Bathing bearded dragon

[Ashleymthornton1990]

My rescue bearded dragon is 4 years old and was never given a bath by her old owners. Giving her a bath now stresses her out so much. She hates it. I do not like putting to much stress on my beardies. Should I force her to bath or should I just stick with spraying her down with a bottle? She loves to be sprayed. But a bath freaks her out to much

 

[kingofnobbys]

My rescue bearded dragon is 4 years old and was never given a bath by her old owners. Giving her a bath now stresses her out so much. She hates it. I do not like putting to much stress on my beardies. Should I force her to bath or should I just stick with spraying her down with a bottle? She loves to be sprayed. But a bath freaks her out to much

Bathing is pretty much unnecessary for bearded dragons. If she doesn't like the experience don't force it on her as it will only upset her.

Stick to what she enjoys.

 

[EllenD]

I agree, if she hates it that much then just spray her every day. The only time I would force a bath would be if she got dirty from something like she laid in poop or food (you don't want to risk skin infections from bacteria sitting on her), if she ever becomes impacted it's very necessary, or if she happens to drink while in the tub.

None of my current 3 (one 8 month old that I've had since a month old baby, one 11 month old rescue I've had for 2 weeks now, and one now 5 week old hatchling I adopted a week ago) drink in the tub, but my 8 month old girl loves the bath, she loves to soak and she only poops in the tub, never once in her enclosures. I guess I trained her this inadvertently because I started putting her in the tub once every other day from a month old, and she poops immediately when she hits the water. The rescue male I've had for 2 weeks came with a horrible impaction I can't even describe, and baths twice a day have been necessary, he doesn't mind it. The baby swims and swims and swims and swims and swims! But none of the 3 will drink.

I believe that if you're lucky enough to have a beardie who drinks regularly in the bath tub then that's great, you know they're well hydrated and in that case it's important to bathe them every day, but this is rare, and baths otherwise aren't necessarily important unless there's a medical or cleanliness reason.

 

[Ashleymthornton1990]

I agree, if she hates it that much then just spray her every day. The only time I would force a bath would be if she got dirty from something like she laid in poop or food (you don't want to risk skin infections from bacteria sitting on her), if she ever becomes impacted it's very necessary, or if she happens to drink while in the tub.

None of my current 3 (one 8 month old that I've had since a month old baby, one 11 month old rescue I've had for 2 weeks now, and one now 5 week old hatchling I adopted a week ago) drink in the tub, but my 8 month old girl loves the bath, she loves to soak and she only poops in the tub, never once in her enclosures. I guess I trained her this inadvertently because I started putting her in the tub once every other day from a month old, and she poops immediately when she hits the water. The rescue male I've had for 2 weeks came with a horrible impaction I can't even describe, and baths twice a day have been necessary, he doesn't mind it. The baby swims and swims and swims and swims and swims! But none of the 3 will drink.

I believe that if you're lucky enough to have a beardie who drinks regularly in the bath tub then that's great, you know they're well hydrated and in that case it's important to bathe them every day, but this is rare, and baths otherwise aren't necessarily important unless there's a medical or cleanliness reason.

my rescue poops in her enclosure every day. Some times twice a day. (I think when she poops twice a day she does it on purpose just so I can scrub her tank down) my 1 and half year old usually only poops once a week. Some time a small poop in between her big poops. I don't know why she will only go once a week. She was like that around 6 months old. I took her the herb vet and she said everything looks normal she is just not a pooper. But I have noticed that my rescue will eat twice as many veggies as my 1 year old.