sorry not chameleons water dragon help

[chameleoman]

my brother got me a water dragon from petco as a christmas gift and a reptile setup kit and right now he has a 100 watt blue daylight bulb a 5.0 reptisun uvb and in a 10 gallon tank with some accessories he feed him about 10-15 crickets a day d3 everyday multi vitamins once a week and along with a bowl of freshly offered lettuce every day and i want to know am i doing good??? and i saw him scratching his head with his back leg so?

 

[Mr Metal13]

You sound like your doing fine to me. The only things I would suggest is that you mist the side of the cage 2-4 times a day to keep up humidity and get a 75 watt nocturnal bulb so you can regulate its sleep cycle. Also try and never buy anymore reptiles from petco because they are usually riddled with health problems.

 

[bradley]

A few changes. You only need a normal house hold spot bulb of about 60watt on the dragon and this can be turned of at night along with the uv. The dragon shouldnt be getting that much D3 each week. he should be getting plain calcium with every feed and calcium with D3 at weekends along with his multivitamins. I suppose you already kow you will require a much larger tank when the dragon grows?

 

[kinyonga]

I've bred/hatched/raised green water dragons for over 15 years and this is how I do it...
I use a glass aquarium with a screen lid to start the babies off in. I provide branches of an appropriate size for them to sit and climb on. You can put rocks in the cage for them to climb/sit on too if you want to. You will need a much bigger cage when its full grown, of course. I still used glass ones though with screen lids. Adult temperatures can be in the mid to high 80's F and even into the low 90'sF.

I set the lights up so that the UVB (reptisun 5.0 long linear tube) light along the back part of the screen lid. Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the dragon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the dragon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

I place a regular incandescent household bulb in a domed hood to one side or corner of the cage lid. The wattage should provide a temperature in the basking area in the low 80's F. Placing the light in the corner or to one side creates a chimney affect for air flow. Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

No light or heat is needed at night unless the temperatures drop below the mid 60'sF.

I provide a water dish big enough for the whole dragon to fit into but shallow enough that it can't drown. When its feet are on the bottom of the dish it should be able to have its head above water IMHO.

A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it. You can feed the babies as much as they will eat in a couple of minutes at each feeding. It will be fairly obvious if they are getting too fat and you will need to cut them back!

In addition to the insects, I feed the same assortment of greens and veggies listed below in my gutload along with a bit of fruit (apple, pear, melon, berries, etc.)

Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the dragon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your dragon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves it to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the dragon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the dragon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the dragon towards MBD. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the dragon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the dragon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the dragon.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.

Just like chameleons, dragons can develop MBD if their nutrient balance isn't right.

Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.

Like chameleons, water dragon females can lay eggs without having been mated so once they are about 2 years old I recommend that you provide them a place to dig to lay the eggs in the cage.

 

[chameleoman]

You sound like your doing fine to me. The only things I would suggest is that you mist the side of the cage 2-4 times a day to keep up humidity and get a 75 watt nocturnal bulb so you can regulate its sleep cycle. Also try and never buy anymore reptiles from petco because they are usually riddled with health problems.

i didnt try to buy one i know petco is an a**hole and they dont give a crap about there pets i have been on this forum for a long time and have herd those petco stories about 100 times and i didnt try to buy one from them it was a gift from my older brother