Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I am writing this email on behalf of my mother, who adopted an abandoned water dragon. While they were getting her a proper enclosure she stayed in a 10 gallon aquarium. For a few days she wouldn't eat, which was suspected with the rough time she had had with her previous owner (massive snout rubbing and a recently snapped tip of her tail). We finally got her to try a few meal worms, which was exciting. After a few more days she started eating crickets out of her waterbowl (they were easier for her to catch this way). Now she's been moved into her bigger aquarium. It's about 6 feet tall with a big ol tree in the middle of it. She's bright green and stays in the top of the tree for most of the day. Sometimes several days in a row without coming down. The cage is too big to drop loose crickets in, so they have tried dropping them in the water bowl... no luck. They also tried offering them to her out of the fridge (so they would be slowed down), no such luck. She's still eating mealworms but we can't seem to get her to eat crickets. My mom is concerned with her staying up top all the time, she wont come down and get in her water bowl by herself. Mom is giving her several "soaks" during the day where she places her in water, and she stays happily. Any suggestions on getting this picky eater to eat something else? I told her to start using red wigglers until we can figure something out, since meal worms aren't the best food staple anyways. I haven't heard if this is working or not. She's worried and I'm running out of ideas. I don't really want her to try not feeding her for a whlie and offering crickets, since she came from a bad home and needs extra care. If I had to guess I would say she's about 18" snout to tail (but part of her tail is missing .
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~~Tania~~
Jake (Chinese Water Dragon)
Peter (House Gecko)
Mosley (Maltese Shi Tzu Mix)
RIP Mary (House Gecko)

I would give her some time to acclimate to the moves. CWD can get pretty stressed out from even minor changes totheir environment and living in 2 different cages in a short period of time will definitely qualify as stressful. Just give her a week of "quiet" time. You can offer food each day, but pretty much leave her alone the remaining time. I am assuming that she has a proper photoperiod (at least 10-12 hrs. of daylight), proper temperatures (around 85F with a nice area at 90 she can bask around) and humidity levels at >50%. It appears that she acclimated to the first cage, although way too small and there is no reason for her not to acclimate to the larger enclosure. An 18" dragon can go without food for a while, so don't panic until more than a week passes without her eating something. read up on "gravid" females, also as this is an issue that you will probably have to address soon as well. Good luck!
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago

It is not that she will not eat, she will. It is that she will not eat crickets. We are not 100% sure it is even a female at this point, it is a difficult call.
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~~Tania~~
Jake (Chinese Water Dragon)
Peter (House Gecko)
Mosley (Maltese Shi Tzu Mix)
RIP Mary (House Gecko)

I think most dragon's go through "food phases" kind of like children! LOL We usually keep several different insects on hand, but Drago and Avanyu prefer superworms (zophobas morios) and crickets and Tripod will also eat silkworms. Drago likes waxies, but they smell and I only buy them infrequently as they're not very good for her. I've tried pinkies several times and they really don't care for them. My daughter's dragon actually eats small, whole mice and tiny rat "pups". Agama Int'l and Sapphire Dragon Ranch both recommend high quality chicken catfood (mainly chicken without a lot of fillers). I plan to try that myself this winter when it becomes more difficult to keep crickets. Unless it's ill, your dragon should eat when it's hungry and a couple of days without food is not going to cause harm. After a week without eating, I always force fed chicken baby food and active yogurt to mine and they usually when back to eating insects almost immediately.
Good luck with your quest.
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago