Well I am 36 yrs old have two children, girl 6 1/2 and a boy that will be 5 on Valentines 2006 and married to a lovely wife and mother of those two children 12+ yrs.

I will try to make this short.
We went by petsmart to look around and the kids came to the reptiles in which a Chinese Water Dragon was anxiously awaiting them, man I mean he/she put on a show for them and even won my wife (who has always hated the yard lizzards) over.

So the kids wanted to get him/her and I said well let Dad go home and research this now I have not ever had any dealings with anything but Dogs, Cats, Horses and Cattle and I certainly did not want to take the pet home and not be able to take of it and end up costing it his/her life and also an oppurtunity to be with someone who could give it a good home.

So I did research it for about a week and a half and came to the conclusion that I could manage this in a responsible and loving manner.

Now when we went back to get him/her we find that he had developed a little pimplelike bump on his neck and they had it in the back putting Neosporin on it and said they couldnt let us have him/her until the place went away which could take up to 3-4 weeks. That was 1/05/2006 and beleive me the kids are counting it down.

They have already named it Kenny (hope it is a male with that name LOL)

Well I thought that this would give me a perfect time and oppurtunity to build him a nice vivarium, being that I am a Cabinetmaker, Cabinet designer and finish carpenter by trade it would not be hard at all.

I also know not to use Treated wood of any kind, Cedar or pine because of their natural resin's but I registered at HerpHabitats to learn about the lighting and just get a few ideas on waterfalls, plumbing and water sanitation ideas also on if I use a Soil/sand substrate, how to and how often to clean it or just change it for prevention of Salmonella as much as possible. I have read alot on disinfection of the branches, waterbowls (fecal matter being in it) and glass and/or walls being cleaned with soap and water and then a 5-10% solution of Bleach and water then rinsing well. I just cant quite figure how I am going to construct this so that it is large enough for our little fellow when he gets mature and yet still be able to get it out of the house to clean?

Maybe some of you can help me, and maybe I dont have to clean every single little thing in the vivarium once a week? I would like to have some live plants in the soil substrate if possible, that is why I wanted a soil. I had first wanted some chipped looking coarse substrate I saw in PetSmart but I saw on Tricia's water dragon page that all of these type substrates may be ingested and cause impaction.

I followed a link to here at HC about Chinese Water Dragon Care Sheet and that is how I ended up registering here.

Well I guess that was long enough, I can start some New threads from here on out to discuss furthur if I cannot find my answer in the forums.

Thanks for the boards here I think I will enjoy it and will certainly be willing to share and give anythig I can to help others.

Chris

Well, welcome to the HC! You've come to the right place for your water dragon info.
They aren't always the easiest of herps to keep but they sure are great pets. If you are going to build your enclosure out of wood be sure to seal it with water based polyurethane. This will keep the moisture from penetrating the wood, but you probably already thought of that, also, use some aquarium safe sealant in the cracks.

Congrats on the soon to be new pet dragon!

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0.1.0 Brazilian Rainbow boa (Sakura)
1.1.0 Leopard geckos (Tasuki, Sango)
2.0.0 Ball pythons (Tsume, Kenshin)

Hi and welcome to HC.

Could you not sink you plants into the floor of your viv to avoid using soil?? I know there is problems with yellow fungus?? and bacteria from any soils within a viv. another option would be to use 'air plants'. These adhere to the rocks/wood without the need for soils and are very pretty - I fairly sure that Rich? used them on his palace - check out the articles section it should be there somewhere.

congrats on the soon to be new addition - looking forward to pics of your viv in progress and your WD

Hi again Chris and welcome to the backbone of our network.

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Fran
January 9, 1940 - June 1, 2006 (R.I.P)

Welcome to HC Chris..I have 3 Chinese Water Dragons myself...if you have any questions at all ask away and congrats on getting your dragon!

Hello and welcome to HC, you came over from an invite on Herp Habitats (our sister site) didnt you?

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Jayr & Mandy Robinson
J&M Herp Shack
"Are you watching closely?"

Hello,

Welcome to the HC network. I hope you find the sites useful.

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.:: Rich ::.

+ Spread The Info

Welcome to HC Chris. We should be able to help you out with your Chinese Water Dragon.

Hi Chris and Welcome to the HC Network!

Steve