Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[stormiemanda]

This is a caresheet for waterdragons that i made myself its a collection of my personal advice and problems i have come across. if you keep yours slightly different please dont judge me as we all do things differently!!!

description: water dragons are normaly a light green to medium brown all over with a striped tail this can be green and brown or white and brown. most water dragon vary a little in colour but if yours ever goes a dark brown all over it can be a bad sign if they are not due a shed. female wd's get to about 2feet in lenth from snout to tip of tail and maes a little bigger at 3ft. the male also has a larger crest on his head. i keep a female so can only really comment on what they are like!!! wd's in general are very placid and mine has never bitten me. they love nothing more then to just sit around with you and be lazy. although do take care as they are VERY fast runners and will run so be aware if yu are on a bed where there is a large height drop incase they fall.

Housing: idealy the lenth of the viv should be twice the lenth of your wd so for a female a 4ft viv would be long enugh but wd's love to climb so need a minimum of 2 1/2ft up to as high as you want. i no alot of people that convert old wardrobes into a wd viv. i use branches from my local woods which have been soaked in bleach water cleaned and then left to dry out as climbing branches in the viv which are sercured by a screw. i also use a flower pot cut in half as a hide plus many things like fake leaves and hides in the viv for decoration. as waterdragons need alot f water i use a large cat liter tray wiv a piece of washed slate in it to act as an island i also put in a few fake leaves just to make it look nice.

Temps/Humidity: wd's need a uv light of 5.0 which should be changed every 6months to 1 year to get the best useage out of them. for a basking light i use spot lights which i buy 3 for £1.99 in woolworths i use 100watt which will give a basking spot of 95-100c and in the hot end 85-90c and in the cool end it ranges from 70-80c depending on wheater its in shade or not. humidity should be kept at 60-90% 60 being the very minimum. i keep the humidity up by spraying warm not hot water into the viv a couple of times a day this seems to work well.

Subsrates:When i first got my wd she was on repti-carpet which is rubbish it didnt keep the humidity up and crix would get under it so easily. plus it used to rub her belly which isnt good so i quickly changed to eco-earth which istrongly recomend as its natural substances and keeps the humidity and its soft the only problem is it makes a mess of the water!!!

Food/Water: wd's need fresh water everyday so be sure to have the water somewhere easily reached and use warm water in it. you must change it everyday as they will poop in it 9 times out of 10!!!. as for food wds will eat most things including small mealies when young moving onto giants. 2 pinkies a week when young moving on to fuzzies when adult. crickets brown or black. a few waxworms a week also go down very well but these are high in fat so be sure not to overfeed them. some wds will also eat fruit such as strawberries,raseberrys,bannanas, seedless grapes. but be sure to dust all food with a calcium suppliment except the mice as these are very high in calcium already.

Handling: i got storm when she was an adult so i cannot comment on what a baby would be like but storm is very tame never bitten and loves cuddles!!! i get her out atleast once a day for 10 minutes i also block off a section of my room so she can have a run around which is very fun to watch as they run on there hind legs!!!!

Other things: wds also like baths fill a bath upto the wds sholders with warm water and just let them swim and bathe themself they will really enjoy it a good idea is to use anougher piece of slate to create an island incase they get tired.

Products i recomend:
Iguana bath made by esu reptile- this is a great product for wds as all you do is put a small amount in the bath with them to aid with shedding and it also brings out there great colours!!
Vita-spray made by four paws- this is anougher spray i use i just spray a little onto storm it prevent her skin from drying out and it has added vitimans in to add healthlyness
Nutrobal made by vetark- i use this for dusting the foods it contains calcium and multi vits which promote bone growth.
Mealworm diet plus made by medivet- i feed this to my mealies it contains calcium,amino acids, vits and minerals and also d3
Cricket diet made by sandfire superfoods (t-rex)- i use this to feed my crickets on it has lots of nutitional value.

Things ive had wrong with storm: bad shedding which i used iguana bath for. but anugher tip is to soak them in the bath everyday for about 20 minutes a time and gently peel of the skin using a cottonwool bud.
laying eggs: this was very scary for me as i felt eggs inside her and thought she was egg bound but she laid them herself over 3 weeks she laid 22 in al but they should lay between 4-16 per clutch why she laid so many is to long a story to put on this!!
going blind: my most resent problem is that storm has gone blind and stopped eating but im coping with it a day at a time.
wds also suffer from a nasty thing called mbd this is where the bones go soft and deformed and can eventualy lead to death there is no cure for this but it can be controlled if you think there is something wrong with your wd please take it to the vet.

i hope you find this caresheet helpfull please dont hestitate to ask me anything that i may of missed out.
manda xxx