Hi all,

My name's Jenny and for the most part I'm a "snake person". However, a lady came into the pet store I work at with these two poor water dragons that she rescued but could no longer care for, and after seeing them I couldn't say no. I'll post pictures in the morning, but I wanted to get my questions out there first.

Bit of background on the dragons:
Rescued from some people who kept them in a wire cage and fed them only lettuce and carrots. They rubbed their noses raw, the male in particular all the way down to the bone and more. When they were rescued they were so dehydrated they looked like they were constantly in shed. They're missing claws and the tails are missing pieces, and from what the lady who gave them to me said, they look considerably better now than they did when she got them two months ago, and I can believe her. The people she took them from were just going to let the lizards go. The woman who's given the lizards to me has already treated them with antibiotics and has gotten them to look pretty healthy, aside from the obvious wounds. They both have good weight and are eating mealworms and crickets along with their veggies.

Now, my questions:
Any advice on anything special I should do other than what I will find on the caresheet(s) on this site? They've come complete with an excellent setup, heat lights, full spectrum lighting, basking spot, and I believe the cage itself is some sort of vision cage. I'll be cleaning them out in the morning and putting in fresh bedding. Any advice on a specific bedding I should consider?
The male dragon in particular wore his bottom jaw all the way to the bone and then some. It is still essentially an open wound and looks fairly clean but I wonder if there is anything I should do for it. They've both already been to the vet and finished treatments, and pretty much the vet told the woman they just have months to go to heal up.

Can I expect them to become handleable? They put up with being picked up with right now, can I expect them to become tamer the more I work with them or will they essentially become a look-don't-touch sort of pet?

Sorry for the long post! Any other information anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated - I never expected this sort of thing to happen!

~jenny
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1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.0.1 california kingsnake (Tetris)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
2.0 horses (Buddy and Sam)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire

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