How to Mist a Bearded Dragon (Step By Step Guide)

Misting your Bearded Dragon is a great way to help increase their hydration levels. It’s also very good for keeping the skin supple and in a healthy condition.

In this post, we will look at ‘how to’ mist your Bearded Dragon effectively, how many times per week you should be misting, the benefits of misting and other things you can mist to help your Dragon stay hydrated.

What Is Bearded Dragon Misting?

If you’ve never heard the term ‘misting’ or you’re not quite sure what it is when used in the context of a Bearded Dragon, then it is basically when you spray fine droplets of water on your Bearded Dragons head and body.

Misting is done either with a ‘misting bottle’ designed for misting Bearded Dragons or a general spray bottle, however, I would never recommend using a spray bottle that once had chemicals in it as your Dragon could possibly drink some of those chemicals.

The idea is to either wet the head so that the Bearded Dragon can drink the water as it runs down their face or to soak the skin to keep it soft. This can be especially handy when a Bearded Dragon is struggling to shed its skin.

How to Mist a Bearded Dragon

Let’s take a look at how you can mist your Bearded Dragon. There are two main reasons why you would want to mist your Dragon.

The first reason is for hydration purposes and the second reason is to keep the skin in good condition.

First, let’s look at how you can keep your Bearded Dragon hydrated by misting.

How to Mist For Dehydration

Step 1 – Get a spray bottle that sprays a fine mist. Don’t use a bottle that once had chemicals in it as some of the chemicals may still remain.

Step 2 – Fill the bottle with mildly warm water. Bottled water is best because of the purification process it goes through. You can use tap water, however, I would recommend using a water conditioner if you are going to use tap water regularly as this will ensure the water is chemicals such as chlorine are removed.

Step 3 – Spray the water on to your Bearded Dragons head until the water forms droplets.

Step 4 – Let your Bearded Dragon lap up the water droplets with their tongue as they run down their face.

Step 5 – Repeat the process until your Bearded Dragon stops lapping up the droplets. 

How to Mist to Enhance Skin Condition

Step 1 – (See & follow the first 2 steps from ‘misting for hydration’ as they are exactly the same and very important)

Step 2 – Choose a time to spray when your Bearded Dragon doesn’t need to use the basking lamp. For example, they need to bask first thing in the morning and straight after a meal so these aren’t good times to spray because once you put them back in their tank they will bask and dry off the water straight away.

Step 3 – Gently spray your Bearded Dragons head, body and limbs until you see droplets and the skin looks mildly soaked.

Step 4 – If your Bearded Dragon is shedding and there are areas of stubborn shed then you can give them a little fore attention, although you must be gentle with the spray as the area may be sore and irritable. 

If you want to know all about shedding then check out this post that shares all you need to know about shedding as an owner.

Step 5 – Leave your Bearded Dragon out of their tank for a while until the water has had a little time to soften their skin a little, 10 minutes or so should be fine.

Other Ways Of Using Misting to Benefit Your Bearded Dragon

As well as misting a Bearded Dragon directly you can also use misting bottles in very clever ways to help keep your Dragon hydrated.

Let’s look at two of the ways that you can indirectly use misting with your Bearded Dragon.

Misting Food

Misting food is a very sneaky but effective way that you can use to increase the hydration levels of your Bearded Dragon.

This is very easy to do and is something your Dragon often won’t even realise.

Misting Veggies

Step 1 – Place your Bearded Dragons favourite veggies or fruit finely chopped into a bowl.

Step 2 – Spray the fruit/veggies with water. (remember to use either bottled water or conditioned tap water) Normal tap water is ok but probably better to be conditioned if you do this regularly.

Step 3 – Place the sprayed fruit/veg into your Dragons tank and let them enjoy the food with added water.

Step 4 – Keep a close eye on the contents of the bowl over the day as the water will likely dry up in the heat of the tank. If this happens you can simply spray some more water on the fruit/veg.

Step 5 – Check the humidity levels in the tank. Sometimes when adding additional water this can raise the humidity levels. Here’s a post that shares a fantastic piece of equipment for checking humidity levels and more.

Plumping Food

Another technique that you can use that is similar to misting is ‘plumping’. This is when you submerge food into water so it soaks up some of that water and therefore increases the water intake of your Dragon when they eat the food.

Step 1 – Add some phoenix worms into a food bowl.

Step 2 – Fill the bowl with mildly warm water.

Step 3 – Leave the phoenix worms in the water until they start to wriggle around a lot.

Step 4 – Drain out the water and feed to phoenix worms to your Bearded Dragon. The worms will have soaked up some of the water and as your Dragon eats the worms they also consume the water and increase hydration. 

Misting Your Bearded Dragons Tank And Decor

Some Bearded Dragons don’t like to drink from water bowls so you have to find other ways of getting them to drink in order to keep their hydration levels healthy.

Here’s a post that shares how you can teach your Bearded Dragon to drink from a water bowl in a very clever way.

Misting your Dragons tank and decor is a sneaky way for you to keep them hydrated. 

Bearded Dragons love to lick things, this is because they use their tongue to make sense of their surroundings and make judgements about certain objects and it helps gauge things like temperature.

Here’s a great post that explains exactly how Bearded Dragons use their tongue.

You can use this fascination for licking to increase their hydration by misting various areas of their tank.

Step 1 – Take your Misting bottle and gently mist the glass of the tank, rocks, branches and other tank decor until a few droplets appear. You shouldn’t drench the whole tank and you certainly don’t need to mist every single item in the tank. 

Step 2 – Allow your Bearded Dragon in the tank and see what parts of the tank they like to lick and if they lap up any of the water in certain areas. This way next time you can focus on misting these areas and not wasting time wetting areas that they aren’t interested in. 

Step 3 – Check the humidity levels in the tank. Sometimes the increase in water evaporation can increase humidity levels and this is something you want to avoid. This is another reason why you shouldn’t over mist and why you should start by misting just a little and doing the necessary checks.

Remember there’s a post here that details all the recommended equipment you need for testing humidity, temperature and more.

What Are The Benefits Of Misting a Bearded Dragon?

There are some positive benefits of misting Bearded Dragons and it’s certainly something that you should incorporate into a weekly routine.

Here are some of the benefits of misting and why it’s a good idea.

Hydration

Probably the most obvious reason to mist a Bearded Dragon is to help with hydration.

Although Bearded Dragons don’t absorb water through their skin to drink they do however lap up the water with their tongue and drink it in a conventional way.

This can be extremely helpful if your Bearded Dragon won’t drink from a water bowl or you are worried that they are dehydrated.

Keeps Skin Soft

Regular misting can help to keep a Bearded Dragons skin soft. There are also other variables to this such as good lighting and diet but if you add a regular misting routine into the equation as well then this will only help to enhance the condition of your Dragons skin.

If you are unsure about how to set up the lighting for your Bearded Dragon correctly then take a look at this post that details the whole process and the correct equipment you will need.

Helps With Shedding

This reason is similar to the last one except when your Bearded Dragon is shedding they can sometimes get stubborn areas or patches of skin that simply refuse to shed.

Misting the stubborn areas can help to soften the shed and eventually realise the skin. While regularly misting can stop these patches from occurring in the first place. Animal Mom also backs this point up by talking about this is a post.

Again, there are a lot of other things you need to take care of as an owner such as diet and lighting, however, misting is something that will help your Dragon through the shedding process.

Another important part of shedding is having lots of rocks, branches and general decor that your Dragon can rub on to release the shed. In this post, I talk about the best decor to have in your tank to create a natural-looking habitat while allowing your Dragon to shed with ease.

How Often Should You Mist Your Bearded Dragon?

Now you know why it’s a good idea to mist your Bearded Dragon and exactly how to do it, you now need to know how many times you should mist them.

Here’s a guide that shares how many times you should mist your Bearded Dragon. (note: you don’t have to use all of these misting methods)

How Much Water Do Bearded Dragon Need Each Day?

With all the different ways to keep your Bearded Dragon hydrated such as providing a water bowl or misting their head or misting their food, it can be difficult to know exactly how much water they actually need on a daily basis to be healthy.

Here’s a chart to chat shares how much water Bearded Dragon need daily depending on their size.

Related Questions

Can you use tap water for a bearded dragon? You can use tap water for a Bearded Dragon, although it’s a good idea to use a water conditioner to remove any chemicals such as chlorine so your Bearded Dragon is drinking purer water.

How do you know if your Bearded Dragon is dehydrated? A Bearded Dragons that is dehydrated will look tired, lethargic and sleepy. They will have wrinkles on the sides of their body and they will often have ‘smile threads’ in their mouth that can be seen when open.

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