Did I acedently potently train my dragon?

[Frank the baby beardry]

So basically my dragon now only goes poop in the bath and if I don’t give him a bath one day ( I bath 6 times a week) then the next day in the bath he will poop twice as much.

 

[Skybug]

Thats alot of baths, I wouldn’t do anymore than 3 a week for a baby, i read a forum a long time ago about beardies and baths/pooing during them, i cant remember if it was on here or if it was an article on another site, the gist of the article basically said “in the wild they wouldn’t be getting baths so be carful associating baths with potty time” i think the issue is like how you stated he’ll only poop if hes in the bath , which might not be good holding in his stool. Ill try to find it if i can

 

[Frank the baby beardry]

Thats alot of baths, I wouldn’t do anymore than 3 a week for a baby, i read a forum a long time ago about beardies and baths/pooing during them, i cant remember if it was on here or if it was an article on another site, the gist of the article basically said “in the wild they wouldn’t be getting baths so be carful associating baths with potty time” i think the issue is like how you stated he’ll only poop if hes in the bath , which might not be good holding in his stool. Ill try to find it if i can

I could try to not do as many baths. I have read that to many baths can lead to runny poop but he has only had that one time.

 

[Skybug]

I cant find it , just be careful though , ur definitely lucky if he is potty trained, the article was basically just saying be cautious with baths , if it helps him poo its a good thing, just make shure he gets rinsed off after.

 

[Frank the baby beardry]

I cant find it , just be careful though , ur definitely lucky if he is potty trained, the article was basically just saying be cautious with baths , if it helps him poo its a good thing, just make shure he gets rinsed off after.

Ok ya I prefer not to get pooped on. And I always let him dry of before I do anything else with him

 

[Zontar’s Mom]

So basically my dragon now only goes poop in the bath and if I don’t give him a bath one day ( I bath 6 times a week) then the next day in the bath he will poop twice as much.

My Zontar did the same. He started that in baths and then would go to his water dish, put himself in it and do his business. He never ever drank from his dish, only did his business in it.
I would hydrate him in two baths a week, misting and dripping water droplets on his nose to lap up. Silly dragons

 

[Beardomania]

First of all, it's very normal for warm water to trigger defecation in bearded dragons.

I don't know about babies but I know someone who took care of her adult dragon for its entire natural lifespan giving it a 10 minute warm soak every day and that is where he'd do his business. It kept his enclosure clean with rarely any need to remove feces. I currently follow this regime and maybe once every 3 weeks or a month, my beardie will poop in his enclosure.

I have read from some online sources that bathing every day is detrimental to the scales but I have not seen evidence nor did those making the claims provide any justification other than their guess.

The only possible concern is that since it is known that excess humidity in the enclosure can cause respiratory issues in a desert species, if the baths last too long, it may have the same effect, However, this could also easily not be the case as having over 23.5 hours a day breathing dry air could be more than sufficient to fight off any bacterial growth in the respiratory track.

 

[Skybug]

Maybe if you had “hard water” then it’d be hurtful to the scales ?

 

[Frank the baby beardry]

First of all, it's very normal for warm water to trigger defecation in bearded dragons.

I don't know about babies but I know someone who took care of her adult dragon for its entire natural lifespan giving it a 10 minute warm soak every day and that is where he'd do his business. It kept his enclosure clean with rarely any need to remove feces. I currently follow this regime and maybe once every 3 weeks or a month, my beardie will poop in his enclosure.

I have read from some online sources that bathing every day is detrimental to the scales but I have not seen evidence nor did those making the claims provide any justification other than their guess.

The only possible concern is that since it is known that excess humidity in the enclosure can cause respiratory issues in a desert species, if the baths last too long, it may have the same effect, However, this could also easily not be the case as having over 23.5 hours a day breathing dry air could be more than sufficient to fight off any bacterial growth in the respiratory track.

Ohh now the baths don’t last long maybe 5 mins. a soon as he poops he hates being in there so I get him out to dry

 

[Beardomania]

Maybe if you had “hard water” then it’d be hurtful to the scales ?

What would be the mechanism of damage? If a person could bath in it for 1 or 2 hours a day, what would it do to a bearded dragon's scales?

When talking about aquatic invertebrates such as shrimp, the harder the water, the faster the calcium is replenished into the exoskeleton and inversely, soft water will sap calcium. Too much calcium in the shell will make them unbreakable during molting and thus trap the shrimp in its old shell until it dies and on the opposite spectrum, inadequate calcium will make their shells weak, corroded and susceptible to disease. Going by this mechanism, I don't know the content of bearded dragon scale but I doubt that short soaks will either add or detract any significant calcium from them.

 

[Beardomania]

Ohh now the baths don’t last long maybe 5 mins. a soon as he poops he hates being in there so I get him out to dry

I say you have a nice thing going. One of the worst things about keeping beardies is dreading coming home after school/work to see if your beardie crapped in his cage and dragged his belly and claws all over it and the rest of the enclosure. Not only does it stink to high hell because of the feces baking under the basking light in a hot enclosure, you need to clean and disinfect the whole thing and wash your beardie. One of the reasons I stopped keeping them years ago was that I was entering my young adulthood and didn't want to bring home a date only for her to smell that baked beardie crap odor and then see me stop the date to clean the whole thing. Not good for the mood, yah know?

If he's potty trained to only go when you soak him, that's just perfect as far as I'm concerned and that's how I choose to do it as well except mine takes about 10 minutes, sometimes 20.

 

[Skybug]

What would be the mechanism of damage? If a person could bath in it for 1 or 2 hours a day, what would it do to a bearded dragon's scales?

When talking about aquatic invertebrates such as shrimp, the harder the water, the faster the calcium is replenished into the exoskeleton and inversely, soft water will sap calcium. Too much calcium in the shell will make them unbreakable during molting and thus trap the shrimp in its old shell until it dies and on the opposite spectrum, inadequate calcium will make their shells weak, corroded and susceptible to disease. Going by this mechanism, I don't know the content of bearded dragon scale but I doubt that short soaks will either add or detract any significant calcium from them.

Idk...?.-. I was just bantering a Possibility. Thats interesting about the shrimp, i can see why now they do a drip system when introducing them to tanks.