(SOLVED)Possible Impaction? I'm growing concerned...

[Eriatarka]

Hello, Everyone...

While this is not exactly how I was hoping to introduce myself as a new beardie owner... Here it is (haha)...

Here's some background on my girl..
I am a first time reptile owner who recently had a (approx) 4 year old, female beardie given to me 4 days ago. Some friends had gotten her and two others for free from someone who simply didn't want them anymore. Now, I have always wanted a beardie. I simply adore them. So, needless to say I was extremely excited and spent days researching how to care for her properly before bringing her home. In doing all of this research I found out that she may not have been all that well taken care of by her previous owners. She was fed strictly mealworms and lettuce, had rabbit pellet bedding as substrate and lived in a 50gal. tank with the two others (a male and female). So when I went to buy all of the things to get her set up, I made sure to get reptile carpet, a 55gal. tank (all her own) and began feeding her crickets and mustard greens (I haven't had a chance to get squash yet, but it's on my list). She's seems quite happy, as far as I can tell.

The Problem:
As said above (unless you didn't read that bit) I've had my 4 year old beardie for 4 days. I feed her live crickets and mustard greens daily, and have let her soak twice (decided to do this every other day). The friends who gave her to me dusted her crickets last Friday, so this Friday I will do so again (the calcium dust I bought says to do it once a week). In the 4 days that I've had her, she has not had a bowel movement and I have no idea when her last one was. Because she was housed with two other beardies, we have no idea who's poo was who's. I had read that a little bit of apple is a good natural laxative, so I tried adding a small amount to her daily greens. She didn't eat any of it. Today was a soaking day, so I tried to stroke her belly a bit to help work the possible impaction out, but she refused to hold still long enough for me to touch her much (she's seems to love swimming in the ever so slightly deeper end of the tub).

Other than the possible impaction, she appears to be doing fine. She has a healthy appetite for her live food, looks physically fine and energetic. Am I just being a needlessly concerned newbie here?

Ty in advance for any advice/responses!

EDIT with additional info: I know someone is going to ask about this, so here is the lighting/heating situation... Her lighting is a 30" Desert 50 UVB T8 Flourescent Bulb and her basking lamp currently has a 100W bulb. The warm side of her tank seems to maintain a regular 95 degrees F. This seems just a touch on the cool side to me, but her temp gauge is a dial one from Petco, so I'm not sure how accurate it is (I'll be buying a digital one soon).

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. She lucky to have you as her new owner! You can try plain applesauce with a drop of olive oil. Also she needs calcium 3x a week.

 

[Eriatarka]

Thanks for the response! Looks like I'll be dusting her crickets tomorrow, haha. I hadn't found much but scattered opinions on how often food should be dusted for adults, so I assumed that what was on the bottle was the answer. I'll buy some apple sauce when I get off of work tomorrow as well. Is there such a thing as soaking them too often? I know it can help with bowel movements, so would it be a bad thing to feed her a little applesauce tomorrow then soak her after she already soaked today?

 

[Taterbug]

Considering her poor diet until now it should be safe to dust all her crickets for the time being. What dust do you have? There is calcium dust and vitamin dust. Vitamins are once a week.

Also, daily baths are fine, same day as the applesauce/oil and a little after it's given would help. It's great that she likes to swim, that will probably move things along more than a belly tub anyway.

 

[Eriatarka]

Well, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to the store for her apple sauce today as I was very sick. I'm feeling much better though, so I'll pick some up tomorrow. She still hasn't had a bowel movement, so I'm going to follow through with the plan of apple sauce/oil and a bath.

A thought occurred to me as my boyfriend and I were discussing this possible problem... Will beardies continue to eat a normal amount if they're impacted? She eats a healthy amount of her greens and crickets every day. Today I even had to give her a few extra crickets as she ate the first bunch in under 5 minutes was clearly still hungry. I would think that like with most creatures, if they're backed up, they won't want to eat as much.

To answer your question, Taterbug, I have Repti Calcium (calcium carbonate with D3) for dusting. I had also bought her some little mushy, moist pinkish colored things as a treat.. I can't find the box and I can't remember what exactly it was called; They have to stay moist so I put them in a ziplock. But I do know that I bought them because the box said they were full of vitamins. She doesn't seem to want to eat them though.

 

[sue09]

I have to say that the oil idea is brilliant within a few hours of giving to my beardie he had a poo,so now if he doesnt go for a while its the 1st thing I use. Hope he goes soon.

 

[Taterbug]

I think beardie bites are the soft ones? I'm not sure, I don't use commercial food.

In my experience, sometimes they will keep eating even if nothing is coming out, especially if it's a food they like. Hopefully someone else has advice about that, I don't know really if you should slow down on food or not until it starts coming back out...

Canned pumpkin (no spices) and squash baby food are other options to the apple sauce as well, and I think even prunes. Even just a few drops of just the olive oil if you can't get the food. I've gotten a few licks off the nose, or dipped veggies into the oil and tricked them that way. Or a plastic spoon as a last resort.

Good luck!

 

[Jcdaniels2]

I think she didn't have anything to push out, and that's why she was eating so much, but I don't know I hope she has one soon

 

[Eriatarka]

Well, gave her a little apple sauce with just a drop of olive oil and as soon as I put her in the bath, she finally went! And holy cow, there was a lot in her. I also had no idea that it smelled sooo bad! I guess it makes sense, though, crickets are pretty stinky themselves. I was a bit worried about the look of it at first, but I looked up what it should look like on google, and it seems it was perfectly normal.

Thank you so much for the help with this. Now I know, if she doesn't go for a bit, I have a healthy solution for her.

She's seems very happy and energetic right now. I think she's feeling a lot less.... weighed down. Ha.

 

[Taterbug]

I'm glad to hear it worked! I bet she is feeling worlds better now! I'm always shocked by the ... volume of it sometimes.

A word on the smell... I won't lie and say their poop won't stink, but it shouldn't be utterly revolting/room clearing. If it is revoltingly stinky and continues to be you might want to consider having a fecal check run for parasites.

 

[Eriatarka]

I'm not too worried about the smell. My boyfriend didn't even notice it. I just have a very sensitive nose; I gag when I clean the litter box lol. But I will definitely keep that in mind. I want to keep her as happy and healthy as possible ^^