it's not bs...

Very informative, i was wondering what kind of substrate was that particular dragon housed in that caused the impaction?

Substrate impactions happen because of overall poor care. This includes poor substrate choice (beardies don't live on pure sand....more of a hardened soil, which isn't as easily ingested), poor hydration (most enclosures have an overall very low humidity...all reptiles need someway to get rehydrated on their own. For snakes this usually means having a large water bowl, or a humid enclosure, and for lizards it typically means adding a humid shelter or a substrate that allows them to burrow to higher humidity). Of course low temperatures are also to blame for impacction. I think it's really just poor husbandry and a poor understanding of the reptiles that causes these problems.

HEY LOOK! IM MENTIONED IN THIS ONE :D!

also i think -Ryan- has very clear sight here. of coarse i take my beardies care very serriously, but i also think that alot of this "Bowel Impaction" is a result of poor care on the owners behalf. ive seen my youngest beardie, Vladimear go after mice in that shouvling motion to scoop up and suprise the rodent but miss judge the distance and end up scooping up a mouthful of dirt. 1 month later no problems(jest a poop full of dirt...). you jest have to keep an eye on the temps and make sure that its high enough to stimulate digestion. beardies are rather unique in that matter. i think alot of ppl that buy these great lizards, sadly, arent properly breifed on how to care for them correctly, the result of which is digestion umoung other problems. tho i find it rather humorus that you carry such a vindetta over this... but it shows some Matze and thats alright :].
whatever floats your boat man. well actually now that i think about it your probubly a girl no? well its jest the somewhat Maternal instincts that that you present that drew me to that conclusion.

i agree that poor care has something to do with the problem. like feeding your beardie a mouse... not even the biggest beardie would be big enough to safely eat a mouse. especially a live one. a live pinky, MAYBE a fuzzy, would be okay for an adult. but a live mouse, (even a f/t) is too much for a beardie... and the mouse could injure your lizard... if you feel so strongly that people aren't always taking proper care, then you need to be careful what you suggest for food and stuff, which mice are not a part of... and if your aware that hes scooping up so much dirt when you feed him, its just irresponsible to put him through that when its not necessary. you could easily put him in another small enclosure to feed him, where theres no substrate for him to eat... and if it takes a month for your beardie to digest, your temperatures are too low... most reptiles have to have pretty high temps to digest, not just beardies...
and i agree completely that people dont do enough research before they take on the responsibility of a pet lizard. and every time i read one of your posts, i wonder if you are one of those people...
you also talk about how people that buy beardies aren’t briefed with the proper info, but where do you get yours and how do you know that it’s correct?

I said Vladimear was my youngest beardi. I didn¡¯t say he was a baby. He gobbles down pinkies with ought even the slightest hesitation (though I offer them seldom) and I think they know very well what they can and cant eat don¡¯t you think? I said after a month there weren¡¯t any problems. I didn¡¯t say it took a month to digest. You act as though they have never been out of human interaction. For many bardies that¡¯s true but instincts are genetic. Do you think, honestly, that if a beardi died for every time it ate a mouse or a grass hopper too big, or even too much soil, that there would be any left?!? No they¡¯re not that insufficient. Gold fish yes. But that¡¯s a jump into an entirely different species. Protecting your beardies is a good thing. Over protecting weakens them.
Believe it or not Bearded Dragons, once upon a time, survived in the wild without your care "lovemylizards". But hey you can take care of your lizards any way you want. People¡¯s ideals on this subject can be as different as their political philosophies. But please, continue posting. I enjoy our weekly arguments...

i didnt say he was a baby either...
and no, i dont think they know what they can and cant eat. my pete tries to eat the head off of our burmese through the glass, and the snakes head is a lot bigger than his. im pretty sure he cant eat that... dont you think?
yes, instincts are genetic, to a point... if you ask me, beardies aren't very smart sometimes... and they probably get themselves killed in the wild quite a bit... thats why they have so many babies... not too good of a survival rate... in captivity, however, its the people that are stupid. i dont even know why you brought wild beardies into this because its not the same... captive beardies should not be kept in conditions they live in in the wild. beardies struggle in the wild, as do all animals. pet beardies should have an easy life. they might be made to handle 120 degree temperatures and low humidity, but they dont like it. captive beardies dont even like the "natural" setting. i did that at first and they hated it. then i put mine in a white tupperware with light colored sand and lots of light and their bellies turned white as can be.
it was an ugly setup, but my beardies were happy.
i didnt say that a beardie would die everytime it ate food that was too big or swallowed a mouthful of dirt. i said it wasnt safe or healthy and that it wasnt necessary to put one through that. its irresponsible.

well neither of us are getting through to one another so im jest going to cut this of right here and now. you can have your opinions and i can have mine and i wont hold that againsed you. in fact i respect you for that. but honestly.............
your beardie tries to eat your burms?!? LOL! man that sounds like it could be a hilarious sight. ive had my beardies attack my fingers and had my friends beardie attack his cats but man thats gotta be a funny sight. well anyhoo thats that

I can completely respect that you have your own opinion, but the biggest thing that bothers me Super_Hamster, is that you never keep it to yourself. You are ALWAYS posting comments about how someone isn't doing something right and probably it's just a bad moment for their beardie. On the other hand, I've seen you comment on a lot of beardies that to me look very weak and unhealthy, but you only say nice things about them. I think you can have your own opinion about things, but don't force them on other people. You need to have a lot more information than 1 picture to know if a beardie is stressed out or too cold or whatever else you've said. It really offends people when you say something like that and you don't really even know what you are talking about. Most people really care about their beardies and don't put them through things that are bad for them. There are cases of them not being warm enough or being too stressed out, but really there aren't too many like that you seem to find it all the time. And when are you going to post pictures of your beardies?

And back to what this post was all about, the impactions. I'm a reptile specialist at Petco and it's terrible what I have to see there. It's Petco policy that the beardies be put on calci-sand and be fed mealworms. About a third of the beardies that come in die or go through an impaction in the short time they are with us. Our vet completely agrees but, with all of our efforts, so far Petco hasn't changed anything. The vet personally has dealt with a number of impactions in different reptiles because of the substrate choice by the owner. The only reason I work there is for the reptiles, God knows it isn't for the pay. And back to the difference between captive and wild beardies. Have you really looked into what Australia's landscapes are like? I don't think very many of those beardies live on sand. They all live on compressed soil, dirt, and grasses that don't come apart easily. When they eat something, they don't get dirt or sand in their mouths. And I agree with lovemylizards that they aren't very smart about what they try to eat. I bet a lot of them do die in the wild just by going after something that's too big for them. Have you thought about how many generations it's been since the pet-trade beardies came from wild ones? Most of their insticts and behaviors have probably changed and adapted to suit the captive life-style. It's completely irrelevant to compare the two.