How Often Should a Bearded Dragon Poop? New bearded dragon owners will be wondering this because sometimes new bearded dragons can be stressed because of their new environment or a different diet than the one they had at the pet store.
Sometimes bearded dragons won’t poop properly for a little bit and most owners can get scared of this thinking they are screwing something up.
There are a few types of poop you might see during your bearded dragon’s life
Your bearded dragon’s health can easily be determined by their poop. Even with humans doctors will ask you for a stool sample.
Types of poop
- Bloody poop
- Yellow poop
- Healthy poop
- White poop
- Black poop
- green poop
- Runny poop
In this post, I’m going to go over all the different types and what they mean and also what to do to prevent it from happening again
How Often Should a Bearded Dragon Poop?
urate is the white or yellow portion of the poop itself and it is healthy.
Bearded dragons should be pooping around 1 – 2 times a week depending on their age
Babies are going to poop more. Babies, in general, are growing fast and ingesting way more food so they are going to get rid of more waste
Juveniles will poop a little more around every two days, sometimes every 3 days again depending on the
Adults will go around once a week
Hydration and environment will play a role in how often they poop. If your beardie is constantly dehydrated then you will notice they won’t poop as much.
You need proper hydration in order to eliminate waste
Sometimes you might find that your bearded dragon is not eating. incase that is something that’s happening here is a guide for you
Sometimes a change in temperature can mess with a bearded dragon and cause them stress. Even moving their tank around can cause stress.
one thing that will affect the frequency of eliminating waste is sickness and over-hydration.
Too much water will cause diarrhea. That can make your beardie feel sick because the body is trying to eliminate all the excess water
One time my bearded dragon had a parasite. This affected his ability to poop as well. He actually ended up not pooping much at all which worried me. Stress levels being too high can cause them to slow down waste elimination as well.
A stressed bearded dragon will have a black beard and will get aggressive. They will nip and bite at you. Be careful because if they do bite you they can draw a bit of blood so just be careful
List of things that cause changes in their poop
- Stress
- diet
- water either too much or too little
- age – young to old they poop less as they get older
- UVB light can mess with them to as they use heat to help them digest
- moisture levels too high
- moving the cage around
- creating too much loud noise
to think about what the natural environment would look like and be like in the wild. Many things are going to cause stress in the wild.
To reduce that stress make sure things are calm for long periods of time.
Make sure they get to know you. If you pick them up just be gentle and calm with them every time and they will know you’re not a threat to them.
Healthy Bearded dragon poop
First, let’s talk about what healthy bearded dragon poop is going to look like.
poop will be brown and firm with White or yellow Urate
urate is the white or yellow portion of the poop itself
Funny enough and I learned this right after getting my beardie is that bearded dragons don’t actually pee.
They actually secret Urate
This gets rid of other kinds of waste and buildup that might be in the body
You want to have consistency with your bearded dragon’s poop
otherwise he could be sick and you obviously want him to be healthy
If you notice inconsistencies often he could be fighting some kind of infection or maybe he is stressed. Just pay close attention
Bearded dragon Yellow poop
Yellow poop simply means there is too much calcium in their diet. Many owners can go too far when it comes to calcium supplementation because they’re trying to avoid Metabolic Bone Disease
Calcium toxicity can happen and will cause issues in the digestive tract. Poop can tell you many things about your own health if you’re willing to look
Too much calcium will eventually lead to liver damage as well so its a big issue if left without change
All you need to do is reduce the calcium intake
it’s also important to know that calcium requirements are different with age
I feed my adult bearded dragon calcium every week. I dust his insects with it.
The issue can come into play when you do the calcium dusting and supplements and then feed them food that is already high in calcium itself
Lighting can also be of concern. you should have UVB lighting in the enclosure but you should make sure it doesn’t cover the whole tank.
This would overexpose them to too much calcium. Bearded dragons will bask in their lights when they need it. They need to be able to move into the light when they need it. That light and heat will help with digestion too.
You will sometimes see a bearded dragon look really flat like a pancake. This is them trying to absorb as much light as possible
The lighting itself actually provides them with Vitamin D which itself helps absorb calcium which is why you see it in human supplementation as well.
Too much vitamin D can be bad so just make sure everything is in balance
Green Bearded Dragon Poop
Poop that’s green is normally just from the green leafy vegetables they are eating. Sometimes you may notice that it’s yellow and then green next week or something.
Yellow does mean too much calcium and you should reel it back but then next week it’s green and you’re like “what the heck!”
You’re trying to balance the right diet and it can be a pain in the butt but once you find the right balance it’s easy.
Green is not a problem at all.
My vet did mention something to me about green poop on rare occasions which was that it could be liver disease or hemolytic anemia. If you think this might be the case and they are acting oddly then contact your vet.
Runny Bearded Dragon Poop
This is usually caused by Over-hydration which leads to dehydration as the body tries to eliminate excess water from the system
This is scary because of how dehydrated the beardie can get in a short amount of time
Too much water will cause this along with too much fruit and parasites
Bearded dragons should be eating around 60% Vegetables 30% insects and 10% fruit
Too much fiber will also cause runny poop as well. Dial it back a little and make smaller adjustments
Bloody Bearded Dragon Poop
Blood can mean a couple of things like parasites or some sort of internal bleeding which is obviously serious. i would still bring your beardie to the vet just to make sure it’s nothing serious
What you’re looking for in this is how consistent is the blood in the poop?
if you notice that week after week you see bloody poop take them to the vet.
There are cases that you might notice red if they’ve eaten red fruits such as raspberries but you should only see that once in a while
you want to make sure it’s nothing serious
What happened to a friend of mine with his beardie was they were eating foreign objects from the substrate he had. It was the wrong substrate to use obviously and the bearded dragon was pooping blood.
He changed the substrate and everything was OK but over time that would have caused major issues that would have required surgery to fix
White Bearded Dragon Poop
This means your bearded dragon is dehydrated
dehydration is usually going to happen if the tank is too hot and obviously if your bearded dragon hasn’t drank any water in quite some time.
Do not leave this untreated. Many reptile owners do this and they will think “oh it’s ok”
dehydration can be fatal if left long enough and bearded dragons are tiny little things. They are used to going long periods of time without water however that doesn’t mean you should neglect their water supply.
I’ve seen that before and it’s not good
Most of your bearded dragon’s water is going to come from their food and water bowl but you can mist them if you want to.
Many enclosures including the one I have, have trees inside them. The leaves can get sprayed and then your bearded dragon will drink from them. This is what they do in the wild
Another thing you can do is put them in a bath for about 10 minutes and their skin will rehydrate as well
from there you just mist them and give them a little bit more water until their poop is normal again
If it happens over and over again take your beardie to the vet. They could have some sort of infection or parasite
Black bearded dragon poop
last on this list we have black bearded dragon poop
This is almost always a result of too much protein
I’ve been guilty of this before especially when the beardie is young. When they’re young they need much more protein but they will actually poop more often too.
so when they’re adults they will poop less often so you need to dial back the protein
I stick to this
- 60% Vegetables
- 30% protein
- 10% fruit
play with this because sometimes bearded dragons can be picky. Sometimes during some weeks, they might refuse certain foods more often.
Now if you notice that your bearded dragon is still eating normally and they still have black poop for a while then they may be suffering from impaction
Impaction is when a blockage happens. when food is just sitting in your digestive tract (this goes for beardies and humans too ) it will just rot more and more which is why it’s dangerous.
Eventually, it will be reabsorbed into the bloodstream and can make your beardie sick (humans too)
symptoms of impaction
- constipation
- trouble walking
- weight loss
- buldges at the impaction point (usually on the belly)
- refusing food
- Several weeks without pooping
- regurgitating their food
- lumps
How to make a bearded dragon poop
Put them in a warm bath and rub their tummy. If they don’t like the sensation of the rubbing just let them bathe in the warm water
They might nip at you or they might show a black beard if so just let him be and make sure the water isn’t too deep for him
Add soft food to their diet for a bit and watch what happens over the next week
How long can my bearded dragon go without pooping
1 week is your go to for this. Now the only exception is Brumation.
The Longer your beardie goes without pooping the more it will hurt
if you notice your bearded dragon doesn’t poop for 3 to 6 weeks or something you should contact your vet
This is a major sign of constipation and it could be impaction. If that is the case that could lead to digestive issues and tears down the road.
The one major thing you can change is obviously diet. If the diet is too full of protein then you should change the diet to include a little more fruit and vegetables
That will ensure that fiber and water are getting into the system which is important for moving things along
Certain parasites can cause your bearded dragon to stop pooping completely so if you’re unsure take them to your vet and do a tank clean as well
I understand ill be repeating myself if you read the whole thing this far but stress is also a major factor
Remember bearded dragons will show signs of stress with their beards and behavior
they will have a black beard when stressed and will show aggressive behavior
Conclusion
There are many different types of poop and they all mean different things
If you are at all scared for your beardie’s health then 100 percent take them to the vet
It’s a lot smarter to do that than to just sit and wait. They can easily run blood tests and X-rays to see what’s going on
| Healthy Poop | Brown and white with a firmness to it |
| Bloody poop | Bad, if this stays consistent take your beardie to the vet |
| White poop | Dehydration – slowly implement more water into your beardies diet |
| Black poop | too much protein and not enough vegetables and fiber |
| green | This means there is a lot of vegetables in the diet which is obviously good. Dial it back a little and see if there is a change |
| Yellow | This is too much calcium in the diet. Dial back the supplements if there are any and dial back the vegetables |
| Runny | Usually means over-hydration |
