Adopted water dragon

[OSUgecko]

One of my fiance's mother's co-workers gave this water dragon to me because she felt that her daughter wasn't spending enough time with the lizard. Surprisingly enough, the WD seems very healthy (it's a male, about 18" long) despite being kept in extremely inadequately sized caging. They actually had UV lights and a heat lamp in the cage, but it was filthy and didn't appear to have been cleaned in months. I cleaned everything out and gave it a makeshift reptile carpet/paper towl substrate. I will be building a new cage for the WD asap, but this will have to do in the meantime.

Let me know what you think! I seem to be accruing herps at an astounding rate... right now I've got four leos, a crestie, a ball python, and a cornsnake in addition to the WD!

You can just see his head and upper body by the tan food dish in the pic of his cage for a size comparison.

 

[Kristi23]

He's cute! I'm glad they realized it wasn't getting the proper care and decided to give him to you.

 

[Morph]

wow its really tame too!!!

awesome dragon !

 

[Halley]

very nice!

 

[mynewturtle]

Very nice water dragon, Ive rescued a bunch of these guys and this one is in GREAT shape. Cage looks nice and big aswell.

 

[Bling_my_leo]

Well,

First off. If you are going to make a cage. You need a high cage. My WD cage is 6 feet tall, by 4.8 feet long, by 3 feet deep. It has glass doors, and it's wooden. It's has three UVB lights, three wooden shelves my dad built, cat little box sided water dish (you need a big enough water bowel for them to fit their whole body in) a live plant (large, very large), fake plants, reptile carpet, and custom made pillows made by my mom and I for the shelves. The pillows are made out of fleece.

From what I can see, that WD looks fairly large, so he will need a big sized viv like what my WD has, or a little smaller. But make sure it's really tall. WD love the tallness.

I just want this WD to have the best viv he could ever have.

I too have a rescue chinese water dragon. Pink (my WD) is a male, 3 (or 4) years old, and I found him in a swap or trade guild that comes out each week. He was $50 with a 55 gallon tall tank and 1 UVB light. The tank has a huge crack on the side of it. So I kinda got ripped off. But at least I know I saved a WD in need. He was on reptile bark and had a very small water dish when I went to pick him up from his old home. These people didn't even know the basic care really. Poor guy. They only fed him1 pinki mouse a MONTH!! God!

Anyways,

Wish you the best of luck!

 

[Bling_my_leo]

Oh yah.... my dad built Pink's viv last year for a early Christmas gift. It cost him aroun $350 for everything. he had to stain it a few times, then put that stuff on that makes it water prof. Then he had to buy two large slabs of glass to make the doors (the glass has a wooden frame around it). The doors have a magnetic lock. It's awsome. I don't have any pic though. Very sorry.

Before I forget, his viv has alot of very thich branches as well.

 

[Bling_my_leo]

** 4 feet 8 inches long the viv

 

[OSUgecko]

Thanks for all the kind responses! The WD has been settling in nicely. He's trained to tong feed, and I've been giving him supers and various veggies/fruits (carrots, apples, bananas, etc.). I love watching him eat, he's so unique compared to my other critters.

I will be building a new cage as time and money allows. The one he lives in now would work really well if it was just a few feet taller, but I think it will be easier to build my own than try to modify this one. He has a good heat gradient, a big pool of water to swim in and another bowl to drink from (just in case), a food bowl, hides, driftwood, etc.

He seems pretty happy for the moment but I'm sure he'll enjoy the vertical view once I get his cage completed.

 

[Bling_my_leo]

Very good.

Could you get a closer shot of his water dish and cage?

 

[LeoMartin]

She is so cute.