7 Tips For Giving Your Bearded Dragon a Bath
Everyone enjoys a good bath, whether you are human or a bearded dragon. Although your bearded dragon doesn’t need to bathe as often as we do, a proper bathing routine will help your beardie in a lot of ways.
Follow this guide to properly understand how to care for your bearded dragon and its need for a good bath. As long as you follow some simple guidelines, your lizard’s bath time can be a lot of fun as well as productive for overall beardie health.
How Often to Bathe a Bearded Dragon
Some owners will bath their bearded dragons once per day, but generally, owners consider that it is best to bath a bearded dragon twice per week.
The frequency of baths will depend on a number of factors though, primarily how much your beardie enjoys a bath.
Bathing can help to relieve conditions such as impaction.
You may want to increase how often you bath your bearded dragon during this time.
If your beardie is going through a shedding process then you may also want to increase the number of baths you provide, as this can help with the process. Bathing can also aid in relieving impaction in your beardie.
Reasons to Bath a Bearded Dragon
There are a few reasons why you should bath your bearded dragon and these include:
- Cleans Bacteria
- Removes Parasites
- Keeps Your Beardie Hydrated
- Assists Shedding
When your beardie is shedding, a bath gives its scales a chance to soak and moisten and it will make your beardie feel more comfortable.
Soaking your beardie in a shallow, warm bath will cleanse its skin from harmful bacteria and prepare its scales for when they fall off.
Bath time for your beardie also is recreational time for the animal and gives it an occasional change of scenery from its typical habitat.
Providing the stimulation of a bath is good for its overall mental health. The procedures for bathing are simple. Let your lizard walk around in the water, enjoying the fun of being partially submerged.
Splash some of the water on your beardie’s scales from time to time, to ensure that the portion of its body that is not submerged gets exposed to water too.
Tips on How to Bath
1. What Equipment Do I Need?
Your choice of what equipment to use is relatively easy, you do not need any special equipment. The whole point of the bath is to let your beardie soak in water and to give it a relaxing break from its routine.
For bathing small or younger beardies, you could use the bathroom sink. However, you must be careful. Ensure there are no chemicals on the surface of the basin.
You must also ensure that the sink is thoroughly cleaned after use to prevent the spread of disease between you and your beardie.
Instead of the sink, it would be better to use a container that is just used for bathing your beardie.
For larger beardies, you could consider using a watertight storage container.
For smaller beardies, a foot spa would be appropriate. The key here is to make sure that it is not too small for your beardie. If there is room to stomp around in the tub, you know you have picked a good one.
2. How Much Water Should I Use?
Deciding how much water to use in your beardie’s bath is mostly common sense. As a rule of thumb, the waterline should reach your lizard’s abdomen.
Don’t allow any opportunity for your beardie to dunk its head.
The goal here is to keep water away from the beardie’s mouth and nostrils, to reduce the risk of drowning.
When you are splashing it with the water, keep it away from its head and gently cup water in your hand, releasing it onto its back.
3. What Temperature Should the Water Be?
The bath should be lukewarm and not “hot” or cold. Think of bathing a child. You would not want to scald them with water that is too hot.
If you are worried about getting the temperature wrong, you can use a water thermometer to ensure the temperature is between 85 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you put your hand in the water and it feels gentle and warm, you are probably in the right vicinity of what temperature to use.
Because bath time lasts only about fifteen minutes or so (that is long enough for beneficial results to occur) the temperature of the water should remain relatively stable for the duration of the bath.
4. Should I Treat the Water?
While chemical soaps and detergents should be avoided at all costs, there are products that can improve the beneficial effects of the bathwater.
Some water can be quite harsh on your beardies skin, there are impurities which can be quite harmful. Therefore, for added precaution, it is advised to add Reptisafe Dechlorination to the water.
This product will help as it removes chlorines and chloramines instantly and will provide essential ions and electrolytes that help to hydrate your beardie.
5. How Long To Bath For
Bath time can seem like a lot of fun, and you may want to prolong it if possible. The ideal recommended duration of your beardie’s bath is around 15 to 20 minutes.
Positive health effects occur during that time, and any longer, there is little to no extra benefit.
If you bathe your beardie for too long, it might start to panic.
When bath time is over, dry off your beardie and promptly and gently return it to its terrarium.
6. Remove Any Faeces Immediately
To preserve the hygiene of the water in the bath and to avoid the spread of bacteria, it is essential to remove feces that occur during bath time.
If your beardie feels the need to relieve itself, allow it to do so, but use a plastic scooper or some other easily-washable utensil to remove the feces from the bath.
7. Bask Afterwards
After a nice luxurious bath, your bearded dragon will likely look forward to returning to its home and getting under that warm heat lamp. Dry off your beardie gently with a dry cloth and then place it back in its habitat close to the light, this will allow it to resume its regular routine.
After a few baths, your beardie will get used to this routine, and who knows, it may even look forward to bath time from now on!
Summary
Beardies are dry creatures, but in their natural habitat, they do come into contact with water. We use bath time for your beardie to simulate what it would experience in the wild.
Beardies are social creatures, and being handled and touched from time to time will liven up its mood.
Keeping the skin moist from time to time also promotes good health and healthy shedding of scales.
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I was just 15 years of age when I first met a bearded dragon. It was at my friend's house and I instantly grew an immediate attraction to, what has now become, my favourite animal on the planet! Making fantastic pets for both children and adults alike, they each have their own personality and are certainly full of character. There are, though, some important things that we should all know when it comes to caring for these amazing animals!