My brothers biggest baby bearded dragon is possibly impacted. To my knowledge he has been feeding them "small" crickets, no bigger then the width of their mouth. Most of the time I pick the crickets up for him, so they are the right size. It has somehow become impacted though. The poor little thing looks like its in abit of pain or discomfort when it tries to "pass". It kind of wiggles its rear end abit and only a clearish fluid comes out. Any tips on helping him get his track cleared? He is my favorite of his little guys and I really don't want to see him hurting and getting ill from this.

Soak him in a warm bath. Then while he is soaking, rub his belly from his chest to his vent sotfly. If he is impacted this should help loosen it up. Some times the warm bath itself will do the trick. I am sure others will have suggestions also.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

First step is a warm bath, just over room temp. This sometimes relaxes the dragons and helps them go. Check cage temps and humidity. Keep us posted.

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What substrate does he keep them on? Are you sure that food, or indeed anything, is impacted. As suggested already, a warm bath should help, if the dragon is constipated or impacted. If this doesn't help, and you are certain that the dragon is impacted then you need to think about a vet.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

We tried the warm bath thing, but I didn't rub his belly like mentioned. We just let him sit in the water for a few mins. They are on a white Estes brand sand substrate. My brother thinks he is impacted, because he hasn't pooped for a couple days. It appears from time to time he is trying to go, but seems unable to. I'm going to try the rubbing its belly softly in warm water trick and hope for results.

Does he have the use of his back legs, is he walking freely by himself?

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How old are the dragons? It is a bad idea to keep young dragons on a particle substrate like sand.. with any particle substrate there is always risk of impaction, but it is even more likely with a younger/small dragon.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

i agree about the substrate. as a general rule, i keep all of my baby lizards on paper towels, and even my adult geckos. for my adult Bearded Dragons, i use alfalfa pellets, but that's beside the point.

i would recommend switching to paper towels or you could also use craft paper, butcher paper, or even tile or slate. that way you and your brother won't have to worry about the little ones ingesting sand.

also, don't be afraid to leave the fellow in the water for more than "a few minutes." put him in there and let him sit for, like, 15-20 minutes. my dragons love taking baths, and I give them to them all the time

other than that, the only thing I can think of to do that no one else suggested is you could give the little guy a few drops of vegetable or olive oil--that might help soften her up and help her go.

good luck, and do let us know!

lola

He has taken out the sand now, and is using news paper. We have both been trying to give it a soak/bath but it will usually start trying to get out within 3 or 4 mins. I think my brother has read around abit and found that vegetable oil idea, as he has tried it. He is also feeding it baby food and abit of deluted strawberry-kiwi gatorade. I think it was the sand that was getting in his system, because my brother says he sees sand coming out when he tries to poop. I'm not sure if we are helping any, but I hope so.

I think it was the sand that was causing the impaction. After feeding him baby food and plenty of liquids he finally passed yesterday. He lost like half his body weight in that dropping. Hopefully he starts eating and getting back to the lively little guy he usually was. I helped my brother pick up their soon to be new home, once he gets the new lighting and heat sources figured out. Its a pretty massive enclosure, around 170 gallons if it were a aquarium. I'll get some pics once its done, should be pretty nice.