Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My baby water dragon has died today at 7:00pm i found him with his eyes open lying on the top of the waterfall,when i saw him i got real upset and picked him up wrapped him around paper and put him in a bag.I dont know where i went wrong,my cwd hadnt been eating for straight week and i guess he had respitory problems becuz he kept on opening his mouth like he had a hard time breathing......now i have learned my lesson on how hard it is to loose a good buddy dat will brighten ur day everytime u get outta bed and see him looking straight at u in a happy mood and how not to buy Baby cwd or other type of lizards from pet stores.

I'm sorry the dragon died. I don't know what happened exactly, so it could be some freak accident. But I always try to read all the literature on an animal before I decide to buy. There is definitely some work involved in taking care of these guys. I rescued both of my dragons from the pet store, and they are loving life now. My only suggestion would be to read more about it before you buy next time. Sorry to hear about the little guy.

Don't feel bad, we have all had our losses. One thing that I have learned about death, is that sometimes you can do everything right and things still go wrong. In the wild very few baby waterdragons make it past the first year. Waterdragons like most babies, are fragile and can have health problems that you don't have any control over. Any time you take on a baby animal your risks are higher then with the adults. Anyway, my point is, don't beat yourself up over it.

Im very sorry about your loss. It doesnt take long to get attached to the little guys.

One thing concerned me about your post, and I apologize if I come off as being heartless. Open mouth breathing and turning down food sounds to me like it had a respiratory infection.
Everyone seems to blame this on petshops. It obviously appeared sick to you and the slightest amount of research would help you find that this was the problem. An increase in temperatures and a trip to the vet could very possibly have saved its life. Maybe this could have been a result of being in less than adequate temperatures at the pet shop, but then it seems as though it had eaten for you before so perhaps your own temperatures arent up to par.
Prehistoric pets is a "pet shop" yet they have some of the most beautiful animals Ive seen.....even Pro Exotics ran as a "pet shop" for a while. I work for one of these "pet shops" and all of our reptiles are guaranteed captive bred, healthy, feeding, given the right diet, temperatures, parasite/worm free, and if you have a problem you can bring it back and we will help you in any way we can at no charge.
Nothing is sold to anyone with inadequate enclosures, and we supply them with the number of a local reptile and exotics vet at which they can have it checked out.
When I was younger I lost some great animals due to my own ignorance. Namely, green iguanas. I dont blame that on the fact that some petshops still sell reptiles as disposable pets and gave me sick animals. I blame it on not knowing enough about the illnesses and general care for them. Respiratory infections up to their worst point I've seen cured..MBD i've seen cured...Stomatitis (mouth rot) i've seen cured....Gastroenteritis.....even fungus growing over the entire body of a cocincinus that the owner decided needed to live in water its entire life.
To wrap this up, im just tired of people treating pet shops as though they were all from the same chain and all horrible....if your mad at McDonalds...dont boycott Burger King
It hurts having people come in and tell me Im misrepresenting animals that I bred for many generations, and it hurts even more when they blame deaths on us.
When you buy a dog or cat you take it to the vet within 72 hours.....why should reptiles be any different?

Again..im very sorry for your loss..but dont get disheartened and give up...try to find out what went wrong and when your completely ready try again. There's nothing better in the world then watching your small little hatchling grow and flourish as an adult...good luck

I worked in a petstore for ten years, so I agree that not all petstores are bad and the most important thing to remember when buying an animal is caveat emptor(Let the buyer beware.) It only takes a few minutes to learn how to determine a healthy animal from a sick one, and ulimately you as the buyer are responsible for your purchase. Also, baby animals are far more fragile then adults. Your chances of saving a baby waterdragon with an upper respitory infection is significantly less then if it was an adult, further more, babies are more delicate in general, even if he was in perfect health when you got him, the stress of aclimating to a new environment or a mistake in temperature or houseing etc, could lead to illness and death very quickly.