Hi everyone,
I'm running into similar problems to the original poster. I have a female beardie (Bernie) who is 8 months old. She is a little chubby (per a recent visit to the vet) and has a good appetite for roaches, crickets and hornworms- she also eats a fair share of veggies (collard & dandelion greens, various squash, and assorted other veggies and fruit) usually in the morning. She doesn't eat as many veggies as I would like, and prefers meat, but I'm trying to introduce more variety and have reduced her meat availability (reduced to feeding once a day/every other day). She's in a 50 gallon tank, with side and top vents. Paper towel substrate. The enclosure has two logs (one big, one smaller) under a 125 Watt MVB bulb (highest basking temp = 115F), a ReptiSun 5.0 (will soon upgrade to 10) on the cool side of the tank (temps down to ~75F), some decorative plants, a hide (that's now too small for her, but she literally never used it), and a reptile hammock. I use a ceramic heat emitter at night- cage temps range from 75 to 85, where she usually sleeps she stays in the low to mid-80's at night.
She had a run-in with Coccidiosis a couple months ago- she was a little lethargic and wasn't eating as much as normal, and stool was getting a little runny at times. So I brought her to the vet. They said she was very healthy, but had Coccidia and gave me a two week treatment of Ponazuril (two doses, one week apart). I was very good (I think) about cleaning and disinfecting with 10% ammonia solution (let sit for 20-30 min) throughout that period so I think (fingers crossed) we got rid of the bugs, but I haven't had an official fecal test done yet (I know, I should get on that and am planning on it).
Anyway, I went on vacation 3 weeks ago, and had a friend look after her for me. He had an ample supply of veggies and Dubia roaches to feed her. The problem is, I think I got a bit too many roaches, and some of them were getting pretty big. I told him the rule about not feeding any bigger than the width between her eyes, but I'm not sure about how stringent he was on that.
So I got back the Friday before last (Oct. 24), and he said she had a big poop that day. I took her home that day and everything seemed good... but, she didn't poop for a week (she pooped on this last Saturday, after several days of warm
bath massages and feeding a bit of olive oil). The poop was about normal size. When she was younger, she pooped *every* day, so even a few days without seemed like a problem. I've noticed that as she's getting older she seems to be going maybe once every 3 or 4 days now, which I'ver heard is normal? But not pooping for a week is definitely longer than I'm used to.
To continue, after that decent sized poo, I also then started feeding her a bit (a few drops) of Prune baby food. And, she had another little poop this morning (pretty small). But, she still hasn't pooped what I would expect for a week... She hasn't seemed overly lethargic (still her quirky and active self as far as I can tell) and her appetite hasn't really reduced at all throughout this whole thing. So, my primary concern is- is it still at the point where I should take her to the vet to get it checked out?
My vet is like 30 min away, so in addition to saving money on an Xray and vet charge, I'd prefer to not put her through the stress of the ride over to the vet if possible... I had scheduled an appointment to get her checked out tomorrow morning, but canceled when she finally pooped.
