Cleaning bearded dragon mouth?

[Srgeorge2177]

Hello today I noticed my beardie basking and had his mouth open a little and I always try and look at his teeth when he does this just to see. And today I noticed his teeth look kind of dirty? Like yellowish/brownish (not rotten or anything) and a little bit of brown on his gums so I went ahead and ordered chlorehexidine because I’ve heard that’s good for cleaning their mouth and preventing disease. My question is do I dilute it on a cotton swab or just dip the cotton swab in the solution? If I need to dilute it, how much? And how do I get my beardie to open his mouth for me to clean it???

 

[CooperDragon]

They do get buildup along their teeth sometimes. Usually the first thing I try is offering them some hard shelled bugs to chew like roaches or buffalo beetles. The rough shells tend to do a good job scraping the buildup away. If that doesn't work, I like to use MaxiGuard gel on a q-tip, but I think the chlorhexidine will work just as well. I would probably just dip a q-tip in it and apply it that way. It can be tough to get them to cooperate with this, which is why I try the hard shelled bugs first. To open their mouths I usually wrap them up in a towel like a burrito, then hold them in one hand and use my thumb to slide the skin on their beard down which gets them to open their mouth. Don't be too rough with them, but it takes some steady force to get them to release their jaw. They really don't like this much, so I save it for a last resort.

 

[Srgeorge2177]

Thank you! I have a very stubborn beardie. He’s very picky with food, for his protein I normally always give him Dubia roaches with very occasionally I give him crickets.but he gets Dubia’s about every other day. He doesn’t eat greens much but I offer it daily regardless, he will eat the fruit out of his salads though so I’m sure he accidentally gets some greens in there. Where do you get the Buffalo beetles? I’ve never seen those for purchase

 

[CooperDragon]

The beetles are often sold as cleaner crew for roach enclosures. You can also isolate mealworms or morio/super worms and they will eventually turn into beetles.