Green Water Dragon Care Sheet

[Pyro]

Green Water Dragon (Physignathus cocincinus)
Care & Information

Introduction
The Green Water Dragon, also known as the Chinese or Asian Water Dragon, is one of the most commonly kept Dragon lizards in the pet trade. Dragon lizards make up the family Agama, which contains a number of different lizards belonging to different species. Under the Genus Physignathus, there are two different species, the Australian Water Dragon and Green Water Dragon. Due to exportation of Australian wildlife being illegal, the Green Water Dragon is more commonly seen in the pet industry. It is a beautiful lizard that holds the title of my personal favourite, and rightly so.

Locality
Their other common titles of Chinese and Asian Water Dragons should give you some clue as to where Green Water Dragons originate from. In the wild, they are found across mainland Southeast Asia. Most wild caught specimens in the pet trade will be from China or Thailand, although they can also be found in Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma. Despite being found in all these regions, the species is not present in nearby Indonesia or the Malayan Peninsula.

Size and Longetivity
As with a lot of Agama species, the male lizards grow larger than the females. The average length of a female Green Water Dragon is 2’ and of a male 2.5’, although males can commonly grow to more than 3’ in total length. This may make them sound like a very big species of lizard, but in fact they are not. Up to 70% of their total length can be their tail alone, and they usually have quite slender bodies and limbs. They certainly stay small enough to be held in one hand, with the tail hanging down below, provided they are tame. Green Water Dragons can live an average of between 10 and 12 years, with the oldest Green Water Dragon on record living just over 15 years.

Temperament
Green Water Dragons, like most lizards, can be very skittish and easy to frighten when young. They will generally try to run away from your hand should you go to pick them up, but some more aggressive specimens may turn around and bite you. The bite is not too bad, though I have been bitten many times by one particularly feisty male and can tell you it is not pleasant either. Although it is unlikely a Water Dragon will come to enjoy being picked up, most will learn to tolerate it with regular handling. Try hand feeding a few times before you try handling an untamed Green Water Dragon, and do not handle for extended periods of time.

Purchasing a Green Water Dragon
When purchasing a Green Water Dragon, always make sure the breeder or previous owner knows if it was captive bred or not. Captive bred specimens usually do a lot better, and live a lot longer, than those wild caught or captive farmed. Wild caught specimens usually carry parasites and will take a long time to tame, not to mention the fact that they will probably more readily bite you. Captive farmed (meaning the eggs were taken from the wild and hatched in captivity) individuals may not be as hard to tame as those wild caught, but will very often carry parasites and diseases their wild parents carried. Once you locate a captive bred individual, make sure that it is feeding well before purchasing it.

Signs of Ill Health in Green Water Dragons
It is essential to know what problems to look out for in any pet you have or may want to purchase. You should always check for these signs before purchasing it and continue to check regularly afterwards if you go ahead and buy it. The two most common problems with lizards are Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) and Gout. MBD occurs when there is not enough calcium in the bones, and hence they are brittle and weak, and is most often caused by a lack of calcium or ultraviolet lighting. Gout is the opposite, where too much calcium is offered and it builds up around the joints, making them lumpy and arthritic. Any Green Water Dragon with a messy mouth or vent, cloudy or watery eyes, or a sore or bloody nose should be avoided too.

Feeding
The diet of a Green Water Dragon is a commonly discussed topic, as there are many different opinions as to what they should be fed in captivity. In the wild, Green Water Dragons would eat insects, small mammals, small fish, some vegetation and more. It is hard to replicate such a varied diet in captivity, so a staple of feeder insects such as crickets and locust is used. I recommend feeding both crickets and locust to add variation to the diet, alongside pinkie or fuzzy mice, rat pups and feeder fish such as minnows. I would offer around 5 insects every day, with 1-2 whole prey items also offered each week. Once a week you can try to offer a small amount of fresh greens and fruits, such as cabbage, strawberries and banana. Do not offer too many pinkie mice as they are high in fat, and do not leave feeder fish in your Dragons water bowl if he will not eat them. As a general rule, try to feed prey no bigger than the space between the dragons eyes, or it may have a hard time swallowing it.

Gut-Loading & Supplements
The insects in the diet are not very nutritious on their own and so should be gut-loaded before being fed to your Green Water Dragon. Leave them in a tub with bran, dark greens and/or some fruit and veg such as orange or grated carrot. Be careful not to raise the humidity in the tub your feeder insects are in too much by adding wet food, as this can kill locust very quickly. This ensures that your insects are full of nutrients for your Water Dragon, just as they would be in the wild. However, feeder insects are still very low in calcium, which is a very important part of your Water Dragons diet. In the wild, Water Dragons would pick up calcium through a more varied diet and accidental ingestion of soil, but in captivity a supplement such as Nutrobal should be used instead. Around twice a week the insects should be dusted in supplement powder before being fed to your Green Water Dragon.

Shedding
As Green Water Dragons grow they also periodically shed their skin in a process known as sloughing. Younger Green Water Dragons shed their skin a lot more often then adults. Shedding with lizards is less problematic than it is with snakes, as although the skin comes off in flakes rather than one piece the Water Dragon can still be fed and handled during this time. With the proper levels of humidity in the enclosure, shedding should take no more than a day or two to complete. If any shed remains after this it can be gently rubbed off with a damp towel, although you could first try bathing your Dragon in lukewarm water.

Setting Up Green Water Dragon Enclosures

Choosing Enclosures
As Green Water Dragons grow so quickly, there is little point buying a smaller enclosure for a juvenile and then expanding, as it will be a lot cheaper in the long run to buy a larger one from the offset. For a single Dragon I would recommend an enclosure larger than 4’ long, 4’ high and 2’ deep. There is no maximum limit, as the Water Dragon will no doubt make use of as much space as you give it, but enclosures smaller than this should never be used. If your dragon reaches a length of near 3’ it will be necessary to have an enclosure more like 6’ long, 6’ high and 3’ deep. When keeping a pair or group of Green Water Dragons, this size should be the minimum, no matter how big they are. When grouping Water Dragons in a single enclosure, never have more than one male. A single male can be grouped together with 2-4 females in a large enclosure. Always remember that enclosure height is just as important, if not more so, than enclosure length. Green Water Dragons are after all an arboreal species.

Heating the Enclosure
Green Water Dragons come from a region where it is very hot in the day and cool at night, so their enclosure should be heated accordingly. Do not use heat mats, as they do not generate enough ambient heat for a Water Dragon, or hot rocks, as they are known to be dangerous. In a smaller enclosure a single heat lamp or ceramic heater may be enough, but in a larger one several will no doubt be needed. Fix the lamps in a way that the ambient air temperature of the entire enclosure is heated to the desired temperature. There should also be a basking site available, a point closer to the heat source where your Water Dragon can bask to raise its body temperature. There should also be cooler, shaded areas. This is due to the fact that Water Dragons, like all reptiles, are cold blooded and need to thermo regulate to survive. If the entire enclosure was too hot or too cold your pet would no doubt die. Getting heating right is one of the most important factors when setting up a Green Water Dragon enclosure.

Temperatures and Humidity
In most homes, room temperature is not high enough for your Water Dragons to stay warm and healthy. Use your heating equipment to bring the ambient air temperature of the enclosure up to around 27-30*C. In the wild they could experience daytime temperatures as low as 22*C or as high as 32*C, but it is best to use the temperatures mentioned above. The basking spot should reach higher temperatures of 32-33*C but should not get too hot, or it may stress and even kill your Water Dragon. Humidity should be kept at around 70% at all times. Higher humidity can lead to fungal growth in the enclosure as well as respiratory infections and blisters on your animals. Lower humidity will cause stress, bad shedding and other health problems. Humidity can be increased via a daily misting, but is best increased by having a large water dish on the warmer side of the enclosure and piles of sphagnum moss on the ground. The combination of these factors should bring the humidity right up, although misting may still be necessary on particularly hot days which may dry the enclosure out.

Lighting the Enclosure
To generate a day/night cycle within the enclosure, a light source should also be fitted and left on a 12 hour cycle. It is easier to have a timer attached to turn the lights on and off at the desired times, rather than having to remember to do so yourself. Leaving any form of lighting on overnight, including glowing red heat lights, is not advisable and may stress your Green Water Dragons. Unless you have an all in one UVB and light emitting bulb, you will also need a fluorescent UVB light strip, which should be turned on and off at the same time as the main light source. These tubes need replacing every 6 months as they stop producing UVB after this time, even though they continue to produce light. In the wild, Water Dragons get their much needed UVB supply from the sun, but in captivity it is often hard to provide natural, unfiltered sunlight. UVB is essential as it helps provide Vitamin D3, which in turn helps with the absorption of calcium and movement of vitamins within the body. Without a proper UVB lighting source, and calcium supplementation in the diet, MBD can quickly set in.

Substrate
A number of substrates can be used in your Green Water Dragon enclosure, including those cheap and easy to clean but less naturalistic such as paper towel and newspaper. Better substrates are those closer to the ground of the Water Dragons natural habitat, such as soil or bark. Any soil or peat used should be properly manufactured reptile substrate rather than that taken from outside, as this could contain all manner of nasty parasites and bugs. Aspen and other reptile beddings can also be used, but by far the best in my opinion is Orchid Bark. This is both naturalistic and practical, as it makes the Green Water Dragon enclosure look very natural and comfortable whilst also maintaining a good humidity level for your pet.

Essentials in the Enclosure
Aside from all the heating, lighting and UVB equipment, there are only two essential items in a Green Water Dragon enclosure. The first is a large water dish and the second is a series of climbing branches and logs. The water dish should be deep enough that the Green Water Dragon can submerge almost its entire body, but not deep enough that it could drown. A large surface area of water will help with humidity and also give more room for the Dragons to swim around, so it is recommended over a smaller water bowl. Water should be changed at least once a day, although it may be necessary to clean the dish more often than this as Green Water Dragons have a tendency to defecate in their water. This is actually a good thing, as it means you do not need to replace the substrate of the enclosure very often at all, and changing the water is a far simpler task than disinfecting the entire enclosure. As for climbing branches, Water Dragons are arboreal lizards and feel most secure when above the ground. Put in as many branches as there is space in the enclosure, at horizontal or diagonal angles which your pets can rest and climb about on. Make sure at least one branch allows your Water Dragons to come within 10 inches of a UVB source, and close enough to a heat source to bask. In larger enclosures housing a group of Water Dragons, it will therefore be necessary to have more than one basking spot and UVB source, to avoid the Dragons fighting over the single branch in the desired position. The branches should obviously give your Water Dragons an easy route from the enclosure floor up to the heat sources and back down again.

Optional Decor in the Enclosure
Once you have an enclosure prepared with a water dish and plenty of climbing branches, there should be little room left to include much more decor. You could hang several fake plants from the branches already set up, so that your Dragon will feel more secure in hiding behind them. It is probably a good idea to add patches of sphagnum moss to the substrate below as well, so that humidity is easier to retain without the chore of misting the enclosure every day. Hides and caves are less important, as your Green Water Dragon will prefer to sleep on a branch than inside a hide, but could be included for smaller hatchlings to have somewhere to retreat from sight completely when stressed or nervous. If you want to include real plants in the enclosure then by far the best are, funnily enough, plants of the Dragon (Dracaena) family. These require extra care and work however, so I prefer to use fake plants.


Things To Remember

A major factor of disease and problems with Green Water Dragons is stress. A major factor of stress is over handling of your pet. Put the two together and remember it. Handle your pet often if you want to keep it tame and friendly, but handle no more than twice a day and for no longer than ten minutes at a time. It may be worth handling less or not at all during shedding, or directly after feeding. If your Water Dragon is swimming or basking it is likely he is trying to warm up or cool down, so do not take him out to handle as it will interrupt him as he tries to thermo regulate his body temperature. Obviously remember to close the enclosure properly after handling or feeding, as if left open your Green Water Dragon will waste no time in trying to escape. If other household pets such as cats and dogs are in the same place, then an escapee is often found dead the next morning as the cat has attacked it after it got out. Luckily I have never had a Green Water Dragon escape, though I have had other reptiles get out of enclosures so I know how serious this warning can be.

Also, please remember that every lizard has its own personality, attitude and habits. The information in this care sheet comes from what I have learned about the average Green Water Dragon and my own experiences with them, but it is in no way certain that everything here will apply to your own. Although most Green Water Dragons can become very tame, there are those, usually wild caught specimens, who remain unpredictable throughout their entire life. Most Green Water Dragons like to soak and swim in their water bowl, but a few will only ever want to drink from it. Most Green Water Dragons like to climb and sleep in plain sight, others will prefer to hide away when sleeping. Each individual is different and it is important to respect that and to get to know your pet.

[Tisha78]

Hi, thanks for posting all of that, it's been really helpfull. I just have a quick question though. You mentioned about the eating habits and it seems my CWD is quite fussy. I've tried him on pinkies a few times and veg too but it seems that if it isn't moving he doesn't want to take it, so his diet is pretty much locusts (5ths) and wax worms, which i use the calci-dust on every few feeds. Is this enough for him? He seems active and healthy other than from looking at pictures of other water dragons he may be a bit on the slim side.

Thanks