So my giant male died last night...

[tims balls]

Came home from work to find a bloody disgusting mess in his tank. Apparently, he was impacted pretty bad. I picked him up about 3 weeks ago from my local pet shop. He was a GIANT male, looked flawless. He ate with no problem, and I set them outside in the sun for hours almost every day, so I didnt ever notice "poop", but didnt think about it either. Well last night I came home to blood all over the bottom of the tank, on the sides, and 2 large masses of undigested food soaked in blood. I took pics, but they are pretty graphic, so I did not post them.

I am upset, but more angry. I dont know if I was duped by the pet shop, I deal with them ALL the time, so if I was, its pretty crappy of them to do that. It may have been my fault, MAYBE he ate a large portion of his aspen bedding, I seriously doubt it, he was a big boy and was not a ferocious eater. He was more of a veggie guy anyway. I just dont see him taking in that bedding. I know I will NOT buy any more animals from a pet store unless I know exactly who the animal came from. They pick up animals all the time, and resell them immediately. Maybe it was the previous owner who was to blame, who knows. I know I am out of 150 bucks and a very nice dragon is dead!

Bad day

[Mettle]

I am very sorry for your loss.

Aspen is really not that great of a substrate for bearded dragons though.

When you fed live food, did you feed it in the tank? On the aspen?

I think if he was impacted from the aspen you'd have noticed some of it in the "mess" that you were talking about.

[tims balls]

That was the thing, I didnt see any aspen. A lot of undigested crix, and lots of blood.

[Royal Morphz]

I'm sorry for you lose Tim.

[Beardedragon]

That was the thing, I didnt see any aspen. A lot of undigested crix, and lots of blood.

I'm very sorry for your lose yeah, aspen is not a good choice for beardies, no particle substrate is. No poop could very well mean he was impacted, did the other owners have him on sand? The undigested crickets sound like his temps might have been off and the blood maybe parasites?? Really the only way to tell is to take his body to a vet and get his body examined.

[grim reaper in NY]

I'm VERY sorry to hear about your loss Tim. We have 3 Beardies ourselves and I know how we'd feel if we lost any of them.
It's hard to say who's to blame for what happened. I know it's a very bitter pill to swallow, but if your pet shop did not have this pet for very long in their possession before you bought him, it's entirely possible he was alread at least partially impacted when you brought him home. One thing I make sure of is that I feed my dragons a healthy vareity of greens to go along with the crickets. I know you did as well, but if the previous owner didn't feed him a balanced diet, that would definitely cause an impaction.
As was stated earlier, if he was impacted with Aspen Chips, you would definitely be able to discern them in what he vomited, so take heart that it doesn't appear to be the case here. From the sounds of your description of the mess, it sounds like he may have been housed with sand as a bedding. Sand has a very nasty habit of acting like sandpaper in a Beardie's digestive tract and that could definitely contribute to the gory mess you came home to.
I keep my Beardies on Repti-Carpet as well too. I absolutely love that stuff and swear by it. it's easy to clean and there is no chance my Beardies can get impacted from ingesting shavings, chips, sand or anything else.
I would let your pet shop know exactly what you came home to and maybe sit down and talk with them and let them know that in the future, unless you can verify the origins of the pets they get in, you simply won't purchase from them anymore. If they realize how important it is to verify the previous helath and origins of their pets, they may go that extra step to make sure the animals they sell are healthy and ready to be re-sold. it's just a suggestion.
Again, I share in the grief of your loss.

[waltah!]

Sorry for your loss, Tim.