Hi guys,

first of all can I say what a great site you have here, I've spent the last few months researching chinese water dragon's and this has to be the best site by far. Keep up the good work. I'm in the middle of building a viv for my Chinese Water Dragon ( 8' x 6' x 2.5' ) thanks to all the advice on here and Tricia's. (I will post the pictures when it's finished).

My plan is to find a mate for Mushu and my questions are :

As you cannot sex a dragon until it is approx 1.5 years old, how can I be sure I do not end up buying another male / female? Mushu too young to sex at the moment (approx 6 months old)

Do I need to wait until Mushu is old enough and introduce a new dragon around the same age or can a vet confirm sex earlier?


Thanks

Phil

hello and welcome ,
and welcome to the struggle every owner of a water dragon has to face ,
1 ; you could leave the Chinese Water Dragon on it's own and it should become more handtame as it will look to you as company.
2 ; leave it on it's own untill it's big enough to sex and then get it a mate , only problems are the dragon would have set up terratories by then and not like the intruder ( the only way around this problem is to build a new viv and introduce both of them at the same time so no terratories exsist )
the other problem is getting another Chinese Water Dragon if they are not kept much in your area , and also people only give males away as females can be kept as a group so making an adult female quite an expensive property to sell.
3 ; this is the way we have done it , we got 4 Chinese Water Dragon and playing the odds as the chances of 4 males must be high and each one that turns out to be female the better and extra males we will find homes for and if not alternate accomidation in our home .
it's an unforunate fact that sexing Chinese Water Dragon is hard in the first year and it's luck of the draw but the on thing we have noticed is the male develops it's spikes at about 6 month and really stands out ( not all males do this as other males in the same group will pretend to be females so the dominant one will not pick on them.
now to confuse you even more some books / websites say you should keep 1 female to a group of males but it seams the other way is the excepted normal practice and this is what I would subjest.
good luck with your Chinese Water Dragon.

Hello,

Welcome to the site! I have little advice to offer on your question as I have never owned a Water Dragon, but I wanted to welcome you.

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Thanks for the info B4WD.

no problem , try website BABES WORLD OR TRICIAS as good sources of information.

Welcome to HC NEtwork....hope you get the information you need!!

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Warmest Regards from Lyn