Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What are the signs of impaction?

not defecating.

My dragon only goes about once a week, and we've had the vet check him for impaction do blood work and everything else, and they say he's a very healthy dragon, he just doesn't go to the bathroom often.

So also good signs are if they stop eating and or become lethargic, but if the interval between a defacation is longer than usually,it's a good idea to have the vet check them out.

Even though there is a lot of talk of impactions, it really only happens under certain circumstances. Basically, if you have your dragon on wood chips, calci sand, crushed walnut shells (lizard litter) or other such substrates, there's an increased chance. But you still really have to either be feeding your dragon crix on it or have a dragon that likes to lick it or eat it. Regular sand is fine to use, and quite safe for adult dragons as long as you don't feed them on it and they don't lick it constantly or drag their greens through it. Young dragons have a highly increased chance of impaction on anything put paper towels (or newspaper or the like), and repticarpet. I would think that there would have to be a few times that a dragon has come impacted even if you were feeding them in a different tank and everything, but you don't really hear about that.

later