I am on a quest to find exercise my bearded dragon, Norbert, is actually willing to do. I took her to the vet (a reptile specialist) in October, a year after she had successful surgery to remove a tumor from her liver, and after examining her and doing blood tests, he said she was very healthy other than being overweight. And he said that to preserve her health--and her liver function, in the wake of the stress put on it by the tumor--she should lose some weight.
Her diet is very heavy on greens (mostly dandelion and mustard) and she only has dubias twice a week. She has lots of things to climb on in her enclosure and the temps are right according to both the vet and the recommendations on here, but the only thing in her tank she cares about is her fabric scrap pile (she likes to kick it around and lie in it). (This is very different from my previous beardie, who I had for twelve years before Norbert, and who loved to climb everything right up to the end of her life.) I also let Norbert out to run around, and I crank the heat up in the room so it's 80 degrees before she comes out, but she still mostly just sits. She'll explore for 2-5 minutes and then find a nice corner to chill in. She has a sedentary soul and is content to be a lap animal. But she needs to exercise!
When she was a baby, she liked to swim in the bath. She has never shown any signs of stress in or around water, and when she was little, I let her swim around, very closely supervised and with my hand always available for her to stand on. She would push off it deliberately and sort of do laps, not trying to climb out of the sink. But then I read that the water that gets in their ears when they swim can cause ear infections, so I started holding onto her in the bath so she couldn't swim. Her ears definitely got wet when she was swimming. It's been three years since I let her swim, but she'll still try to do little paddle motions when I'm holding her in the sink, which are very distinct from the frightened thrashing my previous beardie did any time I tried to bathe her.
Norbert seems like she wants to swim, and I feel bad denying her an exercise she enjoys that could maybe have health benefits, but I also don't want to put her health at risk by letting her do it. Does anyone else let their beardies swim? Do you have a special method of keeping their ears dry? Do you know of any data on how much of an ear infection risk swimming actually presents? (If the risk is very low, maybe it's better than the health risks of her continuing not to exercise?)
Her diet is very heavy on greens (mostly dandelion and mustard) and she only has dubias twice a week. She has lots of things to climb on in her enclosure and the temps are right according to both the vet and the recommendations on here, but the only thing in her tank she cares about is her fabric scrap pile (she likes to kick it around and lie in it). (This is very different from my previous beardie, who I had for twelve years before Norbert, and who loved to climb everything right up to the end of her life.) I also let Norbert out to run around, and I crank the heat up in the room so it's 80 degrees before she comes out, but she still mostly just sits. She'll explore for 2-5 minutes and then find a nice corner to chill in. She has a sedentary soul and is content to be a lap animal. But she needs to exercise!
When she was a baby, she liked to swim in the bath. She has never shown any signs of stress in or around water, and when she was little, I let her swim around, very closely supervised and with my hand always available for her to stand on. She would push off it deliberately and sort of do laps, not trying to climb out of the sink. But then I read that the water that gets in their ears when they swim can cause ear infections, so I started holding onto her in the bath so she couldn't swim. Her ears definitely got wet when she was swimming. It's been three years since I let her swim, but she'll still try to do little paddle motions when I'm holding her in the sink, which are very distinct from the frightened thrashing my previous beardie did any time I tried to bathe her.
Norbert seems like she wants to swim, and I feel bad denying her an exercise she enjoys that could maybe have health benefits, but I also don't want to put her health at risk by letting her do it. Does anyone else let their beardies swim? Do you have a special method of keeping their ears dry? Do you know of any data on how much of an ear infection risk swimming actually presents? (If the risk is very low, maybe it's better than the health risks of her continuing not to exercise?)
