dehydrated baby bearded dragon

[trinityy]

Okay so I’ve had my baby bearded dragon for exactly a month now & she was only 1-2 months old when we bought her from petco. Petco treated her quite badly, she shared a tank with a bunch of other bearded dragons, the tank was very dirty, she had a lot of stress marks when I saw her at petco & overall she was not in a very good environment.

however, ever since I bought her she has been active & energetic, never has any stress marks or a dark beard, has been eating well, eating fruits and veggies too, she once swam in her water bowl which I wasn’t worried about bc she was just getting some water / taking a bath inside of her tank and she has also gotten a bit used to me bc she’ll eat from my hand as well as let me move my hand and do different things in her tank while she’s still in there without getting scared (like she used to) - however she’s still not comfortable with me picking her up. at best I can get kind of close to her, sometimes being able to pet her late at night while she is a bit more docile but I noticed that today she was not very energetic and actually wouldn’t eat & her eyes looked a bit sunken ? I couldn’t exactly tell but either way, the lethargy wrinkled skin, and lack of appetite made me realize that mango is very dehydrated. however , like I said earlier I can’t pick her up in order to give her a bath and whenever I put her water bowl in there & tried to get her into it, she doesn’t.

eventually, after I noticed that she didn’t eat breakfast like she normally did I went and I brought her live food to her (by holding the bugs in my hand) and then she ate , and then right after that she soon walked over to her food bowl and began eating her veggies and greens and other bugs, so as of right now - she is okay, she ate greens that had a lot of water on them, ate crickets & a few meal worms, began shedding her tail last night, is basking and isn’t as lethargic // isn’t hiding and closing her eyes anymore

however, even though she is okay now - I still don’t want this dehydration to progress and cause long term problems in the future so I went out and bought a mist bottle & my question is :

if I begin to mist her 2-3 times a day, continue feeding her fruits and veggies with a lot of water, and continue trying to encourage her to get into her water bowl so that she can kind of take a bath is that enough to keep her from getting dehydrated ? bc she definitely won’t let me pick her up in order to give her a proper bath, but I definitely don’t want her to get worse.

 

[KarrieRee]

As long as shes eating her veggies shes going to get plenty of hydration from them and your gut loading the insects-- you can feed them carrots for hydration that will also give her hydration -- w/ all that you said I dont think shes dehydrated --- watch her poops if they are dark firm and moist and the urate is white firm and moist thats good - she will excrete extra water so watch for that as well - but it sounds like your doing a great job -- just be patient w/ her -- shes learning to trust you -- hold her for a little bit outside the tank - keep hand feeding her and eventually she will let you pick her up w / no issues --
Karrie

 

[trinityy]

okay, thank you !