EmberTheBeardedDragon
Bearded Dragon Egg
- Messages
- 14
Hello,
I have had Ember for almost 3 months now, and he's (don't know gender yet, but I'm using words "he/him" because that is my guess) approximately 4 months old. For the last week or two he has been driving me crazy because (1) he has started pooping less often (used to be every day, now it's every 2-3 days) and at first I thought he was having impaction issues, but I think it's because he's getting older. (2) Also, Ember pretty much refuses to poop in the enclosure. The only way I can get him to go is if I give him a bath for about 10 minutes, which can be hard sometimes because he doesn't really like baths all that much. But I'd rather force him to take a bath longer than he wants to be than risk a chance of impaction or worse.
(3) One last thing I am worried about is that Ember didn't really grow for the last week or two. I have been keeping track of his growth, weight in grams and length in inches, every week on the same day for the last couple months. On July 28th, he was 6 inches and has grown about 0.25-0.5 inches every week. The first time I weighed him, August 18th, he was 20 grams. On September 29th, Ember measured 10 inches and weighed 41 grams. These values stayed the same the following week on October 6th, and as of October 13th, he weighed 42 grams and measured 10.25 inches. Compared to last week, this is only 1 gram and 0.25 inch growth. Should I be worried??
For context, here is info on enclosure/diet/other info:
Here is a photo from 2 weeks ago
I have had Ember for almost 3 months now, and he's (don't know gender yet, but I'm using words "he/him" because that is my guess) approximately 4 months old. For the last week or two he has been driving me crazy because (1) he has started pooping less often (used to be every day, now it's every 2-3 days) and at first I thought he was having impaction issues, but I think it's because he's getting older. (2) Also, Ember pretty much refuses to poop in the enclosure. The only way I can get him to go is if I give him a bath for about 10 minutes, which can be hard sometimes because he doesn't really like baths all that much. But I'd rather force him to take a bath longer than he wants to be than risk a chance of impaction or worse.
(3) One last thing I am worried about is that Ember didn't really grow for the last week or two. I have been keeping track of his growth, weight in grams and length in inches, every week on the same day for the last couple months. On July 28th, he was 6 inches and has grown about 0.25-0.5 inches every week. The first time I weighed him, August 18th, he was 20 grams. On September 29th, Ember measured 10 inches and weighed 41 grams. These values stayed the same the following week on October 6th, and as of October 13th, he weighed 42 grams and measured 10.25 inches. Compared to last week, this is only 1 gram and 0.25 inch growth. Should I be worried??
For context, here is info on enclosure/diet/other info:
- Dubia roaches usually fed 3 times per day, but sometimes I have to be away for school so minimum 2 times per day. These are dusted with calcium about 4 times/week and with vitamins once per week. I go through about 200 of the 1/4-3/8 inch ones per week. Ember also gets bell peppers and kale, occasionally carrots and other vegetables, once in a while a piece of fruit (but I know it can be bad for teeth, so really not that often). A few weeks ago I did have to feed him crickets because I ran out of roaches before the next shipment came.
- Enclosure is 55 gallons, there is a 2 foot 10.0 UVB bulb (T5 HO) and ZooMed basking bulb. Basking spot stays between 100-110 F during the day and cool side is 70 F. Now that it's fall, humidity has not gone over 40% and currently is in the 30s. At night temps stay around 65-70 F.
- He gets baths 3 times a week and last week shed his tail skin. Now it looks like he is going to shed the skin on his legs.
Here is a photo from 2 weeks ago