Hello Bob & Jobi:

I see nothing wrong with showing pictures of your babies on this site. There are many people on here who may have never seen one of these lizards and i know they would be thrilled to see them. It's not like we're inventing the wheel or anything. These animals are available sporadically and are snapped up so quickly that one would think it to be a rare species. Unfortunately most do not thrive.

I do think it interesting that you were able to get juveniles. Chances are that they were probably from eggs laid in a dealers cage though it is possible someone bred them. It's just not a common thing because their care is so exacting in the first place. I hatched out two of them almost ten years ago and a friend of mine hatched a couple as well. I had a little trouble with the juvies at first. The same thing applies to them. I know lots of people that swear they can thrive in a standard forest set-up but I didn't find that to be the case. It was definitely the high humidity levels in the terrarium that made a difference. The trick is to keep the air humid but still have a dry basking site so their skin has a chance to dry out. If the babies don't feed this could very well be the problem. I have fed standard mealworms, young super worms, butterworms, and crickets to them. I've never tried fruits though it would not surprise me at all if they ate them. The one thing to remember is to keep the size of the food small since we're talking young lizards here. Use half grown crickets at best. They may also chase small fish in the water as well. Them acting aggressive towards you is a good sign.

I really hope these guys do well for you as they sre a really cool species. I hope lots of people tune into the info on this forum as it's probably the largest amount of info on captive G. grandis available. It would really be neat if others could add to the information pool as I think the secrets to success with Conocephalus are really just now being revealed.

There's quite a bit to learn about this unique genus of lizards and only by sharing both our successes and failures will future keepers gain from this knowledge.

I may be a lone wolf on the high humidity kick but it worked for me. In fact, one thing I forgot to mention, when the first male became healthy and filled out again (nearly four months later) I tried putting him back in a standard forest cage with sprayings and a large water bowl. Within two weeks he was going downhill so it was back to the humid house for him. That's why I'm sure it made the difference.

There are lots of other Forest Agamas from the same region and some of them thrive better even in lesser humid conditions. It may just be that these guys are more sensitive to it.

Good luck on your babies. I'd like to see pictures of them and I'm sure others would as well. I hope all the info Jobi and I have given you helps with your "Great River Crested Dragons." Keep us posted on how they do.

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