water dragon growth ???s

gemisnake · #1 (**permalink**) 09-13-2005, 11:45 PM

I have had a baby water dragon for almost a year now. He has grown, but it doesn't seem like he has grown enough to me. He is about 4 inches long (snout to vent) not counting his tail. I offer him food daily and he almost always takes it. His meals are varied and can include crickets, superworms, waxworms, pinky mice, and grasshoppers. Twice a week I dust his food with a vitamin/calcium dust. When I got him from a reptile dealer he was very sickly looking and didn't have much of an appetite. I did a fecal float and found no parasites but we dewormed him with panacur anyways. He was about 2-2 1/2 inches long (without tail) then.
He seems healthy to me just maybe a little too small for his age. And I know he eats the food because we dont dump the insects in the cage, I hand feed him one at a time with a big pair of tweezers.
If anyone has any experience with raising water dragons I'd love to know if he is growing ok or if we need to maybe deworm him again, or if he did have parasites early on if that could have stunted him permanently. one other thing, as he's grown I'm starting to think he may be a she, do the sexes grow at different rates?
Thanks and sorry for the long post

Jen52484 · #2 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 12:13 AM

I think he might be a she. My male has much larger spikes, but i can't remember when they really started to show up. How close can he/she get to your UV light?

gemisnake · #3 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 12:22 AM

The closest basking area is about 5 or 6 inches away but he usually stays about 9-12 inches down on a lower limb or under the leaves of his plant. I have read they dont need the UV because they tend to stay under foliage, but the plant needs UV and I know it cant harm him, so he has it for 10 hours a day. I think it is probably a girl too, doesn't matter though because Kodama is not going to be bred, although I love the look of the big males! Do you know how long it takes them to reach adult size?

Jen52484 · #4 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 12:42 AM

http://www.triciaswaterdragon.com/ is a really good site, it has alot of good info. The how old is my dragon section is about sizes and ages.

gemisnake · #5 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 11:20 PM

Thanks, I just visited the site. It is helpful.

brownsfan222 · #6 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 11:39 PM

the cage she has for her dragons is awesome

gemisnake · #7 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 12:05 AM

Yeah, it gives me some ideas to spruce up Kodama's cage. It is a corner cage I got from a coworker, she used it for iguanas. We are working on getting it fixed up nicer and adding some platforms to bask on instead of just branches. I hope to make it look better soon, for now it is just simple, but nice.

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