Beardies Need Water.
I have just read a post from someone who had been misting and giving their Beardie a water bowl, but followed the ridiculous “minimum risk” advice of not misting or allowing their animal a water bowl. Lo and behold, the vet later diagnosed it as being raaaather dehydrated. This water bowl thing is a MYTH. A myth perpetuated by the internet, based in a gross misunderstanding of respiratory infection epidemiology. In reality, a water bowl has ZERO effect on humidity. I have a bioactive enclosure with a big ol bowl. Humidity stays around 35% between the spikes when I water the viv. Furthermore, in Oz.humidity is actually very variable. Your Beardie is only going to get an RI when a range of poor husbandry factors are met and humidity is consistently very high indeed like in a tropical viv. People who keep tropical species do not maintain humidity by leaving a water bowl in there. Why? Because it has no discernible effect on humidity. Free access to water is one of the Five Freedoms. To deny them that freedom because some misinformed people who are blindly spewing out misinformation that has been repeated by so many people it has become fact in the Beardie community is nothing less than neglect. So person whose post I just read on an advice page, please listen to your vet and give your Beardie its water. Misting won’t hurt either. If a water bowl has no effect on humidity, misting won’t. Baths DO NOT hydrate them, that is a myth too. They DO NOT absorb water through the cloaca, this myth came from the fact that some lizards may absorb tiny amounts of water through the vent during brumation. Plus, even if he did drink from the bath, I would not like my dragon drinking water from the hot water tank........ Minimum Risk is BULLSHIT through and through and bad for the animals it’s inflicted on in a number of ways through misinformation and total lack of environmental enrichment and opportunities to display natural behaviour. It leads to inexperienced keepers thinking it’s ok to provide animals with only the bare minimum of survival needs.... leading to bored, chronically stressed and chronically dehydrated animals. Do some research of the science and you will find no veterinary basis in any of these silly, fear mongering minimum risk movements claims. Try it now guys, give your beardies a water bowl in the cool end and see how much nothing/fuck all/jack shit your humidity does! Don’t be sheep people! Don’t be fooled by loads of brainwashed people peddling out the same bullshit they sourced from some self proclaimed expert on the internet! If a piece of advice seems to fly in the face of commonly accepted welfare knowledge it is probably misinformation! Have you ever noticed that the only animals kept in minimum risk enclosures are the hardiest species? That is because living in such a sterile environment is too stressful for more delicate species. That should tell you all you need to know. Research bioactive. Join Reptile and Amphibian Bioactive Setups on facebook and learn about this fantastic way of keeping them which is better all round for your herps.
