How Often Should I Mist My Bearded Dragon? The Facts!

One of the most often debated questions regarding bearded dragon care is how often you should mist your bearded dragon.

There are lots of reasons why you might want to add a regular misting schedule to your bearded dragons care routine, but the question is how often should you actually mist them?

In this post, we will take a close look at how often you can mist your bearded dragon including times when it might be wise to both increase and decrease misting.

We will also cover why misting can be important to bearded dragons and all other related misting questions.

So, how often should you mist your bearded dragon? A misting schedule of 2-3 times per week up to 1 time per day is adequate for most bearded dragons. You should try and either increase or decrease misting depending on how much water your bearded dragon usually drinks from their water bowl as this will regulate hydration.

Read On to Find Out…

How Often Should I Mist My Bearded Dragon? (More Info)

Knowing how often to mist your bearded dragon can be tricky as this will generally come down to a number of factors that are dependent on your beardies personal situation.

A large portion of bearded dragon owners like to mist their beardies around 2-3 times per week as well as providing a water bowl.

With this being said, bearded dragons can be misted up to one time per day. 

We would recommend you observe how much water your bearded dragon drinks from their water bowl (if you provide one) and mist more or less frequently depending on how often they drink.

Some bearded dragons don’t like to drink from standing water (more on this later) which means that misting more often and making it the main form of hydration would make more sense as they generally love misting too.

If your bearded dragon drinks freely and regularly form their water bowl on a daily basis and isn’t dehydrated then misting may not be necessary at all.

You may need to increase your misting schedule up to once per day when they are shedding if you aren’t already as shedding can be a tough process for beardies and misting can loosen the skin and help the process to be a much smoother one.

Here’s a guide that shares how much bearded dragons need to drink on a daily basis and what happens if they don’t get enough water…

If you are wondering how much bearded dragons should drink on a daily basis then here’s a guide…

How Often Should I Mist My Baby Bearded Dragon?

When you first bring your baby bearded dragon home there is so much to think about in order to ensure your beardie grows both happy and healthy.

One of the care elements that are most important is hydration and how to provide that hydration.

It can often be hard to know how often you should mist your baby bearded dragon or if you should even do it at all?

So, how often should you mist your baby bearded dragon? Baby bearded dragons can be misted 2-3 times per week up to 1 time per day if needed. You should observe how much water your bearded dragons drinks and mist more often or less depending on how much they drink to top up their hydration accordingly.

Something else that is important to note is that baby bearded dragons shed on a regular basis and misting helps with this process (more on this shortly) so misting more often during shedding is generally recommended.

How Often Should I Mist My Bearded Dragon When Shedding?

Every bearded dragon handles the shedding process a little differently. While one beardie sheds with no problems another beardie will have a tough old time.

Increasing misting during shedding will keep the skiing sort and help it to shed a little easier.

If you feel your bearded dragon is struggling and could benefit from a little more misting then you can mist anywhere from the standard 2-3 times per week up to 1 time daily.

There is no perfect misting schedule and for the most part, you will have to use your own judgement to see when your dragon can benefit from increased misting to help with the shedding process.

Why Should I Mist My Bearded Dragon?

Now you know how often it’s generally advised to mist your bearded dragon, it’s also important to understand the reasons why misting is important and the role it can play in a healthy beardie.

Here are the 2 reasons why misting is important for bearded dragons:

• Hydration
• Shedding

Let’s now take a look at the 2 reasons why misting is important in more depth…

1. Hydration

The main reason why most owners mist their beardies is for hydration purposes.

Misting is a great way to ensure your beardie is actually drinking as you can literally see them lapping up the water droplets as they run down their face.

In the wild, bearded dragons don’t actually drink from running or standing water and will hydrate themselves by lapping up the early morning dew from plants and from moisture contained in the vegetation and insects they eat.

This means that often beardies won’t drink from water bowls and even if they do it’s not something that always provides full hydration (this will differ from beardie to beardie as some love to drink from bowls in captivity)

If your dragon doesn’t like to drink standing water from a bowl then misting is a more natural way to provide them with hydration.

If you are worried that your beardie is dehydrated then there are few ‘tell-tale’ ways that you can see if they are dehydrated or not.

6 ways to tell if a bearded dragon is dehydrated:

• Lack of appetite
• Sunken eyes
• Wrinkled skin
• Lethargic
• Loose skin test
• Saliva strands on the mouth

It’s important to note that a lot of the signs of dehydration can also be signs of other issues too. 

Most of these signs are pretty self-explanatory except the ‘loose skin test’. For this test, you will need to gently pinch some skin and if the skin goes back into place very slowly and is very loose then this is a good sign of dehydration.

2. Shedding

Misting is also a hugely important way for owners to help with the shedding process.

Bearded dragons can often struggle to shed their skin smoothly as unlike snakes that often shed in one full piece, bearded dragons shed in patches.

This can lead to them itching, becoming sore, grumpy and also causing other complications too.

One such complication is stubborn shed wrapping around toes etc and resulting is shortened blood supply and even loss of digits.

There are several factors such as diet and UVB exposure that will help them to shed easier but regular misting will also help.

Misting softens the skin and helps it to shed much more easily. Increasing your misting schedule around the time your bearded dragon is ready to shed can make the process a much smoother one.

Have you ever wondered if you should hold your beardie while they are shedding? Well, check out this post that tells you all you need to know about handling a shedding bearded dragon…

How Else Can I Use Misting For My Bearded Dragon?

As well as misting your bearded dragon directly, there are a couple of other ways that you can use misting to increase hydration in your bearded dragon.

These methods include:

• Misting the tank
• Misting food

Let’s now take a closer look at both of these misting methods…

1. Misting The Tank

You can actually mist the inside of your bearded dragon’s tank as they will often lap up the water droplets that the misting provides.

This method isn’t very popular with a lot of owners as it will increase the humidity levels within the tank.

This means that you should only really use it as a last resort or if your humidity levels are on the low side.

You can find out everything you need to know about the correct humidity your bearded dragon needs and how you can higher and lower them in our new bearded dragon humidity guide…

2. Misting Greens

Another great way to increase your bearded dragon’s hydration is to mist their greens.

As your beardie consumes the greens they will also intake the added water you have sprayed on their food without even knowing.

This method is quick and easy, however, certain greens can become soggy and unpalatable so it’s best to choose greens and fruits that will hold firm.

It’s also worth mentioning that misting food can also increase the humidity levels in the tank slightly so you need to be aware of that and where you put your dragon’s food bowl.

Keep an eye on their hygrometer and watch for fluctuations in the readings to see if there is any noticeable difference in the humidity levels after misting the food.

There lots of other ways bearded dragons can actually drink. Here’s our new post that shares the different and little known ways that bearded dragons can drink…

Can I Mist My Bearded Dragon Too Much?

Even though misting is generally good for bearded dragons, like anything, you don’t want to overdo it.

If you stick to the general advice of misting between 2-3 times per week up to 1 time per day depending on how much water your beardie is drinking from a bowl then you should have no worries about misting them too much.

Over hydration isn’t really something that is seen very often and dehydration is much more common.

A sign of over hydration is diarrhoea but this can often be difficult to pinpoint just through this symptom alone as diarrhoea can be a sign of many more health issues.

The main thing is to stick to a sensible misting schedule and either increase or decrease the amount of time you mist depending on how much your beardie is drinking, signs of dehydration or shedding issues.

If you are in doubt you can always speak to your vet for personalised advice.

How Do I Mist My Bearded Dragon?

Misting your bearded dragon correctly is also essential and this can make the difference between keeping them hydrated or dehydrated.

The idea of misting is that you mist the top of the head until water droplets form and then run down your dragon’s head and towards their mouth.

Instead of including a guide here, we have created a full step by step misting guide in a separate post.

The misting guide shares everything you need to know about how to mist your beardie correctly.

Here’s the misting guide – How to Mist Your Bearded Dragon (Step By Step)

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