Pooping "spot", nowhere else...and it's not in her cage

[jgolden4958]

My beardie is about 6 months old and she had been pooping fine until now. The poops themselves look good but she won't poop in her cage. We made her a fake rock for in the enclosure and she really likes it but now she won't poop in there. Has anyone else had this problem and how can I fix it? We can't get her out of the cage for pooping time everyday. I even tried giving her a warm bath and rubbing her belly thinking it would make her really have to go.

 

[Sauzo]

Harley is like that too. She used to go poop in her cage and no where else. But ever since she turned into an adult, she will only poop on my bed. She lets me know when she has to go by pacing the cage back and forth usually every 4-5 days. Then I have to lay down an old towel and fold up a stack of paper towels and set her down on the bed and then within about 3 mins she raises her tail and I shove the pile of paper towels under her butt. All this is insulted by the old towel as a backup measure. No idea how to really fix the issue other than maybe leaving your beardie in the cage till she goes poop. For me its not too much of an issue as its only every 4-5 days and she does her business within 3-4 minutes so it doesn't take long.

 

[saden99]

I liked it when my beardie didn't poop in his cage. I think he got used to getting a bath every other day and just did his business there. Then when I built the outside enclosure he would always go there or the bath. Never in his cage. It was great. Instead of cleaning the whole enclosure twice a month and spot cleaning almost every day I just put the poop down the drain or left it (the outside enclosure was over the lawn).

He's gotten back into the habit of pooping in his enclosure and it's disappointing. He usually does it when I'm not there and then runs around with it making a huge mess and a huge cleanup hassle. Ughh.


As to pooping in the cage all I can say is try just leaving her in there for a reasonable amount of time until she poops. If she has to be taken out for a bath or some other reason then so be it, but leave her in there otherwise. I don't know if you can necessarily train them to poop in a specific spot though. It seems like they just go where it is most comfortable or until they just can't hold it anymore.

 

[CooperDragon]

Cooper used to poop in the tank until we set a schedule for him and trained him to poop at about the same time every morning. Eventually got it to the point that he would poop on a paper towel in the breakfast room every day before he got his food and that was super easy to manage/clean up. I consider it helpful and "Trained" to not go in the cage but rather in a designated spot.

 

[jgolden4958]

It is a lot cleaner looking for the cage but on days when we feed them and both of us go to work for the day I don't want her holding it. She usually goes right after breakfast but yesterday it was close to 8pm and she still hadn't gone. I got her out and she walked to her spot and went. I'm just afraid that those days when we aren't here she's gonna be in pain. If I held my poop all day I would be.