Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been in the market to get a lizard as I've wanted one all my life and have settled on a Australian Eastern Water Dragon because of their hardiness and I LOVE the way they look.

I've been talking a lot with Bert, the breeder at Agama International and even bought his book. (Still waiting for it to arrive. He and I have decided on a subadult male, born in July or Aug of 2006 and is less than 2 feet right now (most of it tail =P ). He's been really helpful but because he keeps his WD's in outdoor enclosures, so his indoor suggestions were a little vague.

So I'm here to ask all of who reads this to help me out a bit. I wanted to know more about the brands of lights, or specifics for the lights. Bert recommended Reptisun 5.0 for the UVB light and I plan on it, but what are some good heat lamps? Or humidifiers? A good thermostat to keep the temperature comfortable? Any recommendations?

I know most of what to keep in the cage as for furniture and to make sure the water dish can be cleaned easily. I'm just going to have a nice dish that I clean daily rather than getting a filtering system, at least until I'm a little more versed in the lizard's care. But does anyone have recommendations for substrate, or any special things that you may use in your cage?

Thanks for any tips that you can give me! I'm ready to research and learn more and I'm excited to get all of this together and bring in the newest addition to my house. ^.^

-Sketch

i use the mercury flood lamp by t-rex, you can buy it from dr. fosters and smith, it's 75$ and doubles as a basking spot and a source of uvb/uva, plus it only needs to be replaced once a year instead of every 6 months like the 5.0.

for substrate i use gravel, i have the entire floor of the tank covered in about 5-6 in. of water. i use a whisper filter and do water changes about once a month. i have tons of logs and plastic plants for him to climb and one log where i constantly feed him.

my wd is an aussi and he absolutly loves this set up, way more than when i had a huge waterdish. plus you don't have to clean the waterdish so much. i have guppies and snails in there to keep the water clean. my house goes below 60F in the winter at night and gets to above 95F in the summer during the day and my dragon has never showed the temp. has had any effect on him. aussi's are pretty resistant to both low and high temps.

for cage decor, never buy any decor at a pet store. go to micheals and get one of those 40% off coupons and get the huge strings of ivy and buy suction cups to hook on. the ivy is like 4 feet long and 6 bucks vs. 20$ for a less attractive vine thats only 18 in. long at petco or someplace.
-----
RES
WTF
FBT
Russian Tortoise
Hingeback tortoise
Leos
Lawsons Dragon
Aussi
Ocelot Gecko
0.0.3 Vietnamese Mossy Treefrogs
Oregon Newt
Japanese FBN
American Bullfrog
0.0.4 D. tinctorius
D. auratus
D. leucomelas
1.1D. imitator
0.0.2 imitator intermedius
1.1.1D. lamasi
Grandis Day Gecko
Mali Uro
0.0.4 Hourglass Treefrogs
Conehead lizard
Painted Turtle
Hedgehog, bunnies, dog, fish, crawfish...