Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My sons 1 1/2 yr bearded dragon has not eaten crickets in about a month and a half. He will eat only a little of his lettuce (which he won't eat anything mixed with it) and he will eat a very little baby food.
He is still very active.
He also is not pooping. He will go a few weeks without going. He went once last week and it was like he urinated also. He's never done that before.
He just wants out of his cage to run around and look out the window. If he isn't out he will rub and scratch his cage to get out.
His skin is also very very dry.
Please help.
Thank you very much.

Has he been getting water?

Does his skin look wrinkled?

Has he lost any weight?

He's probably not constipated, there's just probably nothing to get rid of if he's not eating!

Any additional info will help.
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Rob Talkington

Has he been getting water? Yes, he has

Does his skin look wrinkled? No, but underneath is yellow and his skin is very very dry. So much so that he hurts me to touch it.

Has he lost any weight? No, but, his tummy looks a little bigger today.
I also felt underneath him and about a fingertip above the middle of his legs is a hard area. Not sure if that's supposed to be there or not.

Was he taking any meds for parasites lately? Yellow fungus can become a problem when beardies take antibiotics and lose all of the good bacteria along with the good bacteria.

Right now you've gone beyond my experience with beardies but take a look at this web page and see if that might shed some light on the situation. If not, I'm sure someone else here can help you out a little more.

Yellow Fungus

Good luck with him! I'm sure you'll get it figured out soon with the knowledgeable people that frequent here.
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Rob Talkington

The part that is weird is him not eating any crickets at all for so long.
He would eat 20-30 a day. Now none at all. He even lets them climb all over him with no interest.

Did the yellow fungus info look at all familiar?

Does he have a hide in his cage?

Another thing that comes to mind is brumation but from everything I've read the beardies aren't supposed to be that active during brumation, even a semi-brumation.

I've also read a couple of other people here indicate their dragons have been acting kind of funny about appetite without any visible signs of illness. It's been attributed to the strange weather this winter.

I can tell you my dragon hasn't had as much of an appetite for the last month and hasn't lost any weight at all. But he's been eating at least a good amount every other day and still goes about every other day.

What exactly do you mean about the skin being dry? If you pinch a small part of it on the side does it appear to stay pinched or go back to it's normal shape??

I'm not sure about the hard part you have mentioned but I think it's just a part of his intestine, maybe where there's a urate waiting to be expelled.

Have you tried soaking him in warm water for about 10-15 minutes?

When you mentioned it was like he urinated was it just liquid? Have you seen any urates (white material) when he goes?

Was the hard part off to one side or just in the middle?? If it's off to one side it may be a kidney and that may have something to do with the "urination" you saw.

What kind of supplements have you given him in the past? Does he have access to UVB? What are you temps at, both basking and ambient?

I'm just taking stabs at all of this but any of the above questions you can answer will help others who know more than I do figure out what's going on. Especially if you tell more about your setup.
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Rob Talkington