworms, or hornworms, or black fly larva 2-3 times a week. Every morning I give him chopped up turnip greens, mustard green or dandelion greens. With this a little green or yellow squash and a little green bell pepper. (GBP have a decent amount of vitamin A so not too much).
I change it half way through the day since it has a tendency to dry out. Fresh is always better! Your dragon's poops seems a bit dry, and dragons get most of their hydration from fresh veggies. I hope this helps!

 

[VerriKerri]

Hi Verri, nice to see you posting again ! I just wanted to add that the basking temp. should be about 100.

Ah, okay. I was unsure because it was getting really hot into the 100-105 area and I thought it might be too much so I switched out her light for a 75w from a 100w but I will switch it back. Thank you!

 

[Drache613]

Moved by Moderator from General to Health

 

[CooperDragon]

100-105 is just right on the basking surface. No problem as long as there are cooler areas easily available. Then you can just fine tune it based on how she reacts. If she basks a lot you can bump the temps a bit. If she stays to the side of the basking area then bring the temps down a bit. They all have their own personal preferences.