Care Sheet: Green Water Dragons

[Pyro]

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.

[beddzyboy]

top care sheet helps alot!