Overgrown bearded dragon nails can be extremely long and razor-sharp, exposing the pet owner or handler to substantial skin punctures, scratches, bleeding, and potential infection from the sharp nail tips. Moreover, unusually long bearded dragon nails can curl and pierce the lizard’s underfoot, inhibit proper movement and climbing, and prevent the dragon from digging and burrowing efficiently.
Further, the overgrown nails often snag on various materials and surfaces, leading to frequent nail breakages, loss, and painful toe injuries such as twisting, breakage, and deformities.
Fortunately, trimming bearded dragon nails prevents most injuries and other complications that can result from overgrown bearded dragon toenails. Thus, nail trimming is essential to responsible bearded dragon pet care.
Let’s review the most common reasons for overgrown bearded dragon nails.
Reasons for Overgrown Bearded Dragon Nails
Captivity
Bearded dragons’ toenails in the wild are constantly rubbing against the ground, rocks, trees, and other objects and surfaces as the dragon walks, digs, burrows underneath, and climbs rocks and trees.
Additionally, a beardie naturally wears down its toenails as it hunts down smaller animals and bugs and forages for plant-based foods. Thus, a wild beardie’s toenails hardly grow too long, so they don’t require trimming.
On the other hand, captive (pet) bearded dragons rarely fend for themselves but depend on you (the caregiver or owner) for their daily meal.
Additionally, caged beardies engage in limited activities such as digging, climbing, and burrowing as they’re restricted to the terrarium. Consequently, pet beardies’ nails often overgrow when left unchecked.
Here’s the remedy: To keep your beloved beardie pet’s toenails short, comfortable, and effective, you must trim, clip, or file them to a suitable length.
While the best frequency to trim off unusually long bearded dragon nails depend on the rate at which the nails grow. Trimming the toenails three to four times yearly is ideal in most cases.
Neglect
As a bearded dragon pet owner, it’s your responsibility to maintain your pet’s toenails in manageable shape and size.
However, if you neglect this duty and leave the dragon’s nails to grow too long without trimming, they’ll eventually overgrow into unusually long and curled nails with needle-like tips.
To prevent overgrowth of toenails in bearded dragons, ensure you regularly monitor the nails and trim them when they start developing sharp tips. It’s best not to wait for the nails to overgrow and start curling or hurting the beardie or your body when you handle the pet.
Heightened Inactivity
While bearded dragons love exploring, playing, and basking on top of stones, hammocks, branches, and other elevated surfaces, they sometimes become withdrawn, lazy, and inactive. The increased inactivity in bearded dragons results from stress, illness, or extremely low tank temperatures.
When a bearded dragon stays inactive for too long, its toenails grow unimpeded and can reach unusual lengths. Eventually, they’ll start curling inwards and bring the lizard many other lifestyle and health complications.
Luckily, resolving the underlying issue causing your beardie to stay unusually inactive often reverts the dragon to its normal active state.
Consequently, the lizard walks around, scratches, digs, plays, and climbs various objects, naturally filing its toenails and preventing them from overgrowing.
Inappropriate Substrate Choice
Bearded dragons love burrowing as they slumber in caves and other ground burros in their natural habitats. Moreover, gravid female beardies dig up lay holes where they deposit their eggs in readiness for hatching.
Likewise, pet bearded dragons often dig and burrow under the substrate to regulate their body temperatures (thermoregulation).
If you have a gravid beardie but fail to provide a laying box, your female beardie will attempt to dig up the substrate to create a safe, cozy, and secluded place to lay her eggs.
On top of that, pet beardies scratch and dig the substrate for various reasons, including heightened stress buildup, unfavorable tank conditions, hunger, and the presence of other bearded dragons or other pets inside or near their terrarium.
Here’s the catch: If you’re using an inappropriate substrate such as smooth tiles, your pet won’t be able to naturally wear down their nails as they walk, scratch, dig, and climb around in their enclosure.
The solution to this problem is straightforward- replace the inappropriate substrate with a suitable choice, such as rough-textured porcelain tiles.
Along with this, upgrade the beardie’s enclosure with various rough-textured items such as textured rocks, hides, branches, and wooden logs.
As the dragon goes about its normal activities inside the terrarium, the rough-textured furniture naturally trims down the pet’s nails, prevents them from overgrowing, and allows you to take longer before clipping the nails.
Why Should You Trim Bearded Dragons’ Nails?
1. Pet Owner Safety
Handling a bearded dragon with unusually long (overgrown) toenails presents numerous health risks to the owner.
On the other hand, trimming the nails protects you from skin piercings, scratches, irritation, and potential infection from the dragon’s sharp claws.
2. Essential Pet Healthcare
Trimming a bearded dragon’s nails is not only part of the usual pet care but is also an essential component of the dragon’s healthcare.
Trimming beardie nails ensures the toes and feet meet the ground at the right angles while walking, climbing, digging, or sleeping.
Therefore, nail clipping protects the beardie against potential toe and foot injuries and deformities arising from overgrown nails awkwardly twisting the toes to the side or digging into the nail’s live tissue (matrix) and underfoot.
3. Pet Comfort
Besides protecting a beardie’s toes and feet from injuries and deformities, regular nail trimming helps to keep the dragon comfortable.
Remember, a comfortable beardie is active, healthy, and happy. So, keeping the lizard’s nails short is crucial in keeping the pet healthy and in shape.
4. Efficient Functioning
A bearded dragon uses its nails and toes to perform most of its daily activities. Overgrown beardie toenails inhibit most beardie activities and cause the lizard to be withdrawn, stressed out, and unhealthy.
On the other hand, clipping off the toenails to manageable lengths ensures the lizard’s toes and nails function efficiently to give the reptile balance and stable grip when walking, digging, climbing, burrowing, hunting down live insect feeders, and sleeping.
5. Protection against Nail and Toe Infections
You’ll agree that long and dirty toenails are breeding grounds for various disease-causing germs such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
Likewise, overgrown bearded dragon toenails can host colonies of disease-causing pathogens, especially if the pet passes through or resides in an unusually dirty place.
Uneaten food, poop, and parasites can collect under overgrown beardie nails, leading to many health challenges like diarrhea and other more severe infirmities.
The good news is that trimming your bearded dragon’s toenails ensures that no dirt, grime, parasites, or other pathogens collect under the nails.
Consequently, short and clean toenails protect your pet dragon against nail and toe infections, amongst other dirt-bred health issues.
When Should You Trim Bearded Dragon’s Nails?
Some beardie experts recommend clipping off the nails once or twice yearly, while most believe it’s best to trim the toenails thrice or four times annually. Moreover, some beardie enthusiasts claim that they trim their dragon’s front nails 3-4 times yearly while clipping those in the hind legs 1-2 times annually.
It’s best to get down to the business of clipping the toenails promptly if you observe these situations:
- When you suffer skin puncture or scratch markings immediately after handling your dragon.
- You see the beardie’s nails curling inward toward the toes and underfoot. If you don’t trim the nails, they’ll continue to grow and puncture your beardie’s underfoot, causing substantial pain and discomfort and can potentially cause infections.
- Whenever the toenails start snagging on surfaces or objects the lizard is climbing or walking on, such as fabrics (carpets, clothing, and blankets) and other places such as tight cracks. Remember, snagging can break or rip off the nails from their matrix and may not regrow afterwards.
- The bearded dragon’s nails bending the toes or twisting them awkwardly to the side as it is walking on a hard surface. The toes should stay perpendicular to the ground.
- Frequent toe and nail infections due to accumulated dirt and infectious pathogens under the toenails
How to Trim Bearded Dragon’s Nails?
Here’s what you’ll need to clip your pet beardie’s nails to a manageable and healthy length:
- A pet nail clipper (or a regular nail clipper or standard nail file). Specialized cat/pet nail clippers feature a safety stop to shield the toe against accidental clipping.
- Alcohol to sterilize the clipping tool.
- Bearded dragon treats to relax and reward your pet after the procedure.
- A blanket to cover the bearded dragon tank.
Ensure you have prepped everything for the procedure before starting. When you’re ready, proceed as follows:
- Relax the bearded dragon by stroking its head, giving it a massage or warm bath, feeding it lightly, or covering its tank with a blanket so the pet can think it’s dark. If the lizard is still jumpy or squirmy, place a hand in front of its head without touching it for some time before attempting to pick up the dragon again.
- Gently but firmly pick up the dragon from above or behind. Keep off the dragon’s mouth to avoid bites.
- Firmly but gently hold the nail you intend to trim but move your hand from in front of the dragon’s face to let it know your intentions are peaceful.
- Move a finger along the nail’s underside to locate a bump representing the toe’s quick and host nerve endings and blood vessels.
- Use the pet nail clipper to cut off the dark, black, or clear beta-keratin nail depending on the beardie’s morph (remember hypo beardies have all-clear nails) but leave the quick intact.
- If you accidentally nip the quick, dip the toe in styptic powder or sprinkle a little powder onto the wound to control the bleeding and accelerate healing.
- Repeat the procedure from steps iii to VI above on the remaining toenails. You might be surprised to discover that the hind toenails don’t require extensive or frequent nail trimming as the front ones, as they rarely grow as much.
- Once you’re done trimming all the nails, give your dragon a tasty treat, such as its favorite snack, to reward them for staying calm through the procedure. The treat also calms down the reptile if it’s jumpy after the nail clipping.
Trimming a bearded dragon’s overgrown nails is easy if your pet stays relaxed through the procedure. While the process can sometimes be demanding, it’s equally rewarding to both the pet and its owner.
At What Age Should You Start Cutting Bearded Dragons Nails?
There’s no fixed age to start trimming your beardie’s toenail. Rather, you should clip the nails whenever you notice that they’re growing too long, whether the dragon is a baby, juvie, or adult, to protect yourself and the dragon from the problems we’ve outlined above.
Are You Supposed to Cut Your Bearded Dragon’s Nails?
Yes, it’s crucial to clip a pet beardie’s long and sharp nails before they overgrow, curl, and start presenting a host of problems.
You’ll know the toenails are due for trimming when you suffer scratches or skin punctures after handling the lizard, the pet can’t climb objects efficiently or walk steadily, the nails start curling, or the toes twist sideways due to overgrown nails.
Why Should You Trim a Pet Bearded Dragon’s Nails?
Trimming a pet bearded dragon’s nails to an ideal length offers many benefits to the pet and its owner or handler.
It protects you from skin injuries, irritation, and potential infection, protects the beardie against nail, toe, and foot injuries and deformities, prevents the nails from snagging and allows the reptile to go about its normal activities (walking, digging, sleeping, climbing, and basking) conveniently.
Can You Trim Your Bearded Dragon’s Toenails with Standard Nail Clippers?
While pet stores recommend varying nail clipping tools for bearded dragon nails, specialized pet nail clippers are best suited for this task. Nonetheless, a standard human nail clipper will do the job just fine if your beardie pet is small.
Then again, you’ll require specialized nail clippers to trim the toenails of big-bodied bearded dragons. Nail clippers designed for bigger pets such as dogs and cats or bigger reptile pets are ideal for trimming big beardies’ nails with large and thick toenails.
But there’s a catch: Whatever nail-clipping tool you settle on, use it on that specific pet alone to prevent spreading infections among different bearded dragons or other pets.
Can I Paint My Bearded Dragons Nails?
Since bearded dragon nails are composed of beta keratin like those of humans, it’s safe to paint the nails as long as you’re using non-toxic nail polish.
In Brief
Wild bearded dragons have numerous ways to wear down their nails and prevent them from overgrowing naturally.
They dig and burrow to create sleeping and hiding spots, hunt for bugs, and climb onto branches, rocks, and tree logs to bask, naturally filing their toenails to ideal lengths.
On the other hand, captive (pet) bearded dragons rely on their owner to keep their toenails in check.
In the absence of these nail size checks, pet beardies often develop overgrown nails that negatively impact not only the health and lifestyle of the dragons but that of their owners or caregivers.
Overgrown bearded dragon toenails present many challenges to the pet, including a weak grip on objects and the inability to climb, walk, and dig effectively. They can even cause serious toe injuries and deformities.
Further, exceptionally long or sharp beardie nails make it harder for you to handle the dragon due to the painful and irritating claw marks the nails leave on the skin.
On the other hand, trimming the nails to an ideal length offers a host of perks, including enhancing pet care; enabling the dragon to walk, dig, climb, bask, and play effectively; protecting the lizard from toe infections, injuries, and deformities; and keeping both you and the pet comfortable and happy.
While trimming a pet bearded dragon’s nails might seem overwhelming initially, it’s a straightforward task that should be exciting and smooth as long as you have a cordial relationship with your dragon.
Better yet, the exercise gets easier with time as both you and the dragon get accustomed to the procedure.
