Pooping problem....

[alcolton]

My beardie will be a year old later this fall, and she has been growing normally so far. But the last few days (about 4 or 5 of them) she hasn't pooped. She usually goes often, and it is a regular movement each time, but for some reason she hasn't gone. She did go a little bit yesterday-it was just the white part. She is also getting ready to shed I believe, half of her body is getting cloudy in color, so this could be making a difference on her movements. I give her warm baths and rub her belly, but nothing is making a difference yet.....

Any suggestions on what I could do to help her out?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Claudiusx]

Hi there,

Yes shedding can cause irregular bowl movements.

What does the daily diet look like?
Temps in your tank?
What substrate are you housing on?

-Brandon

 

[alcolton]

Daily diet consists of greens (kale, collard, mustard or turnip), carrots, crickets, and wax worms about every other to few days. She will eat a few bits of berries and fruit every so often but she isn't crazy about it. And squash sometimes too.

Her home as about 95% of the reptile carpet and a little corner of reptile sand (I didn't have it when she was younger) but now she likes to dig in it a little bit and lay on top of it every so often.

She has a reptile hammock to get directly under her basking light (where the temp gets in the 90's) but she doesn't really care to be that hot ever. She usually stays down on the rocks that are below the basking light that get warm naturally from the bulb. She also has a blue light that comes on at night, a reptile heating pad (under the carpet just for a little warmth at night), a ceramic bulb, and a uvb long bulb inside her home (zoomed). Temps during the day range on the "hot side" around mid 80's to 90's, "cool side" in the mid 70's to low 80's and then at night time down to about 70.

I also give her baths about 2 to 3 days, and she drinks while she is in the water.

I remember reading something on here about oil in their bath water to help with the movement...but I don't know about that....
Thanks for you help!

 

[KristenT]

Stress can also cause them not to poop regularly... at night, they need perfect darkness to sleep. If you've got light on at night (even if it's a night bulb that's black) they can still see light, and it will keep them up. Or half awake... they just won't get good sleep, which could be stressing yours out, resulting in the odd BMs. Unless your night temps drop below I think it's 60? (someone please correct me if I'm wrong here) you don't need extra heat at night. I know they don't live in stark barren desert in the wild, but they do live in some pretty dry and sparse areas, and if you've ever been in the desert, you'd be amazed... it gets COLD at night!
Personally, I'd try taking out all lights at night, and taking out the heating pad too, or putting it all the way under the tank so the glass and the carpet is between the beardie and the pad. It's not much of an answer, but it's something to try that might help.

If she's not warming up enough after eating, she might not be digesting her food well. I had to play around with basking spots for Taz before I found one he liked, that got up hot enough for digestion. It ended up being a stacked pile of slate I picked up at the local yard decor place.... it seemed at first that if the basking temps got too hot, he wouldn't bask, but I just had to find a good basking spot, hehe. That might also be something to try.

I would try these things first before oils in the bath...
Off the top of my head, I'm also thinking about foods that would be diuretics... but I can't think of which ones they are. Those ones will make her pee more, and loose more water in her body, which would constipate her, etc... you can see where that line of thoguht is going.

Last idea I've got, boils down to parasites.

All these are just ideas (from mainly a novice at beardies!) but you might find something to go on that works here. Hope it all gets settled!

 

[alcolton]

She did it! (she actually did it a few days ago, but I haven't had time to get on here and update) Thanks everyone for your advice!

 

[Claudiusx]

That's great news

-Brandon