November 4, 2005
You put the lime with the coconut...
...also, Leapin' Lizards!
We're watching the Phil Collins DVD again (seriously, even if you're not a fan you should watch this. The man has under-acknowledged talent.) I've had three shots of tequila and I'm feeling alllllrighhht.
Thus far, it's been a good night. Our original plans to hang out at a friend's was cancelled due to ill health on their part, so we went to the Wild Hare and downed some dinner and drinks. We read a copy of the Phoenix New Times while we were there, and decided it was time to get a new head unit for the truck. We must have clarity and crisp beats whether we're listening to rap or rock, you know? It's just one of life's necessities.
The DVD lineup (after we get tired of Phil) includes "House of Wax" (Calvin's need for gratuitous Paris boobies), "Star Wars: Episode III" (I don't even remember if I saw Episode II), and "Mind Hunters" which I've never heard of, but which stars LL Cool J and so can't be all that bad. As long as there's lots of fulfillment for my need of gratuitous LL shirtlessness.
"You'll be in My Heart" (the theme song from Disney's "Tarzan") is on right now, and Calvin has just gone off to find Marie and give her a hug and make her come down into the living room and spend time with us. It's really too bad we're not having any more kids... he's a really good dad.
This entry is turning out to be very stream-of-consciousness.
Aaaaaand segue. Poof! It is now Monday. No tequila, no Phil Collins, and "How I Met Your Mother" is on TV. Normality is now restored. I repeat, we have normality.
We got some more pets!
These are Chinese Water Dragons. They're maybe three or four months old. We're thinking they're a boy and a girl, though it's hard to tell until they're adults. The male will be larger with heavier jowls. Anyway, for the time being the male is being called Thumper, on account of his habit of leaping from his branch and thumping his head into the glass side of the terrarium. Which means that the girl is being called Flower, because it goes with Thumper and also because she's very mild and mellow and sweet. Or she's completely stressed out of her tiny mind and is trying to blend into the substrate.
As is my habit, of course, with any new knowledge that I wish to attain, I crawl all over the net. I had no idea that taking care of reptiles (we also got a Ball Python which Marie named Callie - no pictures yet, she spends most of her time hiding while we wait for her to de-stress) was so very very precise and complicated. Temperature, humidity, lighting, food... there's so many details that we had to make ourselves aware of. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there as to how to take care of these critters, so I joined a forum, and a Yahoo Group (UK_WaterDragons) for dragon owners. They have a new member survey, which I shall copy here instead of re-writing in some prosey and half-amusing way.
1. How many dragons do you have?
We have two.
2. How big is your dragon(s)? (snout to vent (SVL) and snout to tip
of tail (STL))
SVL = ~2.5 inches, STL = ~6-7 inches. They're juveniles, about 4
months.
3. Is the dragon new to your home?
Yes, we just got them on 10/30.
4. How long have you had your dragon(s)?
See #3!
5. How are you housing your dragon(s)?
We have a temporary terrarium (glass 10 gallon) for them until we
get their final setup in about five weeks. We ordered from Cages by
Design and got the "R8 package" -
http://www.cagesbydesign.com/cages/specials_reptile.asp
A) How big is your dragons cage?
The terrarium is a 10 gallon tank, the permanent cage (vivarium?)
will be 60" high by 48" wide by 24" deep.
B) Is the cage a tank or another type of enclosure? - if it's a
different type please describe it.
The vivarium is made of aluminum with acrylic side panels and a
screen front.
C) What substrate (bedding) material are you using in the cage?
(soil, astroturf, bark, repti litter ....)
We're using coconut bark with some soil-type bedding underneath.
D) What kind of lighting do you have over your dragon? Basking
lights, incandescent bulbs, UVB florescent tube? Please describe.
We have a basking lamp, a UVB florescent tube, and an under-tank
heating pad.
D ii.) How long do you have your lights on during the day?
12 hours, usually 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.
E) How do you have your lights set up?
Resting on top of the cage (wire mesh). The UV light goes across
the entire length of the cage, the basking light is resting over
their water on one end.
F) Do you have one or more thermometers in the cage?
One thermometer and one hydrometer in the terrarium - the vivarium
will have two of each.
G) Do you know what temperature the dragons cage is during the day
and at night? If you do please list the temperatures:
It usually drops to about 78 degrees at night, and during the day is
pretty consistent at 85.
H) Do you have a water area in the cage that the dragon can bathe in
and drink from? Please describe:
There is a fair sized mock-rock water dish that is about their full
length and deep enough for them to submerge. When they get their
permanent setup, we're going to have a small pool big enough for
them to swim.
I) Do you use anything in the water area - water fall, filter, or
air stone to enhance humidity or the water area in anyway?
Right now we just mist a few times per day and change the water
twice daily, but the vivarium will have a humidifier and water
filter.
J) Do you know what the humidity is in your cage? Do you have a
humidity gage?
The humidity ranges between 70% and 90%, depending on if we've just
misted.
K) Do you mist your dragon 2 or 3 times a day?
Yep! And I can't wait until they get bigger and more used to
handling, so we can let them swim in the tub.
L) Do you have live or fake plants in the cage for the dragon? If so
what kinds of plants (real ones) are in there?
Fake plants in the terrarium right now, draped between their two
basking branches. The vivarium will have a large selection and
variety of fake plants until we begin growing live ones up the sides
of the panels.
M) Do you have one or more branches that your dragon can climb on
and bask on?
Two branches to bask, and one half-log to hide under (which they
don't seem interested in). New setup will have a bunch of branches
and shelves and hiding places.
N) Other than basking lights - are you using anything else to
provide heat for your dragon? i.e. hot rock, sizzle stone, under
tank heater, human heating pad, ceramic heat emitter (CHE), some
form of night light- infrared, moonlight... ? If so please describe:
Under tank heater.
O) Is the cage in a quite room, or an active room?
Tank is in bedroom right now, fairly quiet so they can get used to
their new surroundings. The vivarium will be in the living room
where they can interact with our family.
P) If there is anything else that you would like to tell us about
your enclosure please list it here:
Nope! That about covers it.
6. What colour is your dragon? Is it a nice green? Is it brown? Is
it shedding? Please describe it's general appearance:
The larger (we suspect male) is a very bright green all over, hasn't
started shedding yet. The smaller (we suspect female) is quite
brown on top with a green underbelly, and she has started shedding
just a bit.
7. How does your dragon behave? Is it active and alert? Seems
pleased or unafraid when you approach the cage? Stressed? Inactive?
Lethargic (sleepy), closes it's eyes and or holds its mouth open a
lot? Dives under water and hides under water at times? Please give
us as much detail here as you can - behaviour is one of the key
elements in determining the health of a dragon:
We've taken to calling the male "Thumper", as he likes to launch
himself off of his basking place and stub his nose on the glass side
of the terrarium. Hopefully his new enclosure will get him to stop
doing that. He used to rub his nose back and forth along the bottom
of the glass, but we taped some newspaper around the bottom 1/3 of
the tank, which seems to have stopped him. He's pretty active and
watches us carefully when we're lifting up the top of the cage...
he's hopped out a couple of times and landed on our arms in his bid
to escape. He also likes to hang upside-down from the cage top on
occasion, which surprises me as I know they can't breathe so well
upside-down. He also likes to hop off of his branch and land in his
water dish. We've tried handling him a couple of times but he
really struggles right now so we're just reaching in and
petting/handling him inside his cage to get him used to us. My
husband did have him out for a while yesterday, and he settled down
and just sat on his chest after a few minutes of exploring. He
doesn't seem interested in "hunting" the crickets we feed them... he
lets them come to him and then shivers his head in excitement right
before he lunges at them. He seems to spend equal time hanging out
on his basking branch and watching the activity, with forays to
wander around the tank. He seems to love to leap from his branch to
various areas of his tank, climbing up and jumping off many times in
a row. If he's on the floor of the tank and sees us coming, he
jumps up onto one of the branches to watch us. He moves his whole
body to keep us in view. He's definitely not afraid of anything,
and is very interested in everything going on around him.
We've started calling the female "Flower" because she's so sweet.
Except when she's eating. She really likes to hunt and will chase
the crickets around the tank. She's the one that will "hide" from
us by closing the eye closest to us, and she stays very still when
we handle her. We're being very gentle and slow with her, don't
want to stress her out. We watch her breathing carefully to make
sure she isn't stressed. She doesn't seem to mind being held (or
rather, hanging onto us), but the picking up and putting down
process stresses her. She likes to swim in her water dish (but
doesn't dive in like Thumper does). We've had no problem with her
rubbing her nose or launching herself into the side of the tank.
After she eats she's very torpid - and she stuffs herself. Her
favorite spot when she's not basking is in the back corner of the
tank behind the log - when she's basking she tends to lay flat on
her belly with her legs dangling off the edges and her chin resting
on the branch. The two of them seem to get along very well, often
basking right next to or on top of one another. I haven't seen any
arm waiving/hissing/aggressive behavior from either of them.
8. What do you feed your dragon? mealworms, crickets, earthworms,
feeder fish, pinkies or fuzzies ... something else?
They're on a strict cricket diet right now - 3-4 weeks old. They
don't seem interested in anything else. We've offered mealworms,
collard greens, grapes, and banana, none of which have interested
them. I cut up some banana and mango yesterday, which they ignored
but the crickets still in their tank loved. I'm hoping they'll get
the taste of the fruits and veggies through the crickets. We'll
keep introducing new things until they find their taste buds.
9. How often do you feed your dragon? And how much of each food item
per feeding?
Daily, and between the two of them they seem to be eating 20-25 baby
crickets (3-4 weeks old) per day. Flower seems to eat more than
Thumper, but both of them have rotund bellies by the time they're
done. Piggies.
10. Do you sprinkle some Calcium powder (phosphorus and D3 free!!!)
on the dragons food every or every second feeding? If you don't do
this that often how often do you sprinkle calcium on the food?
We have a calcium-supplemented gut-stuff for the crickets, as well
as a calcium/vitamin/mineral powder that we coat the crickets in
before we present them.
11. Do you sprinkle some vitamin powder on the dragons food once or
twice a week? or do you do this more or less frequently?
See above.
12. Does your dragon pass stool and urates (the white stuff) daily?
If so, is the stool formed, or is it runny and very smelly?
They don't seem to be having any trouble - stools are semi-solid
with some shape, urination seems to be normal. They like to foul
their water.
13. Have you taken your dragon to a reptile vet for a check up to
make sure it's healthy? If you haven't- do you plan to? If you have-
what did the vet do and what did he or she say regarding your
dragons health?
Not yet, but we plan to.
14. If you have a concern about your dragons health please tell us
as much as you can - if the dragon has snout damage or cuts and
abrasions please do your best to describe these wounds in detail:
I am concerned about how sensitive their hearing is. We plan to
move them into the living room, and the music/movies can get loud
sometimes.
I also want to make sure I do the right things to make sure they get
used to handling and come to enjoy it.
Also, how much should I be worried that they will eat their
substrate?
The female seems to breathe faster than the male, and her whole body
moves when she breathes... is that a sign that her breathing is
labored? Everything else seems fine... appetite, activity, color,
etc.
Finally, I'd like some suggestions on what foods juvenile dragons
find to be interesting, other than a steady diet of crickets.
So, do any of you guys have any reptiles? Care to offer some advice to a new owner? I'm reading all I can get my hands on, but I'm not finding much on Chinese Water Dragons, specifically.
AND for their fans, here's some gratuitous shots of the puppies!
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