Chlorine in Beardie Bath Water

[PastelBeardie]

Whenever I give Jayden a beardie bath, he hides for a few days afterward. Today I was feeding and watering the geckos. I always filter their water through a Pur pitcher and add Repti-Safe to it to prevent their ingesting any chlorine or other toxic additives. The thought occurred to me that since beardies absorb water through their vents and I use tap water for Jayden's baths, maybe he's taking in chlorine through his vent. Our water does not have fluoride added. What do you do to prevent your beardies from taking in chemicals this way? Is this even something to worry about?

 

[CooperDragon]

I give baths in warm tap water and haven't run into any issues, even when they drink some. Does he act stressed out during the bath? Or does he swim around and seem to enjoy it? If he's hiding it could be stress related, or unrelated to the bath. I wouldn't think the water would cause an issue.

 

[spicule]

What temp is your bath water?

I have wondered this myself and would like to read other peoples opinions.

Mine takes in a lot of water at bath time and I have wondered about the instantaneous uptake of certain things in the water. One thing is for sure everyone on this forum has a different water source with different characteristics. My city has one of the nicest and most reliable water systems in the world but it is horrible for all living things (plants, humans, and probably reptiles).

My particular water source has been using fluoride and chloramines for nearly as long as they were available. They also use calcium hydroxide to precipitate excess hardness from the water. They try to hit it with CO2 but it still leaves the pH of the water at around 9. It is actually an amazing process, but suffice it to say there are still things in the water they don't tell you about like flocculants.

 

[PastelBeardie]

He just sits there during the bath and won't move unless the water starts to get cold. I use a fish tank thermometer to make sure the temps are right for him. He prefers it between 95-100 degrees.

Could some of the things in tap water cause our beardies to feel a bit off or even make them ill? Some places really add a lot of chlorine, and there are times when contaminants can even be seen in the water. I'd never give a beardie a bath in water that doesn't look right, but even when it appears to be OK it will have certain levels of bad stuff in it.