weird/undigested poops

[Sapphire]

My dragon has been having weird poops for a while now. Not every time he poops, but sometimes. Today it looked like whole undigested collard pieces wrapped in brown goo. Sometimes it looks normal except like there's some kind of mucus on it.

I soak him in warm water every other day for 15-20 minutes. His appetite is good, he always eats his salad and his worms, he loves to run around the apartment, basks like normal, and he poops almost every day...

He's not hiding or doing anything strange, but his poops sometimes come out undigested. I'm just worried that he's not getting the nutrients he should be from his food and will get really sick later.

age/size: 1 year 3 months, 21" long
lighting: reptisun 10.0, basking lamp (on from 8am-8pm)
feeding: collards, superworms, occasionally dubia (he eats maybe 8-10 worms, OR 5 worms + 1 roach each day, plus a salad)

When he was a baby he had some health problems and had to go through a pretty long course of antibiotics, is it possible his digestive tract is permanently screwed up from that? I hope not...

 

[AHBD]

What is his temp. at the basking site ? Also how soon after he eats do you let him run around [ By " run around, you mean outside of the cage ? There would be no high temp. to aid in digestion] He should have at least a couple of hours to digest his meal before removing from the tank. By the way, I can see by his picture that he is very " hefty". So, just a suggestion....Now is the time to reduce the live feeders to 2 - 3 times a week. This is really for the dragon's welfare, he is young and can be on his way to becoming too heavy and also fatty liver problems. The 25 % [ or so ] insects and 75 % veggies is appropriate at his size and weight. He's a very nice looking boy by the way.

 

[Sapphire]

The temp is around 105 at his basking spot. I don't let him run around outside the cage for at least an hour after he eats. Usually I'll feed him in the morning and let him hang out with me in the afternoon when I get home from work, so he has several hours to bask.

As for his weight, he looks fatter in that picture than he really is. I think he was puffing up a little bit 'cause I woke him up when I took the pic and he was kind of annoyed. I've been feeding him by the 30-50 bugs a week guideline. I remember reading that as long as they don't eat more than that, it's okay to feed them every day. He loves his superworms, so I'd hate to cut him down to only getting fed 3 days a week.

 

[AHBD]

I know, sometimes they flatten themselves down on the ground like that when they are not too happy at being disturbed. Do you know his weight / length ? At any rate, the number of feeders that you read about is just a generalization per week for an adult....for instance, 50 supwerworms or hornworms would be a bit much, they are fattier than crix + roaches. At any rate, the 2-3 times per week, or every other day is highly recommended, that is very realistic because beardies are not active as in the wild and can suffer ill health from too much protein and fat. None of my business really, but you could feed him every day, just half the amount of bugs he's on now. [ Again, just a suggestion ]

 

[Sapphire]

Well I definitely don't want him to get overweight. I just figured he would naturally lose some interest in his bugs as his need for them lessened. I guess I'll start feeding him less.

He's about 21.5 inches long, and I just weighed him... it said 668 grams but his tail wasn't completely on the scale, so maybe a little more. Is that healthy?

And do you know why he might not be digesting his food? His lighting is okay, right?

 

[AHBD]

Wow, he IS a big boy ! 600 -650 grams is probably tops for his size, so you are right around there. He will do just fine to eat about half the amount of insects per day, and load up on the veggies. And although some dragons actually do slow down on the feeders on their own, others don't. So, I would just cut back on the amount. His temps. seems good [ what type of UVB do you have ? ] so I'm not really sure why the greens are coming out like that. Could just be the way he chewed or the amount he had at that time. Maybe like when we eat a lot of corn, and greens as well....at times it passes through us kind of the way it went in.

 

[Sapphire]

I have a reptisun 10.0 tube UVB, about 6-8" from his basking spot.

Maybe that's all it is, because it's only sometimes he poops out whole leaves... It's just gross and makes me worry, because it happens a couple times a week. Maybe he just needs to not eat so fast... Or maybe I should make smaller pieces? Would that help? The pieces I rip up for his salad only end up about as large as the tip of my thumb, so it's not like they're unreasonably large, but maybe when he eats a bunch of them it would help if they were smaller? :/