Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am really new to reptilian ownership. only about 1.5 weeks into it so I will be reaching out to ya'll a lot so please bear with me. How do you properly give a baby beardie (born 4/15/08) a bath? He won't drink from this water bottle/rock formation thingy that my wife spent a lot of money on and I don't want him to keep having to drink from top of his rock when I spritz him. Any suggestions on the water drinking problem? Thanks a ton.

I never spray my babies. They hate it. I drip water on their noses with an eyedropper till they stop licking it (or run away) lol. It's a good thing for them to learn if you have to give them meds. in the future too.

Water bottle? you mean like a sipper bottle used for rodents and other small mammals to drink water? I hope you kept the receipt as that is useless for a bearded dragon or any other lizard.

Bearded dragons don't always drink from standing water as it is. However some will learn to drink from a shadow water bowl or dish. Some will only drink if you mist water on the side of the cages or rocks. As your dragon is willing to lick water misted onto a rock, try doing it to a water dish (just put the empty dish in the cage then mist it). This will get your dragon used to using that dish for water, and he may learn to take water left in the dish with out misting.

For the most part dragons gain the water they need from the food they eat. Thus its always good to feed well hydrated and gut loaded crickets and soft bodied worms like silkworms, hornworms (small to medium sized depending on how big your dragon is now), butter worms and phoenix works.

When offering greens, misting the greens to ensure they are plenty damp, also helps ensure your dragon gets plenty of water.
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PHLdyPayne

When they are little like that, I give them water from an eyedropper, like BDLvr. I also keep the greens wet like PHLadyPyne (did I spell that right?). There was a thread on water dishes recently. I'm one who doesn't keep a water dish in the cage for adult dragons, but I do keep the greens wet so they can gain their moisture from the food they eat. But since little ones dehydrate easily, I hand water them for a while.

I don't leave water in their cages all day long because it becomes filthy. But I do put a shallow bowl in for a few minutes twice a day for them to take a long drink. If I have a problem getting them to drink I use a little red laser light on the water and move it around. The red light moving on the water draws their attention and they end up drinking the water. After a few times of doing this...they know that there is water in the bowls. Now when I put a bowl in my beardies cages, they know there is either water or vegies in it.
Good Luck!