Baby Beardie

[aprilb91]

I got my baby 2 months ago and I got him to eat fine and he was pooping. I was feeding him mostly baby food and small mealworms. Now he eats moist pellets with mealworms. My boyfriend bought some mealworms that were bigger, so he has been eating those with the pellets now. I dont know excatly when, but he hasn't pooped in atleast 1-2 weeks. He had alfalfa as substrate, I know he pooped atleast once a little before I switched to newspaper, that was two weeks ago. I've been giving him bathes in baby friendly warm armpit deep water to try to urge him to go. He still eats atleast once out of the two times I offer food. also I've only seen him drink water if I offer it with an eyedrop. and he's also been for 2 weeks. Help me!

[stephanbakir]

Welcome to the forums. Can we get pictures? Does he look bloated? Any personality changes? Are you SURE hes not pooping?

[aprilb91]

Well he doesn't seem bloated to me. I haven't found any poop. But I know that if he wasn't pooping he wouldn't be eating... and he doesn't seem unhappy though he doesn't get up on the log to bask, he usually stays in his cave or under the log.

[Lankyrob]

If you can give info about how he is kept, temperatures, size of enclosure, what uv etc etc then people can give more detailed responses, pics can also help.

[NennaMeerkat]

Would really need to see pics of him to tell if he is bloated. Also why are you feeding meal worms? Why not crickets? Crickets are better overall for beardies as they have less chitin and more "meat" overall on them.

How often do you feed him? How much are you feeding him? And as others have said details on his home, temps, setup ect.

[aprilb91]

The warm side of his tank is from 95 to 105 degrees. The cool is usually at 80 but he's always inside his rock/cave. I offer him food twice a day and i usually give him 4-6 pellets and 1 or 2 worms. The person that sold him to me told me to feed him mealworms, though i did buy crickets. The tank is pretty big too, I can't remember the dimensions.... i bought the tank and most of the stuff in a zilla starter kit at petco, which included all the lamps, bulbs, water bowl, tank, and alfalfa.
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[aprilb91]

]this is what the tank looks like minus the alfalfa... i put down newspaper and i took out the heating rock.
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[NennaMeerkat]

Just so you know I use and have used alfalfa for my bearded for a long time. Some beardies love to dig out pits to sleep in, or just dig in general. Alfalfa is really safe to use, especially for little guys like yours since the pellets are way to big for them to eat. Consider going back to it.

He doesn't look bloated to me, though someone else can say for sure. I have never seen a bearded in bloat to know what it really looks like. As for eating mealworms understand that most of what your dragon gets full on is the crunchy outside and not the protein he should be getting. Also the worms skin is hard to digest, which is why he could have problems pooping. Crickets are just better 100% around. And it will encourage excersize for him to "hunt" and catch his food. Which again will help in digestion overall.

Curious to know...how many worms does he eat every time you feed him?

Do you have a UV light on him? How long do you keep your lights on/off every day? Looks like you have a 40 gallon long which is good. Its basically the minimum a dragon should have for space through their life.

[aprilb91]

I do have a uvb light. I try to keep the lights on for 12 hours and off for 12. As for how many worms he eats I only let him eat up to 3 each day.

[vendettaseve]

Meal worms are trash for Beardies, mostly shell and not alot of essentials... I would switch him to small Silk worms and crickets, as babies they need the stimulation and the protein of live food. For us the pellets have always been the last resort for when our local shop ran out of bugs and theres no veggies in the house.

As far as defecating goes, if he hasnt gone for some time I would suggest giving him a fairly warm bath and letting him soak for a bit, it also helps to make the water somewhat deep and let him rest on your hand so he is not floating freely. Then gently lift his tail by the tip till his legs float off the bottom. Allows him to get maximum pressure lol.

Our beardie has always been a lazy pooper, will wait for his bath 9 of 10 times, the water relaxes the muscles in that area.



Edit: Hes a growing lizard, when you switch him to other foods, especialy crickets. Let him eat as much as he wants for about 10 minutes. When he starts ignoring them, hes full. And stay away from foods with alot of shell, aka Mealworms, real hard to digest that stuff.

[NennaMeerkat]

I would strongly strongly suggest letting him eat some crickets instead of mealworms. Normally you leave the crickets in the tank for about 15 min before taking them out.

Also I hope you are letting him eat more than just 3 worms a day! At his age he should be eating mostly protien from insects rather than greens.

[vendettaseve]

Originally Posted by NennaMeerkat

I would strongly strongly suggest letting him eat some crickets instead of mealworms. Normally you leave the crickets in the tank for about 15 min before taking them out.

Also I hope you are letting him eat more than just 3 worms a day! At his age he should be eating mostly protien from insects rather than greens.

Also on that note. NEVER leave crickets in over night. Will attack him and could potentialy do some damage. Also they will disturb his sleep.

[aprilb91]

I meant that I give him 3 twice a day. I do bathe him, but he always tries to get out, how warm do you make the water?

[aprilb91]

Yay! I got him to poop! I put hot to warm water in the sink and put hit in it, i rub him and then lifted his tail and he pooped! thanks for the advice guys!

[NennaMeerkat]

I hope that you will consider a diet change even though you got him to poo.