Chinese Water Dragons

There are a few things to consider when it's time to buy your Water Dragon.

1) Is the animal captive bred or wild caught? A captive bred animal was bred in captivity, usually from parents who were in captivity at the time of conception. Wild caught animals were caught in the wild and sent to wholesalers, importers & / or other animal dealers.

The general rule of thumb is captive bred are preferable to wild caught.

Wild caught animals often come with parasites & possibly other injuries that will require care & possibly a trip to the vet. Some fail to adapt to their new life in captivity, stressed, unhappy & eventually dying prematurely. Captive bred animals usually do not have these kind of illnesses or adaptation issues.

Examine your new pet prospect. Make sure he or she is not too skinny, eyes are open & not sunken in. No visible signs of sores or injury.

Watch the dragon for a few minutes. Makes sure he gets around the cage with no problems, as this may indicate injury if he has trouble climbing or walking.

Chinese water dragons are green & range from 2 - 3 feet in length as adults (about 60% of that length is tail). Males are about 1/3 bigger than females and have much much more pronounced crests all along their body.

Both male & female dragons green with colours ranging from a dark forest green to a light mint green. The lower body of adult dragons is generally white or very light yellow. Vertical, slanted stripes (like this \) run along the sides of the water dragons body. These stripes can range from a pale green , mint green, to an aqua or turquoise. The throats of juvenile and adult water dragons can also be quite colorful, with throat colors ranging from a very pale yellow, to orange, pink & purple.

Water dragons, like the name implies, love the water. Mine take turns soaking in their over-sized water dish and also enjoy the wet moss I keep in the corner of the cage. I've broken down lizard & water dragon care into categories below:

These first few weeks are a crucial transition step for your new pets. They will probably arrive stressed from their travels & new environment so be sure to give them lots of rest. covering 3 or 4 sides of the tank with a sheet or towel to avoid outside stimuli helps & helps them learn the limits of their new surroundings. Making sure their cage has a few good hiding places is recommended.

They will try and climb on the glass, but cannot like Gecko's can. They will especially try and climb if you have a natural background that appears like the wild. They seem to figure it out after a few weeks though and stop trying to climb on this.

They may not eat much at first, especially while you're watching. They will eat eventually though, so don't panic.

1) Humidity: These guys need moisture in the air, or a humid tank. I use water retaining plants to accomplish this. Live plants in Chinese water dragon terrariums can be plants such as pothos, dracena, hibiscus, ficus, and staghorn ferns make a good addition. Anything that is non-toxic will do. You can even make a little tree hang-out out of the top of a pineaplle and save a few bucks!

2)Temperature Zones: Like all lizards, they require two distinctly different temperature zones in their cage. I have used sticks to create an area where they can bask underneath their heat lamp and warm up. Then the other side of the tank is their water, plants & humid section. They will naturally go back and forth. Day time temperatures should be between 84 and 88 F (28.9 C - 31.1 C), night time temperatures should be between 75 and 80 F (23.9 C - 26.7 C). It's a good idea to have at least two thermometers. One should be on the cool side, and one thermometer should be placed on the warm side of the enclosure.

3) Lighting: Your little guys will need both an infrared light for nighttime heating and a full spectrum light (fake sun). The black light or infrared light the lizards can't see so they can sleep with it on but it keeps their tank from getting too cold at night. The fake sun is needed to help keep the lizards stay healthy by replicating (as closely as possible) natural sunlight, allowing them to produce vitamins from the UVA & UVB rays in the light.

4) Heat Lamps: A heat lamp should keep the area around the light between 88 - 100 degrees, provided that you have a large enough cage for their to be a cooler area on the other side of the cage or tank. I use a 75 watt bulb in my tank, you will have to play with the wattage for yourself until you find the right strength. Having 2 thermometers will help you get the temps just right.

If you're using a small tank (which I recommend only for a short time) you can use a lower wattage bulb that makes the air about 80 - 84 degrees. That should work fine.

5) Tank Size: You could start a baby lizard in as little as a 10 gallon tank, although you will quickly want to give them a bigger enclosure as they grow. I use an 80 gallon fish tank with a custom wire mesh top for the lights to sit on. It's important the tank has height as well as width & depth. Water dragons, like almost all lizards, enjoy climbing and perching. You can get great sticks for them to hang out on from any reptile store both online or off. This will also make the cage more spacious for them by giving it 2 levels: One to walk around and soak in on the bottom & one up in the air where they can happily move from branch to branch. I use an 80 gallon tank, 2 ft tall, 18 inches deep, 4 ft long.

6 Flooring: Some sort of substrate should be used. Soft small bits of bark work well, I use Zoo Med Repti Bark and give them enough so they can dig around a bit.

This all depends on how old your lizard is when you get them and your patience in introducing new foods.

If you start with a young dragon, it will readily accept many different types of food. Things like lettuce, red grapes, red peppers, crickets, meal worms & pinky mice.

Older lizards will at least at first only eat what they are used to, and will be much less adventurous with new foods. I got my lizards when they were 2 years old and already accustomed to pinky mice and meal worms as their whole diet.

How much do you feed them? Think of the size of their stomach and think about how much food it would take to fill that up. I do a pinky mouse each 1 x a week. Then about 8 - 12 super meal worms each 4 times a week. 4 or 5 feedings a week is the magic number for these guys.

You will have to check prices at both your local stores and PetSmart, etc.

In general, reptiles are generally a good idea to buy from a store that specializes in them, they will come to you in better shape.

PetSmart will have less expensive large bags of bark and heat lights.

Online, you can find the best deals around, you just have to pay for shipping.

I use a mix of all 3 to get my supplies. I prefer online because of the huge discount for things like mealworms in batches of 500 or 1,000 (which you can put in the refrigerator until 2 or 3 days before they are needed). There is also a different variety of thing available online that just can't be found anywhere else.

Clean water is crucial for your Dragons. Remember, they are Water Dragons - they love their water, both to drink & just relax in. Their bowl should be big enough for them to hang out and relax in, but not difficult to get out of. My dish is on the right side of their tank, just behind the moss.

Change it everyday & at least once a week wash the bowl out with a water / beach solution. About 10% bleach is right, just make sure you wash out the bowl really well afterwards. You do this because they will go to the bathroom in there if the dish is big enough for them to climb into & they will also track in whatever kind of bark or substrate you use as flooring.

I personally recommend getting an oversized water dish. These guys love to just hang out in there, even swim if it's big enough. A cat litter box will even work for this. Cut it down to 3 or 4 inches high and they will love it!

Here are some general guidelines for keeping more than one of these guys in one enclosure.

1 Don't put males with males, they will fight.

2 One male and up to a couple of females can live together. Be sure and watch them closely to make sure everyone is eating, drinking & just generally getting along. Lizards can operate in the survival of the fittest lifestyle, so be sure everyone is fitting in and no one is being cornered.

3 Unless you know what you're doing and have a really big cage, don't try to house different types of lizards & dragons together. I've seen Iguanas and Water Dragons live together, but there are many complexities to pulling this off.

4 If you're going to go with more than one dragon, try a male / female or female / female combination.

Q: Where do you buy reptiles like water dragons?
A: Online, In-Store or Directly from a breeder are your basic options. If you're looking for a new reptile, I recommend finding a locally owned pet store. I say this because you can visit in person & they will usually take better care of their reptiles than a big national chain like PetSmart because they understand / know more about the specific reptiles needs.

Q: Where do I buy food for my water dragons?
A: I have never found anything my dragons would eat at PetSmart, jus frozen pinkie mice and canned (dead) meal worms which they won't touch because they are dead. I buy my worms and mice at another local pet store. You might have to look on the internet or ask some friends about other pet stores, but anything live has a better chance of being eaten.

Q: My dragons seem unhappy, is there anything I can do?
A: My first suggestion is to modify their surroundings. This is supposing that you have done everything else right, lighting and temp., feeding, compatible lizards living together, etc. They need move to move around and some things to climb and perch on in their cage. You can ask me in the comment box below if all else fails.