Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My dragon, Pogo started to worry me cuz he hadn't deficated in almost 2-3 weeks. He gets a normal 93-98 degree basking spot ( any hotter and he don't like it and will stay away), he gets normal hydration from his greens and veggies, and sometimes I hydrate him with a dropper with water. I would like to say there is no problem with hydration. So if heat and hydration is fine what would cause such a long time between stools? I actually resorted to using Nature Zone's, Worm Guard to help aid in his movement and a 20 minute warm bath. His last couple defications have been drawn out like this so is there anything else to look for?
-----
Keith Ecklund II
Northeast Ohio
-----------------------------
1.0.0 Bearded Dragons
0.0.5 Fire Bellied Toads

np
-----
0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

np
-----
0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

He is a full grown beardie. 21", 512 grams, 1 1/2 yrs old. Well he was on a substrate of sand for a while, and now he's on reptile carpet. I know the pros and cons of the sand and he always did good on the sand and usually ate his crix when they were on rocks. Now that he's older he doesn't eat many crix and usually is on greens.
-----
Keith Ecklund II
Northeast Ohio
-----------------------------
1.0.0 Bearded Dragons
0.0.5 Fire Bellied Toads

When was Pogo's last fecal check? A mild case of internal parasites can cause constipation. Have you read my page on Constipation? It's at
Constipation

Two to three weeks is a long time between bowel movements. You might want to start bathing Pogo twice a week to get him to go more often since the last bath did the trick.

Also, you can add some fiberous foods to his diet. Papaya is a great natural laxative and most beardies can't resist the taste of fresh papaya. And there seems to be a connection about feeding silkies and making them go more often. Has anyone else experienced this? So you might want to steer clear of the chitinous prey like mealies and supers.

Good luck with Pogo and let us know how he does.

~Veronica
-----
Beautiful Dragons

____

Signature file edited; [phw 8/31/04]

yea I know....It's been a while from his last fecal. His last one was fine when the albon treatment for coccidia was completed. I know, I know get it checked! Trying to get the funds available, but it's the fact that the vet closest to me only accepts saturday appts and I've been on mandatory overtime for the last 2 months. Plus a 1 hr 10 min drive! Sucks!! Will get it done first thing when I have a Saturday available. Other than that he's eating fine and active. I heard that the Nature Zone Worm Guard I've been giving him gets rid of parasites and parazap but I don't have a credit card to buy it online. Anyone got any to send me and I'll send a money order? haha!
-----
Keith Ecklund II
Northeast Ohio
-----------------------------
1.0.0 Bearded Dragons
0.0.5 Fire Bellied Toads

more and more I'm realizing that reptiles do better when given everything in gradients, including basking temps and humidity. I set my beardie's tank up so that the basking spot gets up to 130 or 135 directly under the heat lamp, and so the further he gets from it, it decreases. He usually hangs out around 100 degrees on the basking spot, but often he will go right under the bulb to warm up quick or aid in digestion. I'm working on the humidity gradient right now. I keep my beardie and my uro on soil because I find it to be the best substrate medium for both species, since it's something they'd naturally have and use in the wild. I'm trying to find just the right thing to use for my beardie, but I want to have a really low flat hidespot that he can dig under...basically just something set on top of the soil. That way, when I put water in the soil (about 2 times a week....it keeps it together and the top layer is dry in hours, so now, it won't cause high humidity all over the tank unless you go overboard), that hidespot will retain moisture and humidity, so my beardie can go there if he needs higher humidity. I suspect they use similar things like that in the wild.

My uro on the other hand has something very close to a real burrow in her cage. When I get her new cage done I'm going to load it with about 8-10" of good soil and let her construct her own burrow. Uros are intreging because they come from such a hot, dry climate (her basking spot temps are as high as 140 or 145), but after being out only a few hours each day, they retire to burrows way below the surface that are very humid. That's something I've been trying to recreate in captivity.

From what I have gathered parasite problems and problems with impaction and constipation are a result of the conditions we keep them in in captivity. If we give them everything that they would naturally use in the wild to overcome these problems (like gradients of everything...especially having a basking area of really high temperature to go to). A lot of people I have talked to on the subject testify that the only times they ever had parasite or impaction problems were when they were keeping their animals in sterile environments with temps that are comparitively low.

I don't expect people on here to take my word on it and go and do everything I've been talking about, but it's just food for thought. I personally don't think the sterile way is necessarily the best way.

I don't believe that most of us have the ability to create a "sterile" environment, but I would like you to clarify something for me. Are you saying that a sterile enviroment causes parasites? I'm sure that I must have misinterpreted what you said.

Sorry, I was being very general. What I meant was that often an overload of parasites comes from stress, and one of the primary stressers is being in an environment that is completely foreign to them and/or does not meet their needs. This is typically what a sterile environment is. I used to use setups that I would consider fairly sterile, and I always used to have the mindset that "if I keep it as clean as possible, it will help him get rid of his parasites". After a while of realizing that his parasite problems weren't going away even with treatment, I realized that his "sterile" setup is basically completely inadequate for his needs, so I decided I need to give him more of the things he would have access to in the wild, which includes soil substrate (they tend to prefer packed soil instead of sand in the wild from what I hear), and an ability to pick from a great range of temperatures and humidities.

Once again, this is theory, so it's not like you really have to listen to me on any of this. I will say though that since I've switched from a sterile setup to a setup that better meets my beardie's needs, I've noticed he's changed a lot, for the better. I've also been talking to some other people that are now using these types of setups with their reptiles, and I've heard that the only times they've had problems with parasites and things of that nature were when they were trying to keep them in a sterile environment. By the way, sterile doesn't necessarily mean completely clean, I'm just generalizing. I'm basically referring to the way dragons (and other reptiles) are commonly kept today.