Reptile & Amphibian Forums

if a beardie was to eat some little pebbles from play sand wouldnt he poop it out eventually or it would stay in his system?

And herein lies the problem people have with sand as a substrate...

Some amounts of sand can pass through the digestive system and out with the feces. But some wont, and over time the sand that stays in your beardies system will build up...and it can cause an impaction.
-----
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

KB

It is very common for beardies to ingest some substrate in varying amounts when they eat (this is true for lots of reptiles/aniamls) - obviously they do not eat off plates or paper towels in the wild. With natural substrates it is not a problem in and of itself. Bearded dragons have been kept successfully on sand/dirt substrates by many people for some time.

If a dragon becomes impacted and that is actually verified as the cause of death/illness I would look to other aspects of my husbandry. Issues of hydration come to mind for one. I keep many of my dragons on sand/dirt and it is not a problem - not for healthy dragons.

Just my thoughts.

Good luck,

Ian

also, even more basic husbandry problems can lead to impaction. For instance, keeping the basking spot temps too low. I like to keep mine extra hot at the hottest spot (around 130f surface temp) because in the wild beardies often get temps hotter than we offer them in captivity (which is typically between 95 and 105f). Higher temps mean that their digestive systems can work harder and more efficient, which helps them push bad stuff through. I've been experimenting with my basking spot lately though. The setup I just made for him now gets pretty hot near the top, but not much hotter than it used to. I'm trying to figure out if he's avoiding it because it's just a little too hot, or because he doesn't like change. I think it will take another day to determine this.

A week or two ago my dragon started showing signs of impaction (he is now too...more on that in a second). I keep him on dirt that has pebbles, the occasional wood fragment, etc. in it, so of course when he first started acting impacted, I immediately blamed it on the dirt, or something with the basking spot. After a couple bathes he pooped and I was surprised to see that there was nothing in the poo...just straight up poop. Lately he's just not been pooping except about once a week, and I think I know why. he's a very stubborn lizard, and right now all he'll eat are red repcal pellets, and I think that his digestive system, since it's not naturally designed to digest grain, is having trouble with it, and that's why he isn't pooping or eating a lot. So now I have to ween him onto a better diet, which means the first step is to only offer greens for as long as he can take it before I'm sure he is eating them. Then start adding in crix once or twice a week, and repcal pellets as a treat.

So yeah, as I've found out, constipation issues are often caused by something else. Another thing to consider, my fat old mali uromastyx (a rescue) has been dealing with a pinworm problem (probably also my fault... a truely healthy lizard can live with parasites with no problem...some sort of stress in their environment causes them to stir up trouble). Those cause constipation, as well as runny stools when they finally do come out. Not a fun combination.

thnx for the feed everyone. how does running stool look like? is it very runny? or solid and a little wet?

it depends. Usually a normal stool will be a little wet when first...umm...made. But a runny stool is much less consistant. In bad cases it can have no form at all. Sometimes it's pretty gross, trust me on that one.