Bearded dragon behaviours/poop.

Question
Hi Pam,
My bearded dragon is about 8-9 months old. The age is a little uncertain, as I bought him from someone who got him in a pet store. Anyway, in the past couple of weeks, my beadie has had extremely wet and slimy poop. He was start to go... and just brown liquid will come out of him. His urate usually comes out right after this liquid, then he'll have a wet slimy poop. It is not just a little bit of liquid, but enough to soak a whole paper towel.

He has spent most of his life with a Repti 10 UVB light and then a 150 WATT basking light. I just bought him the 100 WATT all-in-one light, but like I said, the temperature wasn't quite high enough. I tried adding just a regular light bulb for a bit more heat, and it seemed to do close to nothing. The terrarium I have for him right now has long height, and a short boxy width. I'm going to buy him his 40 gallon next week, as I can see he is out-growing his starter tank.

Also, we changed the lighting in his tank to a all-in-one bulb. This decreased the temperature quite drastically, because before we had a few bulbs, one of which was a super basking light. It was making the tank a couple degrees too hot, and we thought this might be the cause of the poop. My beardie responded to this change by closing his eyes, almost all day long. He was still eating his crickets and salad, but after that would lug around with his eyes closed. Some points I would see him and he would actually have his head down... sleeping! He also didn't poop  for about four days (despite me bathing & misting him frequently!). I switched his lights back to his old ones (with the basking bulb that is slightly too warm...) just yesterday and he finally pooped this morning, yet it was not in nice conditions. After his poop, he was more alert... and actually had his eyes opened and was responding to me and my movements.

I will tell you a bit about his eating habits, incase the poop has to do with that. Daily, he gets about 10-12 crickets
(sometimes 4 week,  sometimes 5 week... depending on what's in store). I dust them in calcium powder every day. Also, every day, he gets an organic field green salad (minus the spinach). I spray distilled water on his salad every day as well. I also mist him daily (sometimes twice) and give him a bath about 2 times a week.

I took some of his poop from today into a baggie, and into my fridge... as I want to take it into the vet to be looked at.

Any help/suggestions/peace of mind you can offer would be great.

Thank you so much for listening, and for being part of such a great site.

Erin


Answer
 As far as tanks go, remember, a beardie likes floor space and does not need height.  So a 40 gallon breeder tank does very well for one beardie.  Runny, stinky poop is a sigh of high gut parasites.  It's time to visit a good reptile veterinarian for identification of the parasite and proper treatment.
 Now, lighting...you fail to give me the brand and type of light.  If it is a mercury vapor bulb, most are fine for about three months.  The Westron Mega-ray is the most stable and Bob of ReptileUV.com is a good source for the bulb and advice on lighting a tank with specific dimensions.  You say your beardie is closing his eyes.  Makes me suspect that the bulb is a coil or compact type, which is very bad and should be changed immediately.