Will not stop running against glass and through poop

[Wryin122]

I have a year+ bearded dragon and he/she (I have tried to figure out its sex and am still not completely positive. It seems likely to be a girl.) will not stop glass surfing. She will poop and continue running around while smearing it everywhere - usually pooping twice a day. This has been going on for a few days now. She will not stop. I have put her in a Laybox (she came out of brumation at the end of February) but will not seem to dig and after a while start doing the same thing, so it might be that she is a he. She is not stressed at all, her underside is completely white. I am confused on what to do about this. It's a constant strain of cleaning her and half her terrarium twice a day - especially when I can't be home to do it right before or after it happens.

 

[CooperDragon]

With an older dragon, it's possible to train her to go to the bathroom outside of her tank which makes her happier and makes it MUCH easier to keep everything clean. Start by providing a warm bath at about the same time every day. I like to use a turkey roasting pan, but you can use anything that holds water, is easy to clean, and is big enough. Keep her in the bath until she poops in it. Then dry her off and let her roam around. It does take some time to get this routine down, but I've found that after they are trained, it is rare for them to poop in the tank and they will wait until it's bath time. I've taken this a step further with one of my dragons and put him in an area of vinyl floor which was easy to clean. I put his morning salad there and closed the door and waited with him. He couldn't leave until he pooped on the easy to clean floor of the mud room. After a while, he'd poop and then walk to the door. I can't say this will work for every dragon, but it sounds like it's certainly worth a try in your case. It keeps the poop out of the tank and allows for some morning energy burn off.

 

[Wryin122]

I have been trying to get her to poop outside of her tank since you posted that with no luck. I could have her bathing for an hour and when I put her back a half hour later she'll poop. It's very inconvenient and stressful, I don't know what to do since I am not able to be around her throughout the day. I caught her once before she pooped and drew her a bath but she still didn't go.

 

[Taterbug]

Can you go over your setup with us? Glass dancing a lot can meet something is not to her liking.

You can also share a photo of her bum with her tail lifted up over her back and someone can likely help confirm if she she female or male.

 

[Juce23]

Mine was doing the same thing.. The surfing.. Not the poop thing.. Running back and forth along the glass... Up and down on his one log trying to climb the glass.. I checked my temp and it was around 92.. I changed the bulb over his basking area with a stronger one, now reading around 105 and he hasn't moved.. In fact, he hasn't moved in over an hour.. I think he maybe just wanted to find a warmer spot.. Good luck

 

[LuvUrDarkAngel]

My beardie did this when he was about 2ish. The problem was he wasn't happy with his tank. I bought him a larger tank and rearranged it so he had more running room and it stopped. If you take her out of her tank for daily runs until you get a new tank it might help. Ciele used to run straight into the glass of his tank over and over, his color never changed to indicate he was upset but as soon as I got him a bigger tank it stopped immedietly. Good luck!

 

[ruben0311]

not saying that this is the case but my Fred does this to me... i'll find him running around like crazy, trying to hang from the screen top, running up the glass and everything in between... and whenever i see him doing this first thing i do is look for poop. lo and behold i find a nice stinky poo on his bricks and get it cleaned out. as soon as i am done cleaning he goes back to normal. my thinking? who likes living next to poop anyway right?! so Fred likes to tell me to clean his tank after he potties... likes to tell me in a very loud and intense manner... beardie - 1 , human - 0

 

[kingofnobbys]

Means I want out , or if a poo is present - I want that stinky thing removed NOW!.

 

[Ed707]

My first question is what are you feeding her? If it's mainly a vegetable diet then what kind of veggies and how often do you give her bugs and which ones? Pooping twice a day isn't a bad thing or unheard of but it might be that she's getting to much fiber or ate something or to much of something that's upsetting her stomach. I noticed phoenix worms were upsetting my lizards stomach, stopped feeding them and it seems to have helped out.

Tank size is another issue, idk the size of your tank but if it is to small then maybe she can't get away from her poop like she would be able to in a bigger area. I built my viv rather large and it seems to have helped with this alot for me. She always poops in the same area (right in the middle of her tank) unless she's stressed. It's not near her cool side hide where she sleeps and not near her hot side where she basks. She usually poops around 12 noon, me and my gf both work and can't be here everyday to clean up poop. We just lay down paper towel in her favorite spot and she seems to have learned to poop right on the napkins making clean up easy. She avoids her poop like the plague usually, I've watched her squeeze one out making sure to not get it on her legs and almost wipe herself on the napkin as she slithers away lol.

Could be temps or lighting issues to. If she's not asking out to go poop then it's something else so I'd double and triple check everything right with your lights and setup