Bath behavior and messing up the substrate?

[WalterTheDragon]

Walter is a 1 year old male aprx. 18''. The first wierd thing the he does is when he's in the bath he sort of spasms and will scratch at his head and his sides. THe water isn't too deep, it's only enough to cover his back when he is laying flat. I don't know why he does this. He doesn't do it when he is out of the bath. Any ideas?

Second, I recently switched him from sand to non-adhesive shelf liner and nowhe will pull the sides up and fold it over and then lie on the glass. He often does this after he poops which adds a very difficult clean up. I'm going to buy some rocks to put on the corners so he won't be able to do this anymore but does anyone know why he might be doing it ?

Thanks!

 

[Gail]

The head scratching is probably because the water drops tickle his face/head. I had a female who would do the same thing, she hated water on her face.

Can't help with the hiding under the liner, some dragons just seem to like it under there.

 

[kmc5]

I gave up on liners a year ago. She is right on the glass and loves it. She slips and slides around but she prefers it that way - shrug. I might try some tile if I can ever remember to go to the Habitat for Humanity store.

 

[AHBD]

Glass is a slippery, unstable surface and your dragon's legs can become weak and sort of splayed. Use newspaper,or the shelf liner and collect some nice rocks from outside, give them a scrub, bake in oven at 250 for about 15-20 minutes and use them to hold the paper down. Even if he rips it up, he'll get over it, they go through fazes. As for the bath behavior, some of mine do that even when being sprayed..., mostly rubbing their arms on their sides. It's kind of funny, really, I always say they are trying to make sure they are getting a good scrub.