Dragons drinking from water bowl

I saw a post on here a while back where some one indicated that you should not have a water bowl in your dragon's enclosure because they will never drink from it. My wife had always misted our dragons but about two weeks ago she started putting a waterbowl in our dragon's enclosure( we have four, two males and two females). I asked her why she was doing this and she said she will teach them to drink from the bowl. Everyday she would bring the dragons to the bowl and put their mouth to the water, sometimes they would drink and sometimes not.

Yesterday morning, about an hour after their lights came on, two of the dragons were up at the waterbowl drinking. I was completely taken by surprise because I did not believe they could be taught to drink from a bowl. A third dragon was drinking from the bowl by herself this morning.

How common is it for someone toteach their dragons to drink from a water bowl?

Larry,,
I keep a large number of dragons as breeders,, and i don't use water bowls for a few reasons,, even though a dragon may be taught to drink from a bowl,,( which none of mine do) ,, There are a few issues to consider,, first is taking for granted that a dragon will drink from a water bowl when it gets thirsty,, What i mean by that is very simple,, suppose you have the 4 dragons,, as you have them in the same enclosure,, what if 2 or 3 dragons drink and 1 or 2 don't realize the standing water,, and get dehydrated,, to me it just takes a lot for granted,,
second is i Guess to me the most important,, dragons love to deficate in water,, be it what ever you immerse dragons in,, I use large rubbermaid tubs,, and have to change the water almost every time a dragon soaks, as they all seem to deficate in it,, so what happens if a dragon deficates in the water,, and another drinks,,,? I don't care how many times you change it,, or keep an eye on it,, i am sure it can happen,,,
The third thing is also important,, dragons soak up a lot of water,, and i think it is very important to let dragons soak and hydrate that way also,, if you don't believe they soak up a ton of water put them in blue gatorade,, and it turns them blue,, so they must soak up a ton of water,,

I guess my whole point is why try and change the natural way dragons are use to getting their hydration,,, most don't recognize a bowl or standing water,, and that is just one of the little hangups of keeping dragons,, but it does not take any longer to mist them with a pump up sprayer than it does to change water bowls all the time,, and worry about them getting fouled,,,,
for me,, it is just safer to make sure they all get proper hydration,, and it makes for happy and healthy dragons for sure,,!

I've never had a dragon that wouldn't drink from a bowl. I've noticed that even hatchlings, fresh from the egg, recognize standing water, and are willing to drink from it. The fecal arguement against waterbowls is a good one, but in my experience, the dragons don't defecate in the water all that often. True, almost every time I give them a warm soaking, they do defecate. However, I rarely (read as a few times a week) find fecal matter in the water bowl. The bigger the bowl, IE. the more easily the dragon can use it to soak, the more likely it is for the dragon to defecate in it.

Joe,

I appreciate your arguments especially as to the defecation. I can tell you that in the almost three weeks that this has been going on, there has been no defecation in the bowl.

Regarding the soaking up of water, I have no doubt that the dragons soak up some water through the skin. The Gatorade analogy is not a good one because of the dye or coloring in Gatorade. Anything somewhat porous will absorb the gatorade and its color.

The main point of the thread was that I though this was interesting. It may have been a post of yours that I referred to regarding the fact that dragons won't drink from a bowl. I don't believe that having the dragons drink from a bowl interferes with their natural inclinations anymore than providing them fruit, vegetables, and insects that would be unavailable to them in their natural enviroment. Anyway, thanks for the response.

Larry D. Stassin

if your talking about bearded dragons, then not only is a water bowl great for drinking, but a large containter is readly used for soaking , just make sure you clean at least 2 times a day as they love useing it as a bathroom, i used to let me beardies run lose on my screen pool patio and they would always be hanging out at the edge of the pool with there tails in the water, but i had to put a stop to this becuse they keepd dumping in the water

The beauty of a forum like this,,,
I guess the beauty of a forum like this is very simple,,, to each there own,,, i have right at 90 breeders,, 62 holdbacks,, and a few over 100 hatchlings right now,, and 600-700 eggs or so in the incubator,, and i have a tried and true method that works for me,, and i was trying to pass on my experiences,,, I have only been doing this with dragons for about 10 years now,, so what do i know..?
Th problem with a thread like this about using a water bowl or anything out of the regular tried and true methods,,of keeping dragons,, is real simple,, a "newbie" comes here,, reads about using a water bowl,, and is not adept as seeing the signs of dehydration
lets there dragon suffer,,,,"because they read it was ok" some people feed dragons only pellets also,, "because they read it was ok" a dragon may survive on only pellets,, but i don't think they reach there full potential on only pellets,,,
but what do i know..?

you said a whole lot with out really saying nothing, are you saying it is not safe to give water to a beardie with a water bowl? its crazy to think that someone just feeds there dragon pellets when its so cool to watch them munch down some greens or chase around bugs. maybe bowls are not good for mass produceing dragons, but if you have a pet or a little group water bowls are excelent. but please take notice what your dragons behavoir is

There is no reason to get defensive Joe. I've bred dragons commercially too, but that doesn't make me the keeper of all knowledge concerning bearded dragons.

You said you have a tried and true method that works for you, and that's exactly what it is, a method that works for you. In your experience, water bowls are not as good as daily misting, and as such, should be avoided. You passed on your experience, now it is up to the "newbies" who come here to read these posts and decided what is best for their dragon(s). They must decide what method works for them.