Hi there. I am hopinmg someone may be able to answer some questions I have about chinese water dragons. I bought my son a water dragon for christmas. A healthy really cute baby. He ate well, played and actually formed a strong bond with my son as well as myself. Well last week the poor little thing died. My son was heart broken and I myself was a little sad. I got to wondering why a healthy little creature would all of a sudden die. About 1 week before he died, he acutally started to call out to my son at night. He cried and cried until my son turned on the light. As soon as the light was out again he start crying again. It got to the point that during the day when my son entered the room the lizard literally jumped up and down until my son picked him up. The lizard then ran up his arm, nuzzled his nose to my sons cheek then ran back to his cage. About 3 days before he died he would no longer let me touvh him. He would hiss and back away. I thought that a little strange. He never did it before. My son went to school one day and left him some mealy worms in his cage. Albiet probably too many. By afternoon my husband came in and found him dead. The mealy worms had attacked him. Yes, I know that my sound weird but the worms had removed his eyes and he had several bite marks all over him and a mealy coming out of his mouth. SOme one told me that mealy worms can do the same as wax worms and chew thru the stomach of a baby dragon if the head is not removed. Is this true?? I am wondering if maybe he didn't have damage to his belly the same week he started calling to my son. Is that possible?? I didn't even knew they cried until then. Has anybody got any answers for me?

I have 3 water dragons myself and have never heard any "crying" it is true that mealworms will eat the lizard, they will eat just about anyhting I believe. Sounds like he may have had parasites, but Im not sure. And no they cant chew through the dragons stomach after being ingested, but they will chew them up from the outside. Are you sure it was a mealie you saw crawling out of his mouth? Can you also give us some info on your cage setup? Humidity? temps, substrate? And how often was he defacating?

He had a cage that was about a foot by a foot. He had the turf type stuff on the fllor. His cage was misted a few times a day and water changed several times a day. Being a baby he was hand fed sometimes. He quite enjoyed that. Temperature to be honest I don't know but he wasn't cold if that is what you mean. He ate crickets as well as mealies. We have tried several different types of fruit but no thanks he wouldn't touch it. He had a vitamin spray on his skin and we had the powder for his food. And truly he really did cry. I didn't believe it at first until I heard for myself. Blew me away. It was definetly a mealie coming out of his mouth and when he went to the bathroom it wasn't runny or anything. He was of good color and appeared very healthy.

I dont know then, Ive never heard of anything like this..sorry Im not of more help!

The temperature may have played a part in it. Correct temperatures is not something you can guess about. You need a good thermometer. If the temperature is not right they cannot digest their food properly and it literally rots in their stomach. This can cause death.
And the bit about having to remove mealworms heads so they don't eat the lizard from the inside out is an old wives tail.

I'm sorry about your dragon

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Hi momof3boys!

Welcome to Herp Center! Thats too bad about your WD! Wish I had answers!

Steve

are you gonna try again?

i heard nothing about heat lamps, or a daylight, let alone supplements? vitamins? calcium? D-3 is important. 80% humidity is needed, and temps of about 80 or more but not to hot, cause they need to get away to cool down. so half needs warmer then the other half.

Could have used more info about his cage.
Super meal worms should have thier heads removed since they can damamge the inside of the animal.
When feeding meal worms you have to make sure they are being chewed up really well.
What else were you feeding the dragons?
Sorry about the little guy

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Momof3boys, I'm sorry about your loss but this whole story is very weird.

I too have heard so many things about mealworms, like their head is poisonous and such, but never heard anything like this.
I've never seen a mealworm larvae eat another invert. Contrary to other inverts, mealworms without food just die. They don't prey on other inverts, vertebrates or their own kind like crickets do for example.

The way I see it there can be only 2 logical assumptions: either you are wrong and what you saw were not mealworms or he was dead long enough to be infested by flies and eaten by crickets left in the enclosure (which explains the missing eyes and body wounds).

Another thing that just doesn't make sense is the repeated cry.
As far as I know, Chinese Water Dragon are like Bearded Dragons. Their noise making abilities are limited to hissing and a forced exhalation sound.
Now, although this might sound strange I must ask, are you sure you bought a Chinese Water Dragon? Some geckos are very vocal and a crying sound seems very much within their vocalization capabilities.

Anyway, I hope you don't quit on herps after this episode but like it was noted by Merlin, herp keeping must follow strict guidelines from which you cannot deviate like one generally does with mammal pets like cats and dogs. Some less resilient species die if the temperature is just a few degrees over (or under) their range, specially at their most fragile stages like infancy and sickness.

That said, and if you intend to replace you son's little friend, I advise you to reconsider your herp choice and go with a less demanding species like a leopard gecko or bearded dragon. You probably already have all the necessary equipment. You just need to read thoroughly the caresheet and make sure everything is followed to a T.

I hope you can figure out this whole thing.

Good luck!
Ricardo

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