compacted?

[guitarsage1]

my wife and I just got a juvenile beardie after our adult died. we have had a shortagemeal worms of mini mealworms and had to feed it medium size worms he ate two in two days and has not pooped the last day or so I've been cutting the worms in half and feeding it the juice. I'm just worried that its compacted. and if it is is there anything I can do to help it.
thank you
sage

 

[renich]

HI and welcome to the forum.

Well, mealworms are not the best food source for bearded dragons. Their outershell is difficult for them to break down and digest. Mealworms have been led to impaction, but since you have only had your beardie for a short time, it is hard to say.

I would give him daily warm baths. A good soak helps if things are not moving through properly.

Consider switching your proteins to crickets, durbia roaches, superworms, phoenix worms.

Also, are you offering salad daily?

 

[corrine]

Be sure your not offering superworms to a dragon smaller than 16 inches long.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Okay... I've seen this many times.. now.. I ask why?
Anyone actually tested this out ?
All mine are longer than 16", so I am limited by this alone.
I have fed them, once to my leos, but they didn't seem too terribly interested, preferring the roaches instead.

Just an idea.
Janie

 

[guitarsage1]

HI and welcome to the forum.

Well, mealworms are not the best food source for bearded dragons. Their outershell is difficult for them to break down and digest. Mealworms have been led to impaction, but since you have only had your beardie for a short time, it is hard to say.

I would give him daily warm baths. A good soak helps if things are not moving through properly.

Consider switching your proteins to crickets, durbia roaches, superworms, phoenix worms.

Also, are you offering salad daily?

yes been offering kale and cucumbers and apples all cut up very tiny, but he or she doesn't seem interested yet. but I still offer it. it is still pretty small I would say 6 inches or so. I'll try the baths. thanks

 

[zebraflavencs]

May not want to offer apples either . Apples have an appetite suppression property.
Janie

 

[Craiger]

HI and welcome to the forum.

Well, mealworms are not the best food source for bearded dragons. Their outershell is difficult for them to break down and digest. Mealworms have been led to impaction, but since you have only had your beardie for a short time, it is hard to say.

I would give him daily warm baths. A good soak helps if things are not moving through properly.

Consider switching your proteins to crickets, durbia roaches, superworms, phoenix worms.

Also, are you offering salad daily?

yes been offering kale and cucumbers and apples all cut up very tiny, but he or she doesn't seem interested yet. but I still offer it. it is still pretty small I would say 6 inches or so. I'll try the baths. thanks

Kale, while okay once in a while if offered with other quality greens like turnip, collard, dandelion and mustard, is high in oxalates. Oxalates tend to bind calcium. If calcium gets bound, not only does the reptile not benefit from proper absorption while basking under a UVB source, you run the risk of kidney issues...including impaction. Personally, I rarely feed kale. There are far too many other beneficial greens readily available to me. Do you know if you have access to the quality greens I mentioned?

In addition, cucumbers and apples are not necessarily the best to offer our beardies. Cucumbers, while a very good water source, lack much in nutrition. I do offer these on occasion, but I make sure they're mixed with better veggies.

Then there's apples....while they CAN be fed, I've recently learned that they harbor bacteria. I can only assume that is still possible one digested and still within the beardie's system. I've decided that, once again, since there are better foods out there, apples will never be offered to my beardies (or their feeders) again. Though it's been a long time since I've offered them.

If you need a good source of nutrition, I've found this link to be one of the most beneficial and informative: click here

 

[renich]

I have to agree that they are not the best salad mix you can offer. Craiger points you to a great list of nutritional info. Some better greens are collard greens, mustard greens, parsley, carrot tops (the green part), bok choy. And some veggies are snow peas, bell peppers (any color), squash, sweet potato, butternut squash. To name a few.

 

[staylor]

I have found that my beardies love foods that are red. Every other day I mix in red bell peppers, this seems to be their all time favorite. It gives them a good amount of ingested water and they eat all their salad on red bell pepper day. My staple salad is collard greens and butternut squash, with rotated veggies mixed in daily. They both seem to love it. Even my baby,4-5 months old eats all his veggies. I also mixed in kiwi everyday for about a week when getting the baby to eat salad. The sweet taste of the kiwi tricked him into eating his greens. Now that he has tried them he loves them.