Maintaining your bearded dragon’s nails is part of reptile keeping and care. These majestic creatures belong in the wild and so it is natural that you might find yourself trimming claws every few months or so. Surprisingly, when it comes to dragon nail care, for some reason, a lot of people want to know whether it is safe to paint them.
Well, technically, the answer is yes. It is safe to paint your bearded dragon’s nails. No harm can be done by your pet’s claws being layered with polish. However, these little beings have a habit of testing things using tongues, so you have to be careful about them not tasting their nails.
If this sounds like a difficult job to you, continue reading this article because I do have a few tips to share.
What Is The Best Color To Paint A Bearded Dragon’s Nails?
You can choose any color to paint your beardie’s nails. There is no best color that is suitable for pet dragons and you can be creative with what you want to do. On the internet, a lot of people go for darker shades of the warm palette to go with the sandy color of the beardie’s scales.
All sorts of shades will go with it, hence, the best color to paint with is probably the one available in the non-toxic paint.
How To Paint a Bearded Dragon’s Nail?
Painting a bearded dragon’s nails is no different than painting a human’s nails. You might need extra people to keep the lizard still if your pet is a particularly squirmy one. That aside, all you have to do is use non-toxic nail polish and paint carefully on the little animal’s claws.
Make sure to only paint on the nails as if it gets on the skin, it might irritate your lizard and it would want to lick the area.
How To Get a Beardie To Sit Still For Painting Nails?
Bearded dragons can be squirmy pets when it comes to being held. They might just slip out thinking it’s lunchtime or might not want to be picked up depending on their mood. Thankfully, I never had to deal with a fussy one as the two bearded dragons I have kept in my lifetime were mild-tempered and loving.
They did have bad days though and would thrash around when it was time to trim nails. The following methods are how I managed to make them sit still for nail care time.
- Use Treats As Bait
For luring any sort of pet, giving them treats is the best option to keep them calm. Just slice up tiny bits of fruit and bring out the nail polish while they feed. In this way, your lizard might start relating nail painting to positive things, which is always a good thing.
You can also try painting your pet’s nails when it’s feeding time for them. If your pet is fond of you, chances are that they will simply focus on the food while you paint their nails.
- Try Burrito Wrapping Them
This is a convenient and gentle way to paint your beardie’s nails. When holding pet lizards, the one thing you have to be careful with is not squeezing them. It might panic your reptile friend and you might end up getting hurt as well.
To burrito wrap my pet, I simply take a soft, warm towel and wrap it around its body, little arms stuck out. This will keep both of you safe and you will be able to paint your beardie’s nails.
Burrito-ing your lizard is not just for keeping them still, but also for providing them comfort. Often, my beardie Trevor would fall asleep when I wrap him up, and once asleep, he would be too peaceful to care about anything! You could pet him, trim his nails, and even inject him with a syringe and he would not know.
- Get a Person to Hold Them
This should be the last method you might want to consider because a lot of people ganging up to hold your pet lizard might make them panic more. The number of persons you need also depends on the behavioral patterns of your beardie.
There is not much to explain about how to hold your bearded dragon. One of the two would have to hold it in the position most comfortable for your pet while the other paints its nails. Remember to never squeeze your beardie as it can be painful to them.
NOTE: If you have problems keeping your beardie still, you might try painting its nails when it is asleep. You would not have to worry about its movement and squirming.
What Type of Polish Is Safe?
Personally, I feel that these creatures look majestic with their natural nails. Besides, if you were to keep them polish-free, you would also not have to worry about whether it’s safe.
However, it is understandable that you might want to paint their claws after seeing a picture online as it is a common trend to do so with these pets. The following are the two types of nail paints that are safe to use.
- Nail Polish For Kids
Kids are known to swallow anything in sight, which is why everything produced for them is usually made less harmful. They may not completely be non-toxic but will lack certain ingredients that can turn them poisonous. The following are the ingredients that you might want to look out for:
- Formaldehyde
- Formaldehyde resin
- Dibutyl Phthalate
- Toluene
- Camphor
Polish made for children are also easier to remove and give you the same effect as the possibly toxic nail paint would do.
- Special Animal Nail Polish
If you do not have any kids around the house and have to buy children’s nail polish specifically for your pet, you might as well go ahead and buy nail paint made for animals. Many pet lovers apart from beardie owners enjoy painting their pet’s nails. You can go for ones specifically made for dogs or cats as well.
Nail paint made for animals are completely safe to use as they are specifically made keeping ingestion in mind. They also dry up quickly and you would not have to worry about your pet licking them up.
How To Remove Paint From A Bearded Dragon’s Nail?
Whether you have picked non-toxic or less toxic nail polish, there are special nail paint removers made for dogs that will work fine with your bearded lizard as well. All you have to do is tip the bottle onto a cotton pad to get it wet like you would with human remover. Then you gently rub out the color until it’s gone.
Related Questions
- Is It Safe To Trim Bearded Dragon’s Nails?
Yes, it is safe to trim your bearded dragon’s nails, and should be done as part of pet lizard care.
- How Often Should I Trim My Bearded Dragon’s Nails?
Your bearded dragon’s nails should be trimmed once every 4 to 6 months.
- How To Know When To Cut My Bearded Dragon’s Nails?
If you notice that your beardie’s nails are getting caught in surfaces like the carpet, curtains, or couch, it is probably time to trim its nails.
Conclusion
While it is not unusual to see bearded dragons all dressed up in little outfits by owners, it is a difficult and somewhat hazardous job to paint their nails.
Hence, be careful and make sure to take all precautions before you go ahead with it. After all, most of us would not want a beautiful pet more than a healthy one!
I hope that this article has been helpful in your pursuit of safely painting your pet dragon’s nails.