Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My beardie who's about 5 to 6 months old had a rather large poop today and the majority of it was undigested crickets. Is there something wrong with him...this is the first time it's happend. He/she is in a 40 gallond tank with a basking lamp, and 2 big uvb/uva bulbs and he'she is always active and still is right now.....is this a normal thing for them?

Could it be a signe of stress or something because i just recently put sand in the tank?

I recall my vet saying that it's a sign of parasites to have undigested crickets in his poop. But since it happened only once maybe keep an eye on it. If it continues, take the fecal sample to the vet. I'm sure someone will be posting with more expirience. Just a thought, did you feed him just before he went to sleep? They need a couple of hours to digest their food with the help of the heat.
Hope it helps. Irina

Well i fed him maybe around 3:30-4:00pm and i left at about 7pm and came home around 11pm to find a rather large poop with mostly undigested crickets in it.

Another thing i ment to ask was is it ok to feed them wild crickets? I live way way out of town, we don't use pesticides of any kind or any chemicals on our lawn that i know of. Could this be a problem?

Don't feed wild crix, they will wery likely be parasite-ridden, and your dragon can get sick. You can order online, it's not that expensive, depends on where you are. I pay about $14 for 500, a few extra $$ will get you a 1000 crix. Plus, there is a lot of options with feeders - roaches, worms. They are clean and healthy. Good luck.
Irina

Wild crickets are usually a different species. Harder shells, sharper leg spikes and more active. I would not recomend it.

As for the poop, I bet its because they are too hard for him to digest. The 'armour' is tough on wild crickets. Keep him very well hydrated for the next few days.
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1.1 Bearded Dragons
1.2 Maroantsetra Panther Chameleons
1.0 Long Tailed Grass Lizard
500 Escaped Crickets

Undigested crickets can mean a few things, most of which has already been mentioned, so I won't repeat the same thing. Make sure his basking spot is reaching appropriate temperatures (for his age, between 105-115F is good). Also, are you sure it's poop? I ask this as it is also possible he regurgetated. They sometimes do this because of parasites, improper basking temps (ie too low) or eating too much at once. If you are positive it's poo (ie brown and smells like poo, instead of mushy and more fluid than brown stuff), are the crickets actually whole crickets or just the undigestable chiten (exoskeleton)? If just chitin, you may be feeding crickets that are too large or too tough, in the case of using wild caught. Most feeder crickets are not the same as wild crickets (feeders are house crickets I think, wild ones can be black crickets and other species, but I am a bit fuzzy on what the actual specices are).

One thing you can try is add silkworms to the diet instead of crickets. These are soft bodied worms (catapillers) that are much easier to digest, have plenty of water, calcium, protien and other nutrients, are a bit higher in fact than crickets though for growing bearded dragons, this isn't as much a problem.
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PHLdyPayne