How often do you give baths?

[tignish99]

I am sure this has already been answered, but I searched and was unable to find any posts.

How often do you give your Skink a bath? Mine poos every day or two so I am pretty sure there are no issues there that require a bath. Her poo looks the way it should. She drinks her water fine. Her shed has been fine too so far. Are there any other reasons why I should bathe her and if yes, how often?

Thank you

[Linnea]

they only really need a soak if they have been unable to get rid of the tailtip or toe shed by themselves
one of my lizards once had a very rough and dry stomach due to humidity issues during winter 2 years ago, a bath with a drop of olive oil solved that - and increased tank humidity during winter

although, if they pooped one of those monster poops that sticks to everything.....you are probably going to need to wash everything anyway

[tignish99]

You are not kidding! How can something so small make a poop that big?

[Richard.C]

Ive never bathed them,thats just me though

[Vengeance]

I used to bathe Gizmo when I noticed he was coming up to a shed. Stressed him out a fair bit so I stopped doing it. Instead I mist the hot end when he isn't on the basking tile to raise humidity. Do the same for my snakes because bathing them is stressful, being musked by a Jungle python with some retained shed is not on my to do list.

I recently had to bathe Ninja because the little tucker peed on the basking tile then sat in it. Smelt awful, managed to get most off of him/her and the tile was as easy as a bit of hot water, F10 and elbow grease to clean. Astro is coming into shed so will get some misting up the hot end of his/her enclosure.

In saying that if I do notice retained shed on any of my critters they get either a bath for the skinks or a damp cloth rubbed gently over their scales for the snakes. Only retained shed we've had since misting are problem areas, e.g tip of tail, top of head for the skinks. Gizmo's shed his gloves (feet) like clockwork without any retained shed for months now.

[jdheff1982]

Mine bathes itself. I often times find it sitting in the water dish for a few moments. That's cool with me!

[Dakota]

I actually gave Maxx a shower yesterday (they come from a rainforest okay..), and he quite enjoyed it! He doesn't much like baths, but showers were tolerated.

I used to give mine baths, but I never do anymore.. no need for it really.. especially when I keep them outside here.

[Coomassie]

Sometimes Coomassie will chill in his water dish which is big enough for him to get most of his body in. He generally does that in the summer if he thinks he is too warm. I've never put him in a bath.

[Dakota]

I think baths should only be given while you are in the process of fixing the humidity of the enclosure (like what Cay just said), not to avoid fixing the humidity.. and that it what some people are not really realizing.

I gave Maxx a shower to stimulate the coming of the raining season, so he can start eating better and become more active, nothing to do with the ambient humidity of the enclosure..

[Coomassie]

I gave Maxx a shower to stimulate the coming of the raining season, so he can start eating better and become more active, nothing to do with the ambient humidity of the enclosure..

Is there a reason you don't just mist the enclosure? I feel like that would give a better illusion of rain than a bath. Also, there are a lot of pressure changes that come with changing weather that I know reptiles can sense rather than the actual rain it's self.

[Dakota]

I plan to start misting only, once the rains comes in full swing outside, so not only they sense it, but also feel it.

The shower has nothing to do with barometric pressure, as that would be impossible to imitate, but rather the spike in humidity that they haven't had much lately in the dry season.. which is also thought to trigger some mental notes right beside/along barometric pressure from what I am understanding.