Bearded Dragon Bowel Movement Question -- PLZ READ

Today I finally got him to poop... 30 minute belly massage didn’t work... he hasn’t eaten a single green since hes been here so I thought maybe lack of water. When he would open his mouth basking on his rock I shot 1ml of water in his mouth... 1 hour later he pooped, extremely large. In the bowel movement were 3 very hard pieces of calcium Im guessing... not sure, they were very hard to squeeze. What causes this buildup? Lack of UVB? Maybe his light wasn’t close enough? They were just real hard white pieces that looked like tylenol pills but a little bigger.

I got him last Wednesday so its been a week and 3 days. Anyone have any ideas. He eats about 10-20 superworms a day, he ate 1 dubia roach... not sure how the calcium buildups or what they were got so hard, but im guessing he was probably impacted from them? Any ideas what I can change to prevent this in the future? Should I not dust with regular calcium and use the calcium with d3... I do use a UVB light but I think the light wasnt close enough to help. Its now close enough and kept on 3-5 hours a day. Calcium with d3 or without?

From what I read he wasnt probably getting the water needed. Ill just try and give him 1ml of water a day when hes basking to make sure he stays hydrated till I can get him to eat greens.

There is no need to massage him,shoot water down his throat or anything else to make him poo when you want him to. all you need to do is provide a heat gradient with proper temps.

Then it will happen when he wants, not when you decide it is time for him to go.

You can soak him in a shallow tub of water about every 5-7 days, he will drink water that way. you have to find out what type of greens or veggies he likes to help keep him hydrated.

Good luck.

Ok I was only doing that as I was worried... his urates were rock hard and pretty big. The heat in his cage at basking spot is 100-105. I soak him every 3-4 days and he eats supers and dubia.

Urates should be hard too. It should appear to be like chalk. Solid white. You need to worry when the urates are yellow,gold, red or copper colored. At that point, hydrate and keep cage very very clean. I don't let poop dry in the cages here, as it dries the parasites hatch. You can pretty much get rid of coccidian parasites by keeping a sterile environment.

If you want to keep your dragons safe you should be aware that many parasites can be completed avoided or eliminated by keeping sanitary feeder and feeding conditions as well as sanitary dragon keeping. Like never feeding insects when there is poop in the cage (there should not be poop anyway), but insects always go straight for poop and nibble on it (or walk thru it), then your dragon eats that insect, that is bad. Another tip is making sure the dragon does not eat the shed skin. Dragons will walk in their poop, parasites and possible bacteria can build up on the shed skin, when the dragons eats that skin (its natural response) it can also be bad. I never have sick animals, out of the 40-100 here at any given time; I never see sick dragons, except an occasional respiratory infection.

Bath daily if a must, feed healthy insects (if you give crickets water they will bloat), many insects get beneficial enzymes from eating raw foods (cucumber, kale, etc) and they will pass into your dragons, this can also encourage your dragon to eat its greens. Consider a probiotic, you can get the tablets in the vitamin section of your department store, crush it up and dust your crickets with it. It is very healthy for your dragons and you can do this as much as you want. As long as they get calcium and a full-spectrum multi-vitamin!

what i do when mines don't go even tho he always do once a day but on rare occasions he might not go for 2-3 days as soon as i put him into a warm bath he goes instantly

Originally Posted by DNA Dragons

Urates should be hard too. It should appear to be like chalk. Solid white. You need to worry when the urates are yellow,gold, red or copper colored. At that point, hydrate and keep cage very very clean. I don't let poop dry in the cages here, as it dries the parasites hatch. You can pretty much get rid of coccidian parasites by keeping a sterile environment.

If you want to keep your dragons safe you should be aware that many parasites can be completed avoided or eliminated by keeping sanitary feeder and feeding conditions as well as sanitary dragon keeping. Like never feeding insects when there is poop in the cage (there should not be poop anyway), but insects always go straight for poop and nibble on it (or walk thru it), then your dragon eats that insect, that is bad. Another tip is making sure the dragon does not eat the shed skin. Dragons will walk in their poop, parasites and possible bacteria can build up on the shed skin, when the dragons eats that skin (its natural response) it can also be bad. I never have sick animals, out of the 40-100 here at any given time; I never see sick dragons, except an occasional respiratory infection.

Bath daily if a must, feed healthy insects (if you give crickets water they will bloat), many insects get beneficial enzymes from eating raw foods (cucumber, kale, etc) and they will pass into your dragons, this can also encourage your dragon to eat its greens. Consider a probiotic, you can get the tablets in the vitamin section of your department store, crush it up and dust your crickets with it. It is very healthy for your dragons and you can do this as much as you want. As long as they get calcium and a full-spectrum multi-vitamin!

Very good advise here guys, write this down. On topic CJ, I have started using Spirulina in my dust, they don't mind it at all. I was worried they wouldn't like it but they still lick the extra dust up off the newspaper

can you show us a pic of a bad stool?sometimes my dragons urate is soft once in a while i see a tad yellow on the end not the whole thing tho and was told it was normal