WATER BOWL IN CAGE?

Our friends who have a bearded dragon never put water in cage, just spritz (he's about 2 years old) but I heard from another source that a bowl of fresh water should be in the cage at all times. I started doing research & I am finding WAY too many articles with conflicting information. We spritzed ours the first month and then put a fresh water bowl in at the advise of the pet store owner. HOWEVER we have never seen him drink, he doesn't even know its there. He use to drink the drops when we spritz but now only drinks when he is in his bath on Saturdays. SO...…HELP! New to this.

I don't use a water bowl or spritz.

Mine get enough hydration from their diet. Occasionally they might get a bath, but only 1 of my girls even drinks from the bath.

-Brandon

Hello Momoffour,

Water is one of the stranger care points for beardies. On one hand, most people don't end up offering water regularly and have no issues. On the other hand, dehydration is one of the more common health issues that often goes undiagnosed.

Usually I keep a water bowl in Guac's cage with him, however I don't right now due to the fact that he is in a smaller cage than normal. Water bowls can raise the humidity to unsafe levels if you're not careful, and many dragons won't drink from them. Mine does, which is why I normally offer it, but since yours doesn't I probably wouldn't give them one.

Personally, I don't like the idea of "spritzing" your dragon. If you do it in their cage, you are liable to get water in there, which may lead to humidity and molding problems.

Do you give your beardie bathes? Generally, if you give them a bath 1-2 times a week as younglings and 1-3 times a month as adults, they'll be fine with just that, provided you offer fresh salad daily and gutloaded bugs regularly (daily for juveniles, 2-3 times weekly for adults). If you need guidelines for how to bathe a dragon, let me know and I'll see about putting a guide together for you or linking you to a good article/previous post.

Best,
-Ellen

+1

There's a video out there on YT--I'd post it if I could recall the title or channel. The gist was, the channel owner (a BD aficionado) was in a pet store, saw water bowls in all the BD enclosures, and had a l'il chat with the store owner. The store owner said he knew there shouldn't be water bowls in the enclosures, and didn't put any in them, and subsequently was turned into authorities for animal cruelty--not providing the animals with water. So he put the water bowls back in the enclosures. A clear case of danged if you do and danged if you don't. Appearances vs. facts/knowledge.

I don't know if it rises to the level of a Con-Sub, but the differing opinions on water/no water are seemingly endless. The real issue, of course (as stated above), is humidity.

I think if I had a BD that would drink from a container, I'd try to provide one and monitor the humidity carefully. If not, I'd try to provide water via any/all the recommended methods. After all, it's about good husbandry, right? Whatever it takes.

Thank you for the responses. I actually wanted that YT video and decided to remove as we provide greens gut loaded food and bathe him weekly.