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Beardie Hasnt Pooped Since I Got Him A Week Ago

Johnstud56

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I got him a week ago, hes 4.5 months old... a german giant and 18" long Hes eaten 40-50 superworms and 1 dubia and hasnt had a bowel movement... whats going on?? He seems like hes trying to now go into brumation... Ive tried massaging him and soaking for longer periods of time with no luck.
 
I'd suggest trying to get him to eat some greens or moist fruit. Mine all seem to have a BM within 24 hours of eating a good portion of wet greens or melon. I wash everything and leave it as wet as it will stay, and often lay them in a shallow saucer of water for the lizards to find.

He may be suffering from impaction from such a large number of superworms. Because of the extremely high chiton-to-meat ratio, superworms (and regular mealworms) are hard to digest and not considered an ideal food for bearded dragons. Impaction can be fatal.

Keep his temps up to allow him to fully digest his heavy meals. I keep mine (four adults) at 90-95f under the basking light and the cool side runs 72f. Seems right, they split their time between the two places pretty evenly.

I feed mine about 50% dubia and 50% greens and fruits.
 
Although younger BDs eat a much higher percentage of live food, he should be getting at least some greens now, then more and more as he gets older.

You can put some finely chopped kale, collards or mustard greens in a shallow bowl, then drop a few small dubia or crickets in. Try to keep it 'fluffy' so they get under it and so it's easy for the BD to pick up. The dubia/crix will create motion and he will either grab the greens reflexively, or get them accidentally with a bug.

You should be dusting his live food items with a calcium/vitamin D supplement, and these supplements seem to taste fine to the lizard, so sprinkling a little dust on some of the greens may help fool him into eating them.

For those slow to catch on, I'll put a little water in a shallow dish, then put the cut up greens in/on the water and just leave them in there for a few hours at a time. The water helps keep the veggies from wilting and very often curiosity/boredom will drive them to try some.

Different greens have different flavors. My lizards will eat mustard greens and collards, but prefer kale, so you might try a few different piles to see if he will eat at least one type. Kale is good due to the texture (easy to eat), but not the best food from a nutritional viewpoint. Anyway, they usually get used to eating greens pretty rapidly and most love them.

If he will eat from your fingers, you might try offering very thinly sliced yellow squash, watermelon, apple (no skins/rind) or strawberry as a treat. The sweetness and moisture usually appeal and mine will act very excited when they see me with something colorful.

The general rule of thumb with bearded dragons is that they should not be fed live food items that will not fit between their eyes. This is because their digestive systems cannot handle bulk amounts of 'roughage', especially when young. One might assume their natural food items are smaller, softer bugs, caught far more infrequently than being fed mass amounts in captivity.

In my opinion, he has had too much of the wrong food (most LPSs have NO clue) and we should be thinking 'damage control' at this point. Mealworms and superworms are both a little big for him and when we combine the prey size with the chiton content, he may be unable to fully digest them.

If your guy has eaten 40 superworms in the last week, I'd be VERY concerned about getting that load of undigestible chiton (the worm's exoskeleton) through him. Introducing moisture and some vegetable matter will help. I'd continue soaks in warm water as a stool softener and try to get him to eat something moist to work on it from the other end. Mine will eat some baby foods, and you might try some various fruit/vegetable types to see if he'll take moisture that way. Squash, peas or spinach might appeal to him. Another thing that can help is to provide a very small amount of olive oil. It seems tasty and many lizards will lick it off a dropper, or it can be applied to greens if you can get him to eat some.

If your lizard begins to show signs of difficulty using his back legs, many times as bad as almost total paralysis, it is almost certain he is impacted. If this happens, a trip to the vet is probably the only thing that can save him

As far as brumation, it is unlikely that this would happen at 4-5 months. Far more likely is that he is just laying up with a full belly, trying to digest what he has. Keep him warm to aid digestion, if he stays cool at this point, it will delay digestion and may make matters worse.

There is a huge amount of care information over at BeardedDragon.Org that you may find helpful. They even have a 'Beardie ER' forum where immediate problems are often solved.
 
One last comment:

I noticed in your other thread where you mention keeping your BD on sand. Opinions vary, but it is generally accepted that loose substrates are a bad idea for BDs. Because their tongues are sticky, it is very difficult, perhaps impossible, for your dragon to eat anywhere except the dish without ingesting sand. Sand substrate, or any loose substrate really, also presents an impaction hazard as it is accidentally ingested and may not pass through.

Again, please do not rely on the advice given by pet shops. They're in the business of selling sand, easily bred food items and replacement animals. The (lack of proper) care given a Bearded Dragon by the average pet shop is criminal.

It is hard to overstate just how high the risk of impaction can be, and just how serious it really is when it occurs. The BD mentioned in this thread has lost the use of his back legs and is probably already fatally impacted from inappropriate food items and/or substrates.

I'd strongly suggest reading a few of the care sheets online if you're looking for best results. You'll likely see contradictions, but if you look around enough, you can weed out the bogus stuff.

Good luck!
 
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