Poop!

One of the question topics I get asked about the most is Poop. 

Today poop is especially on my mind because I've cleaned up poop in 5 different beardie tanks. So let's talk poop. 

How Frequently--- 

It depends on the beardie. I have daily poopers and weekly poopers. My big boy Max normally poops every 2 to 3 weeks. Don't assume that healthy beardies *must* poop daily. 

Babies are the most likely to poop daily or more than once a day. Older beardies may poop less frequently. The key is to pay attention to your beardies. Over time, you will see what is "normal." 

How is it Supposed to Look-- 

A healthy beardie poop should be formed with a distinct white part, urates. Urates are the waste products that come from the kidneys. Since beardies don't pee, the urates collect in their guts and come out with their poop. It's the same with most reptiles. 

Here's some examples of Good Poop-- 

See? Solid, distinct white. Sometimes there will be extra fluid, sometimes not. It depends on how much the beardie has had to drink recently. 

Here's some examples of Bad Poop-- 

Blood. This one made me call the vet immediately and take in this sample!

Unformed. Diarrhea. 

Partially formed. 

Blood tinted liquid. 

Some Causes of Bad Poop-- 

The key with poop is you have to wait for at least a couple poops. You need to see a pattern. Even with the poop with blood tinted liquid, I'd wait for two poops. 

1- What they ate: new foods, extra fruit, etc often cause loose/runny poop. This is one of the reasons I wait for multiple poops. 

2- Stress: a change in location, a trip to the vet, the power being out, a sighting of another beardie, or anything else stressful can make a beardie's poop liquid. 

3- Parasites: the two most common parasites in beardies are coccidia and pinworms. There are other problems including nematodes, Protozoa, giardia. All of these are diagnosed by a fecal test (a fecal float and/or fecal stain). You can buy the supplies and train yourself to do them if you are willing to buy a microscope for around $120. Parasites are most likely to cause stinky, runny poops. 

Note- most beardies have some amount of coccidia and pinworms and are asymptomatic (they don't have any problems with it). My reptile vet prefers to not treat for parasites unless there is a problem (like diarrhea or weight loss). Your vet may have a different opinion. Parasite treatments are oral meds that you give for a couple days and then repeat in 2 to 3 weeks. Easy treatment. 

4- Sickness: there are some sickness that cause diarrhea in beardies. The biggest & most common is the Adenovirus. These have to be diagnosed by a vet and treatments vary. Talk to your vet. 

No Pooping Causes-- 

A beardie who is too cold or too dehydrated or too stressed won't poop. After several missed poops, a beardie's guts can become impacted and constant pushing & straining to poop can rip the delicate tissue of the intestines causing the beardie to bleed to death. That's why it's important to keep track of poop. 

1. Heat: you must have a basking spot of 95 to 105 degrees during the day and an overall temperature of 75 degrees or above at night. If your temps are too cold, fix them n

2. Water: dry pellets, no drinking, dry food can dry out the poop making it harder for a beardie to push it out. Offer daily baths and wet veggies (like squash) until poop happens. 

3. Sand and walnut shell: these plug up a beardie's guts! BAD! BAD! I know "calci sand" is supposed to be helpful. It's NOT.  Use a solid substrate. Don't agree with this? Feel free to find another beardie blog. I will not argue about it. You will never convince me that sand/walnut shell is okay. The list of beardies I've lost because of sand impaction is over a dozen. I've had too many beardies die on me from impaction and it's a terrible way to die. 

How to Help Cause Pooping-- 

Offer baby food prunes or applesauce (about a teaspoon for an adult, half teaspoon for juveniles) every day until poop happens. 

Give daily warm baths, 10 to 15 mins at a time. You can even do twice a day if you want. 

Give your beardie a few drops of olive oil. Just once a day until pooping. 

Take your beardie to a vet. A reptile vet can give an enema to help cause pooping. 

Let your beardie run around. Activity can help induce pooping. 

When in Doubt-- 

As always, if you have a question or concern or emergency, contact a reptile vet! I'm not a vet. This is just what I've learned over the past few years. 

Black Beard Beginnings

We all start somewhere with our knowledge of bearded dragons. No one is born an expert.

Seven years ago, I bought my daughter a bearded dragon for her birthday. Lizzie (a boy) was the most docile beardie ever and served as my Etsy model for the first year. He was a good boy even though we didn't know much of what we were doing.  He was on sand for the first year and didn't eat high calcium greens. 

I remember the first time Lizzie's beard turned black. My daughter panicked, I panicked, and my husband looked online and told us Lizzie was either scared or hormonal (and not dying). Phew! 

Now I have a house of black bearding beardies. It's hormone season and all the boys are crazy all day, bobbing & black bearding. Dr Folland says beardies release pheromones and can smell each other. No kidding! I bet my house smells like crazy boy beardies! 

Black bearding is mostly used to show off or intimidate other lizards. It can also be a sign of fear or surprise (like if a bird flies overhead). Or it can also be seen on a really sick beardie. 

Anyways, what once took me by surprise and troubled me is now so normal it doesn't even phase me. 

So start where you're at and begin learning. I am STILL learning things about bearded dragons! Like the pheromones thing.  

How I set up UVB bulbs in my tanks

It seems I never have enough UVB bulbs to go with all the tanks in my house. For many months, I just used the bulbs and set ups that came to me with donated tanks. I finally feel like I have enough resources and enough knowledge to buy & use really good UVB bulbs. 

This is what I use. 

For my light fixtures, I buy the 18 inch under-cabinet fluorescent lights at Walmart for $9 each. I pop the plastic covers off and take out the regular fluorescent bulb. 

I buy ZooMed Reptisun 10.0 18 inch UVB bulbs from my awesome (sorta) local pet store RockStar Pets. You can also buy them on Amazon or any other pet supply store for $22 to $45. They are good for a year at the most. They fit right into the under-cabinet base. 

The back of the light base has holes where you can hang them on screws/nails, but I took these flower pot hooks and bent them into holders. These are only a buck at Walmart. 

Then I hang the lights (without the covers) off the back of the tanks so the beardies get max UVB exposure. 

I don't have lids on my beardie tanks so I can keep these hanging off the back without a problem. My rescue iguana Sancho keeps trying to escape so I had to put a lid on his tank, but I put the lid over the hooks. 

UVB works best if it is not filtered through a screen (either metal or mesh). There are coil UVB bulbs and I've used these before for my healthier beardies. For babies and sicklies, I use the long bulbs. There's a lot of research on the web about what type of UVB is best. If I had unlimited funds in rescue, I'd probably do mercury vapor bulbs (that give both heat & UVB) for my tanks. Since there's no such thing as "unlimited rescue funds," I have found this system to work well for me. I can get a brand new UVB light for under $40. 

Why I Choose NOT to Breed my Beardies...

Another Tragic Example of Needless Neglect

Vet Visit Results with Nubs

Here's the summary of my $168 educational vet visit today with Nubs:

When a reptile is severely malnourished, their bodies cannabalize their muscles & other organs in an attempt to get nutrients. If you suddenly introduce healthy food to them, it acts as a shock to their system and their digestive system shuts down. Nubs has signs of severe anemia, malnourishment, muscle atrophy, and kidney failure. Because I started him off with LaFeber's critical care formula right off, his body reacted with vomiting and diarrhea.

I will give Nubs saline injections for the next 3 days to get him hydrated again. Then I will force feed him a thinly made version of Critical Care for a few days. We'll just have to wait & see if his body responds properly the second time around.

So when you have a severely neglected/malnourished reptile, it's better to start them off small with eating-- fluids and possibly pureed squash. Even Critical Care or Repashy Critical Cal may be too strong at first. I hope to never rescue such a severely neglected beardie again, but if I do, I will start with very, very small steps for feeding.