Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi, i have a male and female water dragon and they are 6 months old and still quite little. we feed them about 4 crickets a day which they bolt down but they are not fat. they have arkvits calcium supplement dust on them. we also feed them mealies instead of crickets occasionally. they seem bored with this diet but they flat out ignore veg.
what veg should i try?
also what other foods can i try? we give them a waxworm each every week (is this too much?)

other problem is that our female (luna) has only shed about 3 weeks ago. she still looks as though she hasnt grown into this new skin but is starting to shed again. is this normal? how often do they shed at this age?

also, niether of them like to swim. what can we do to aid this natural behavior?

one more...sorry, zodiac and luna get on really well and always sleep in the same place with zodiac lying on top of luna. they never fight or anything but the other day they were out of the viv and sat on our bed and he suddenly started head bobbing and waving at her and ran over and bit her neck. he hasnt been aggressive since. is this mating or terrotorial behavior????
any help greatly appreciated. thanks a lot.
rachel.

It sounds like you are underfeeding them, baby dragons should be fed as much as they want, and 4 crickets isn't very much. Mine could easily eat a dozen a day each and they were never fat. Babies shed a lot as they grow. The water my be too cold, you may want to add an aquarium heater, or a water feature that moves the water, like a waterfall. That behavior could be mating, and your female is too young to mate. You should separate them until she is 18 months old or so, if she is bred to early she will probably die, and your male may hurt himself trying to mate to early also.
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i've come to the understanding from advice given in this forum and other forums that reguardless of species, crickets arent really that great as a food source. try feeding em pinkys (frozen if you cant really stomache live, i couldn't), also nightcrawlers which are a great source of calcium. something to note as far as the nightcrawlers are concerned, the WD's will have loose stool the next day. i was rather concerned about this till someone told me that its normal. also if you feed the nightcrawlers along with other foods, they seem to digest it a bit better. another food to note is superworms (zoophobas), theyre a larger grub type worm that works as an exelent food source unlike mealworms and waxworms.

personally, i'm starting to lean twards whole food items (pinkys and fuzzys) as being the supperior food only when used in conjunction with a D3 supplement to assist in calcium digestion. but i must warn you, i am fairly new to most of this and have only recently started questioning the diet plan of my WD. much of this advice was given to me on a previous post in this fourum.

check out this thread as well, it helped give me a perspective on variety: forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=489736,489736

At least for now:

Drop a bunch of crickets in there and see how many they eat. If they eat all you dropped in, then drop some more. Four crickets is way too few for them at their age. They know how much they want, we as keepers don't.

You could put an air stone or waterfall in there. They like moving water.

I kept mine together when they were young. They gew a lot and were healthy. I think they are aspecies that "enjoy" the company of similier sized dragons, but keep an eye out for aggresive behavior.
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Ed

There are water dragons, chameleons, frilled dragons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.

I would definately feed them more!! these are growing lizarsd, four crickets a day is not nearly enough. Especially while they are growing, feed them as many buggies as they will eat! You can also try pinkies but they are never good as the staple for a diet because they are so fatty and can cause fatty build ups in your dragons that are very bad for their overall health.