My Water Dragon Caresheet

When I was in the pet shop business I constantly had people admiring my WD's then complaining that they never had any luck. Tricia's Water Dragon's is a wonderful site for learning about them (There's a link on anapsid.org). However, Water Dragons are all very different so her dietary information does not apply to them all. Most lizard species will pretty much have the same diet, i.e. Iguanas eat "salad", Leopard Geckos eat "bugs", Bearded Dragons eat "anything that doesn't eat them first". Water Dragons, on the other hand, tend to be picky. I have fed them everything from mice to fish to carrots, but I have yet to meet one who will eat anything green. I also have never met one who would turn down a mouse. Bottom line... You gotta feed your WD what IT wants.
Okay with that out of the way I picked up care sheets from two chain pet shops to compare their recommendations. One of them had the heat gradient at 85 to 105 (WTF?)
The other said WD's need a basking spot of at least 115. They didn't even have it that high on their Beardies. These guys are from Asia where the temperatures are cooler. I guarantee the little guy who is fortunate enough to live free in the wild is not sitting on a 115 degree rock. Where's it hangin' out? In the mountains by a water fall waiting on a squigly worm to come up out of the dirt for lunch. In this environment it's probably closer to 75 degrees. I keep my gradient from 65 to 75. Oh and BTW if you can keep a 20 degree gradient in any respectable size tank you have my utmost respect. Because it is hard to keep a 20 degree range.
One adult Water Dragon is going to need at least a 55 gal. tank to live in. One of my competitor Pet Shops used to tell people they would only grow to the size of their environment (Way to sell!). So I had people keeping WD's in 10 gal. tanks expecting them to be itty bitty babies. Well that's just dumb! But I tend to forget that the general public is quite gullible and will believe anything the Pet Shop worker says. Some of them know quite a lot. Some of them just quit their job at McDonald's because they were sick of being abused by the fry vat.
Well we've talked about diet and husbandry so what's left? Humidity ok - 65% acheive that either by purchasing a good size fish tank or misting daily to every other day unless you live in a swamp then you're probably good. The most important key to keeping a happy healthy Water Dragon is to have a water dish big enough for it to submerge in. Mine play in their water at least once a day but I have seen them bathe as many as four times a day. They are after all "Water" Dragons.
Well there you have it if you are keeping these critters too hot, they're gonna die. A good indicator of a dragon being "Too Hot" is a gaping mouth. It's also a sign of respiratory or mouth rot but if there's no slime then they're just too hot. If you are keeping them too dry, they're gonna die. Like I said keep a big pan of water in the cage and they will take care of their own hydration. If you are watching lettuce rot in their tank, they're gonna die. For God's sake go find a worm! One more thing I forgot to mention, they are semi-arboreal lizards. A happy WD will require something to climb on.
They're one of the easiest lizards to take care of and one of the most rewarding to keep. It's so much fun to watch them eye their prey and lick there lips just before they pounce and tear the head off. Not to mention the fact that they normally use the bathroom in their water bowl so cleaning the tank is a sinch. Imagine a "potty-trained" pet lizard. Awesome, huh?

For those of you who are too lazy to read....
~ Water Dragons don't like veggies, they like meat in the form of Bugs, Rodents,
or Fish. They're picky eaters!
~ Water Dragons don't need much heat. About 75-85 degrees for a basking spot.
~ Water Dragons like to have around 65% humidity.
~ Water Dragons need a large water bowl for drinking, playing, bathing, etc.
~ Water Dragons will need at least a 55 gal. tank at adult size.

Things I didn't mention because you should already know them....
~ Water Dragons are Diurnal. That means they sleep during the night and are
active during the day. Yes they need a UV light.
~ Water Dragons will not show secondary sex traits until they are about 1 1/2.
Males will have much bigger spikes on the crest.

Well, that's about it! Questions? Post 'em. Arguments? Post 'em. I'll tell you why you're wrong!