# Bearded Dragon White Legs



## cssh0599 (Feb 15, 2010)

I have a 6 month old beardie that we have had for four weeks. He is very active, eating loads, pooing loads and doing everything we think he should be doing. But his legs and tail have gone almost white. His body is bright orange/red. It's all been like this for about four days. We assumed he was shedding, but could he do it in bits rather than all at once?


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## cssh0599 (Feb 15, 2010)

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## Rogue665 (Mar 17, 2010)

Shedding and yes they do it in bits and pieces.


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## supatips (May 29, 2012)

The first time my first beardie shedded in my care his whole head went white. I had to get in touch with the breeder just to put my mind at rest! 

You will start to find patches of shed skin in the vivarium any day now!


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## cssh0599 (Feb 15, 2010)

Many thanks


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## Azastral (Jun 6, 2015)

Resist the urge to bathe him, the info you get about bathing helps shedding is all pure myth.

As they get older the sheds tend to get more and more patchy, while young you tend to see more whole section sheds and often the whole body almost one chunk after another, adults may shed legs one month then a few later a bit on their back and then later a bit on the belly etc etc.

Mist the viv once in the morning (avoid any bulbs) and then let him get on with it, a small water bowl in there is good too. The heat lamp will burn out most of the moisture as it warms the viv and thats really all you need to do as long as you are supplying good mix of veggies to keep hydration at the right levels. The dry air helps them shed rather than having wet skin that clings to them.


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## Creed (Apr 2, 2014)

Azastral said:


> Resist the urge to bathe him, the info you get about bathing helps shedding is all pure myth.
> 
> The dry air helps them shed rather than having wet skin that clings to them.


You got it backwards, bathing helps shedding the old skin. It's common practice to bath animals that had a bad shed to help remove it. The reason why you should not bath an animal during shedding is because you won't notice that the animal has shedding issues. This is usually an indication that your humidity is too low or that there is another underlying cause that should be fixed.

Air that is too dry will actually cause shedding issues. That's why it's some keepers recommend to provide a humid hide to aid in shedding. Too dry air is the problem, not the solution.


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## Debbie1962 (Dec 5, 2008)

Sorry but I agree with Azastral, beardies do not need bathing when shedding. Geckos yes but not beardies.


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## aquited (Oct 30, 2008)

Creed said:


> You got it backwards, bathing helps shedding the old skin. It's common practice to bath animals that had a bad shed to help remove it. The reason why you should not bath an animal during shedding is because you won't notice that the animal has shedding issues. This is usually an indication that your humidity is too low or that there is another underlying cause that should be fixed.
> 
> Air that is too dry will actually cause shedding issues. That's why it's some keepers recommend to provide a humid hide to aid in shedding. Too dry air is the problem, not the solution.


Beardies will only need bathing if General husbandry is lacking imo. Provide a large water bowl, I wouldn't bother with a moist hide for a bd either tbh

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## Creed (Apr 2, 2014)

I seem to be misunderstood, to clarify and repeat myself:

You should not bath a bearded while he's shedding. Like stated above an animal needs to shed by itself so you can observe if it's shedding correctly. If it's not able to do that, then something is wrong with the husbandry. Bathing the animal will mask the shedding problem.

Should a very bad shed needs to be removed you can use a bath. The water will help pull of the old shed more easily. It's not uncommon practice for rescue animals who has experience numerous bad sheds to be bathed to help remove the old unshedded skin. But this only in case of 'medical emergency'.

I'm not advocating bathing the animal during shedding. I was merely referring to bathing as method in case something went wrong. To refute the statement that wetting the old skin will stop it from coming of, while the opposite has been observed by many other keepers. I should have made that more clear in my previous post.


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## Azastral (Jun 6, 2015)

And as I stated above, having a dry environment whilst they shed is beneficial to beardies, bathing them and soaking the skin while they are shedding often means the shedding skin will cling to them for longer.

If you are looking after them properly they shouldn't need any aid shedding old skin and their normal vivarium environment is sufficient for them to shed by themselves..

I mentioned nothing about retained shed or indeed multiple retained sheds that require an owner's intervention to remove.


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