Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a hard decision to make in the stoor i work at. To sell water dragons or not. I love water dragons. They are great. My guy is a huge guy, 49 inches full length, 898 grams now when full. Most people dont realize what they are getting into when they get a water dragon, im afraid they are becoming the next Iguana.

Should i carry them at my store? I dont want all the babies to go to homes unwanted when they get bigger, and end up in 20 gallon tanks. But, they will go somehwere else where people dont know what i know about them. We stock 10.0 uvb, MVB's etc to sell with them...and all the goodies.

Decisions decisions....

Any thoughts are appreciated!
Hunter

Wow, you are definitely a different breed of person!!! How cool is that! You just made my whole experience on this site!

Hard question tho. You know, I have been to one reptile specialty place, and when I inquired about WD's, they made sure to inform me of the needs, and also explained why people shouldn't get iguanas.

Maybe you could be a breeder on your own, and just sell to truley motivated people?? My vet even gave me an iguana care sheet to take home for my wd, after testing positive for parasites. Yeah, right. Ignorance knows no bounds.

Im a big fan of huge amounts of calcium for carnivorous lizards. Not over amounts of bad calcium (ie: calcium that comes from questionable sources), but good calcium in the form of say limestone, or via prey source. That is why it would be hard for me to sell young wd's.

With large wd's, they get a good amt of it from the mice etc they eat, as well as any additional you add via calcium carbonate powder. With young ones, how many people go through the trouble of breeding roaches, getting nightcrawlers, dusting crickets/greens etc.

I dont know.

Plus, my male is too big to breed and too aggressive with other females. Unfortunately, he'll eat any other wd i put in there i think.
Hunter

Its nice to know that I am not alone because I am on the same page as you. I have been selling them for awhile and I think they aRE WONDERFUL ANIMALS.But I make sure the customer knows what the animals needs are and that they must be able to provide these needs.If I think they can't take care of or just simply don't want to spend the extra twenty bucks for uvb/uva bulbs, I tell them NO and that I don't think this is something they can deal with and that they really need to think it over regardless of what pet they get.

You might build your WD an enclosure near where the young ones would be. Kind of a like a "Here's what it may grow to be," type thing. That way people can see what they're getting into. Just my $0.02
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FB
(Watch this space for the raining viv)
0.1.1 Water Dragon (Jade, Kaltrex)
1.1.1 Corn (Unnamed [normal], Willow [Hypomelanistic], unnamed [Anery B])
0.1.1 Leopard Gecko (Barghesta [Patternless], unnamed)
0.1.0 Blood Python (unnamed)
1.0.0 Satanic Leaftail Gecko (Melkor) R.I.P 12/9/05
0.1.0 Cat (Cleo)
0.1.0 Wife (Tammy)
(hmmm, not much testosterone in here...)

the problem with this is i wont put mine up at work. not that i dont know the animals, but i just dont put my personal animals in the same air or area with animals that are not properly quarantined etc. all it takes is one to destroy a whole population. I do however have pictures of mine next to a dollar bill, a 1 foot ruler, a yard stick, and a big mack to show the head size (yes, from macdonalds, which he later took a bite of).
Hunter

when my daughter bought our first CWD for her children (my grandchildren) we bought her at a Petco in Rockwall, TX. To their credit (and I know they have a horrible reputation) they had everything Drago needed (UVB fixture, UVB bulb, night-time heat and basking spot,along with a large water bowl, repti-bark, thermometer/hygrometer, etc. ALL put in a 50 or 60 gallon tank with a nice split top. Yes, it was expensive, but the salesman explained how large the dragons can get and that if we purchased a smaller tank we would have to upgrade in 6 mos. Our local pet store just sold iguanas for $9.88 and people were walking out with iguanas in 10 gallon tanks. Pitiful situation. But if someone is willing to pay $400.00 for a complete set-up I say "go for it". Diane
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago

There you go. Dm again has said it all. You can help, I mean, do you want them all to go to PetCo??

I agree...dont want them all to go to petco....I guess ill have a couple. I just wish they weren't so easy to breed..like all the problem animals (iggys, sulcata etc)
Hunter