wormy poop!

[jodiraemarie]

My kids recetnly got a bearded dragon from their grandparents and I am franticly trying to learn how to care for this little beastie. We've had our dragon for about 3 weeks now and have had no problems, she is starting to molt on her head, it is dull and grey and she has started rubbing on everything. She has a great appetite and has been eating crickets, wax worms, salads and commercial "dragon bites" we spray her every day with the vitamin spray and have gottent the cage temp and humidity at the levels recommended in "the books" She is abbout 4 months old. We call it a she but really have no idea of the sex yet.
So yesterday she started rubbing her belly vigorously in the sand, shaking all 4 legs and bobbing her head around. At first I thought she was having a seizure. This lasted a few minutes then she curled up on top of her log and went to sleep. A few hours later she made the most disgusting smelling poop I have ever seen. In it were HUGE wax worms! these were at least 4 times the size of the ones we had been feeding her. could they have been growing inside her? I have been told these were perfectly safe for her to eat and she loves them but now I'm scared to feed her anything alive. Today I fed her only the canned cooked crickets and salad.
Has anyone ever had this worm problem before? Am I doing something wrong?

 

[coastergirl946]

A rule of thumb with bearded dragons is not to feed them anything bigger than the space between their eyes, as that can cause issues with digestion, leading to more serious health problems. You may also want to start dusting her food once a day with a calcium supplement, as shaking is a sign of calcium deficiency. Warm water baths once or twice a day for about 10 minutes will also help if she is having a difficult shed.. make sure the water is warm but not too hot, and the water level is at her shoulder. What type of lights are you using in her enclosure? Does she have a basking spot? What are the temps in the viv?
Sand is also not safe nor sanitary. If you have been led to believe they should be on sand because they are a desert dweller, they actually live on hard-packed clay in the wild, and most beardies in the wild have never seen sand.
My boyfriend's dragon suffered 3 painful sand impactions (blocked his digestive system). After seeing what he went through, I will take every chance I can get to inform beardie owners that it is not an acceptable substrate. Seeing his dragon black bearding and trembling in pain with his butt swollen while trying to pass a sand impaction was awful to watch. Even worse, he collapsed in pain in my hands afterward with his eyes shut. It was not easy for me to type that.
I would switch to tile, repti-carpet, or non adhesive shelf liner. If you can't get any of those right now, use paper towels.

 

[catUK]

thats very strange- im sorry im not going to be of much help because i don't know why that happened but i feed mine wax worms and have never had that problem. However, the fact that she passed them is a good sign and as long as she's still pooing regulary shows that she is probably ok. It could be that she didn't chew them properly- i know my beardie is very greedy when it comes to wax worms and guzzles them up! like coastergirl946 said I would also advise to get rid of the sand- sand can cause impaction and it is not a good substrate to have for beardies even though the packaging says it is good. i would replace the sand with tiles which are fairly cheap and also helps to keep their nails trim. Don't be scared to keep feeding your beardie live food, just keep an eye on her bowel movements. I don't know whether you know but when feeding, make sure that you only feed 1-2 hours after lights on and no later than 2 hours before lights out, otherwise they can't digest their food.

 

[BeardedDragon6]

i do think it were the undigested worms, i heard on here that after every eating the dragon needs to be somewhere where its warm (basking spot,) or on the computer lol there its very warm , for about 2 hours? you should also switch to repti-carpet or a not slippery tile like what you use in the kitchen , im using the carpet from the kitchen its not slippery and my dragon loved to poop on the carpet in the kitchen so now its in his terrarium and he poops on it everyday nearly on the same spot , sand can cause impaction and after it can cause death.. and once i brought sand in the pet shop where were mites so i had to get it away, and sand is also not cleany when the dragon poops on it even if you scoop it out the bacterias are still in it and when your dragon licks the sand its even more worse for the dragons health

 

[jodiraemarie]

Our dragon is in a 55 gal. tank with a screen top. I have an 18in. reptiglo light across the top during the day as well as a white basking light for day. At night I turn off the flourescent light and just leave on a black basking light. There is wood to climb on in her cage high enough so that she can get to within 6 inches of the lights. I keep the basking lights over these areas. The temps inside are between 95-100 on the hot side and as our home is always warm it stays between 80-85 on the cooler side of the tank. We feed her in the morning shortly after we turn on the lights for the day after she starts moving around. She has a small water bowl in her tank that holds about 1/4 cup of water that she drinks out of occasionally. We feed her again and replace her greens again around late afternoon and then she has about another 4 hours or so before we turn off the lights. We have given her baths once a week since we got her so 3 in total now. I do dust her food with calcium powder and the worms and crickets I fed her were tiny, well within the size between her eyes limit. The ones she pooped out were HUGE! Maybe I'll chop the little buggers in half before I feed her any more, then I know for sure they're dead inside her. She really seems to love the cooked mimi crickets. Thank you for all the responses. I will pick up some reptile grass next time I get to the pet store. I had debated on getting the reptile carpet but then since I had read that they were a "desert" animal and lots of sites recommend sand I went with that. Any extra help would be great!

 

[Delshara]

I would recommend a Reptisun 10.0 linear bulb and to mount it inside the tank, not lay it on top of the screen. The mesh can and will filter out some of the UV rays that bearded dragons need. (Or you could cut a hole where the fixture is laying on top of the screen so that the rays directly enter the tank.) They also don't need any kind of light for nighttime. Hope this helps!

 

[nikkiperry2580]

Just 2 wks ago I decided that I'd had enough of the darn crickets, and both of my beardies decided they'd had enough as well, so I ordered 500 phoenix worms. Sabella LOVED them and did very well with them. Koche, on the other hand was pooping them out whole. I had scheduled a vet visit for the following day because I was concerend. He thought that maybe his system wasn't handling them and suggested not to feed them. Once I stopped it took like 2 days of poops and then he had passed them totally out of his system. Most of them were whole. So maybe that's your beardies problem?? I'm not sure....but I do know your not doing anything wrong. Every bearded dragon is so different from the next from sleeping habits to feeding and brumation. They can be quite the picky eater too. They may love one thing for months and then one day began to refuse that very same thing they loved before. :roll: I finally had to quit comparing my beardies to "Everyone Else's" and figure out what they like and learn their ways. I'm still learning, lol. :study:
Good luck, and keep us posted. I hope this helps!
Nikki

 

[DragonsNDoodles]

One thing I noticed is that you said your hot spot is 95-100. The basking area needs to be just a little hotter, around 105-110 for proper digestion. The cool side should be about 75-80 so your beardie can regulate his temps. As others have said, also, you should get a repti-SUN 10.0 tube bulb and mount it inside the tank so the rays don't get filtered out by a screen. Good luck!!