needing water?

[MountainMama]

I've had my bearded dragon for almost a year now, and he's done great! However, just this week, he has started laying in his water dish. I know beardies don't really drink water, but I put the water dish in there to add a little humidity, since I live in Colorado. The water evaporates within four days.

I give him a soak in warm water about once a week, which he seems to enjoy. However, lately he's been sitting in his water dish, usually just his back legs and bottom part of his body. He got in last nigh after his light went out apparently, because I found him in his water dish this morning. The water can't be too warm, since it isn't under the heat light.

Any ideas? His poops are normal, with excess water around them lately, which I'm guessing is from the water he's soaking in. He is shedding right now, which I though may be the reason, but he's never done it before when shedding.

Oh, and he's about 2 years old, and has been eating normally, greens every day, and superworms twice a week. I did check the temps, and the warm side is about 90-100 F, and the cool side is about 70 to 80 F

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....it would be best to take the dish out for several reasons, mostly because he can really get chilled in the night and compromise his health. You can raise the humidity if you need to by spritzing his tank 1-2X a day, that will help him shed as well.

 

[MountainMama]

Thanks, I'll do that.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Mine did that before I took the water dishes away.

On another beardie board the "experts" say they can absorb water through their bottoms and they also do it to thermoregulate , which sounds plausible. But . These are the same experts who all advocate play sand for beardies, even for hatchies.

Best to remove the water dish. Which is what I did.

 

[CooperDragon]

They'll get most of their hydration from food so it's important to provide fresh greens and gutloaded, well hydrated bugs. Some of them learn to drink from standing water and will drink from a bath if they want to. In their natural environment, they've been seen standing up on their legs and tilting their head forward during rain to funnel water down the front of their head so they can lick the rainwater. I've seen positive results trying to replicate this by dripping water on their nose and getting them to lick the water off.