Beardie hasn't pooped in over a week... :(

[sakasuvaki]

Hey guys,

I'm new to this site. Hopefully there will be lots of beardie lovers out there that can help me.

As for a quick introduction...my Italian leatherback beardie is named Yoshie. She is my little girl and I love her SOOO much. I purchased her May 16, 2010 at a reptile expo as a tiny little thing. I have many other reptiles with my boyfriend, including a leopard gecko, savannah monitor, lined leaf-tailed geckos, red eared sliders, a rough knob-tailed gecko, and a collection of crested geckos which we breed.

I've never had a problem with her pooping. When she was younger she would poop everyday (for a long time), a few months ago she moved to pooping every other day, and a week ago she hasn't pooped since last Tuesday! I am getting really worried. This past week I ran out of live feeders until the next expo where I can buy them in bulk for cheap, so she has just been getting her salad and supplements everyday. Usually I have her go to the bathroom in the tub so it's easy cleanup and doesn't smell and I can rinse her off. Also I could usually get her to go by rubbing her belly (a method I found out about online a while ago to help with impaction if needed), but I cannot get her to go! This is ridiculous. What can I do?

 

[Bill]

is she bloated if so she might have eggs mine will stop eating. is she digging around in her cage

 

[sakasuvaki]

Interesting. Do they lay eggs without ever having a male, like when they enter into maturity like some geckos I know of? She isn't full grown yet, either.

She doesn't look bloated to me.

She has never been housed with a male before. She lives by herself in her enclosure. Sometimes I do see her digging around in her play sand at night but she kind of has always done that to get comfy before she sleeps. I don't know if I would call that digging to lay eggs.

 

[Bill]

Interesting. Do they lay eggs without ever having a male, like when they enter into maturity like some geckos I know of? She isn't full grown yet, either.

She doesn't look bloated to me.

She has never been housed with a male before. She lives by herself in her enclosure. Sometimes I do see her digging around in her play sand at night but she kind of has always done that to get comfy before she sleeps. I don't know if I would call that digging to lay eggs.

How is she doing?They can lay without a male you will know she will be extremely active.

 

[sakasuvaki]

I left on Friday and came home and she had gone to the bathroom! Thank goodness. She hasn't gone since then and doesn't really have an interest in eating, while also acting kind of groggy. Tomorrow I'm going to give her another bath and encourage her to do a little swimming in it to get her moving and make her hungry and see if that works.

 

[Bill]

she sounds like she wants to brumate

 

[sakasuvaki]

Hmmm...that is strange. It isn't cold here. In fact, it is getting warmer every day. All her temps are correct and everything, but she usually chooses to be on the colder side lately. Brumation usually happens during the winter time...could she have chosen now instead?

 

[Max]

Just wondering if you figured this out? My BD is 8months old and went from every day to every 2 days and now every 4-5 days ans wow when she goes it's alot. she has her appetite and is still agressive with crickets. Basking side is 101 and she prefers 76 cool side. her color for the past 3 weeks looks dull like she is ready to shed but she is not shedding, very lethargic when not feeding.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[sakasuvaki]

Strange. I think we are basically in the same boat.

For now she has just been going not very often at all but she still ends up going. I watch her very closely.

 

[alivia werner]

since they are in a controled cage environment they sometime kinda choose brumation times so they both might want to also make sure when they do poo it looks normal

 

[sakasuvaki]

Wow. Okay.

So are there any special things I should do for her if she is brumating?

 

[alivia werner]

when mine brumates you just gradually turn off thier lights earlier and earlier say take off an hour for a couple days then another and another until its only like 5 hours of light you also start feeding less and when you get to that 5 hours no more food and make sure shee poops or else when she sleeps then food wont digest and will rot in its belly i cuz a hole out of a shoe box and put them in it and they might leave it the first couple times but eventually shell stay adn sleep then when shes finally asleep for more than a day cover the hole so theres no light to disturb her and just check on her every day and when she starts trying to get out shes done with her sleep but sometimes you just have to get them up after a month or 2 if she end up sleeping that long and then slowly bring it back to your regular lighting schedual hope that helps