Not necessary to routinely
bath beardies , they are evolved to live in the harsh deserts , tropical savannahs and woodlands in central Australia where droughts are the rule and they can go their entire lives never seeing heavy rain, running or standing water.
Context and natural habitat of central and rankins bearded dragons : Our deserts (Australia) are very low lying cf with the high altitude/ higher latitude rain-shadow deserts in Nth America, so wild beardies never experience freezing conditions even in the dead of winter( most of their natural range being located in the low latitudes mostly north of the Tropic of Capricorn) and frosty nights even in winter are very rare.
The earth is also closer to the sun by several million km in the Southern Summer and beardies experience extremes in UV (UVI > 14 most days and for most the day in the warm months).
Beardies only need
bathing if
>> they have soiled themselves
>> they have a stubborn area of shed that needs soaking to loosen up
>> they are too hot in heat wave conditions (to help them thermoregulate
>> they are slightly or mildly impacted (a luke warm soak with gentle tummy rubbing can help get the poo moving , but 0.02ml of olive oil given orally by syringe does the job too
>> they are injured (an open injury from a bite by another beardie say) needs to washed /soaked in a very dilute solution of beta-deine to help fight infection of the injury
Contrary to a widely held belief, beardies DO NOT absorb water through their skin when being bathed , NOR do they take in water via the vent , only way a beardie will
hydrate while
bathing is if it drinks the
bath water.
Some keepers train their beardies to poo in the
bath. This is not necessary.
My two youngest beardies have not had a
bath since I bought them from the breeder at 5 weeks old , they are now 14 months old, and do not smell and very healthy (thriving).
My 4 yr old girl Rex has only had a few baths in her life with us, a couple of times when shedding , and once when I thought she was impacted.