bearded dragon Q?

Question

one of my bearded dragons eats its own "after product" is something wrong with him

well i feed it grinded up carros every day and crickets once a month and we feed him a ton of carrots and he cleans the food dish clean i don't know whats wrong

Answer 1

Well my two beardies have never ate their own after product... I do have to agree with your last 2 answers 100% though. Carrots are definitly not a good staple vegtable. Mine do love carrots but I don't give them to them vary often, because it binds the calcuim absorbtion into their bodies and since beardies are at an increased risk for metabolic bone disease this is very bad, expecially if you don't have the correct lighting and vitamins... UV lighting in the form of a flouresnt fixture, and Calcium powder with D3. Mine love mustard greens and Kale, but Collard greens and others are good too. Never give them Iceburg lettuce because it's pretty much just plain water and they will starve to death... Carrots have some sort of nutritional value I'm sure, but if all you lived on was meat then you wouldn't have enough fiber in your diet (hence the reason people on the Atkins diet have special vitamins), and if you were a vegetarian you would still need to eat beans for protien... I guess what I'm getting at is that no one animal or human can live off of one type of food and get all it's nutritional requirments... even dog and cat food is specially formulated to have differnt vitamins, protien, and fiber in it. Carrots alone don't provide enough of the needed vitamins for a beardie... actually no one vegtable will work you need a varity of veggies. Adults are supposed to eat 80% veggies and 20% crickets, and as babies it's 80% crickets and 20% veggies. Here's a good site for beardie info. You can join and then just look through some of the previous posts to get more info, or you can post a question. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/pogona/ So in short my answer is yes something is wrong with him... he's lacking a ton of necassary vitamins, and if you've got him on Calci sand and he is lacking calcuim (which he definitly is if you're only feeding him carrots) then he will eat the sand to get his calcium and it will become impacted and he will die... Calci sand is digestable if they get a small mouthful every once in a while, but if they eat it in large quanities it is not digestable. Hope this helps. My suggestion would be to do some more online research, and see what you come up with. Good luck with your beardie.

Answer 2

Sand is really only bad if you feed the dragon in the same tank as the sand, what I do is I take the dragon out of the sand tank and put him in a plastic storage bin (very cheap at Meijer) and feed him his crickets there. For fruits and vegies I simply put on a decorative peice that is off the ground, he doesn't take the fruits/veggies anywhere but all dragons are different. So I'm not sure about others. But there is no impaction! Now for the drowning one, bearded dragons are from the desert, as you know there is not much water in the desert. Do not put a deep bowl of water in there, only the drinking water. A couple times a week I take my dragon to the bathroom and fill the sink a little ways then watch him swim so if it looks like he is going to drown just pick him up. I have never had that problem though, just bathe them for a little bit. Hope this helped!

Answer 3

It's not normal behaviour for beardeds as it actually is for some reptiles. With a diet of primarily carrots it may be the colour of the droppings that is attracting him but he also very likely nutritionally deficient as well.

You really, really need to add much more variety to his diet.

Carrots are very low in calcium and fairly high in oxalates which bind dietary calcium and make it unavailable for use by your dragon. It also results in the production of oxalate crystals which can cause kidney damage. I think it is only a matter of time before you start seeing serious side effects from the current diet.
Start by adding a variety of greens such as collard, dandelion, kale and mustard greens. There are numerous sites on line for bearded diet info.

Answer 4

Please tell me that is a typo that you only feed carrots daily and crickets once a month???? You are starving your beardie to death even though you are feeding him. He needs a more balanced diet. Crickets daily, fresh greens daily things like red leaf lettuce, collard greens, mustard greens, Kale, Romain lettuce, turnip greens. Stay away from spinach as it binds with calcium to prevent absorption of the calcium by the animal. You should be offering greens every morning and then the crickets in the afternoon.
Your dragon is eating his own excrement because he is needing more nutrition and is trying to get at undigested food particles. Please change his food before it is too late and he dies do to lack of nutrition.

Answer 5

THAT has to be the most disgusting thing I ever did hear! you must either
1. not be feeding it the right stuff.
2. not feeding it enough.

If you still have problems with it, take it to the nearest PETCO, to find one near you go here:

http://www.petco.com/Page.aspx?PC=storelocator&Nav=2