ok so my dragon seems to have lost her appetite...she went from eating 10 mealworms a day to eating maybe 10 a week...MAYBE...and her tummy has gotten smaller....shes still very active and alert and seems to have been digging quite frequently in one corner of her cage. shes too young to be gravid though.

any ideas what could be going on?

HI I know I am very new here...but that is exactly what happened to my Chinese Water Dragon.
Her appetite went down alot, she was still very active , pooped every day, drank every day.
I took her to the vet right away & she was diagnosed with Metabolic Bone Disease. Metabolic bone disease I got a UVB light along with her regular UVA heat light...also add liquid calcium spray to her worms, I had to spray them & give them to her about 15-30 minutes later otherwise picky Lucy wouldnt eat themLOL
Other people here might have better insight but I am just trying to help...whats her enclosure like?? Hows her temp in the cage??
I hope I helped

well unfortunately taking her to the vet isnt an option for me. my husband is the one who pays for everything and refuses to ever take her to the vet due to how expensive a rep vet is. if I could, id get a job right now and pay for it myself but I cant. Shes in a 20 gallon aquarium right now, right in front of a window so shes getting plenty of uv rays and the heat is usually around 85....and she REALLY doesnt like the mealworms when they have calcium powder on them. poor girl. i just dont know what to do..i offered her crickets thinking she would prefer them but she only ate one..she went after another one and missed and then just lost interest. im just going crazy trying to figure it out.

Wow the vet I went to only cost $31.00 and taught me a lot. How big is the Chinese Water Dragon? I would think that size cage would be way too small. You need a UVB light also otherwise it will get Metabolic Bone Disease.
I use liquid calcium spray.
Hope this helps

shes still a baby. very small. i had a male dragon before when I lived in cali and it cost me 50 dollars just to SEE the vet...then the medicine was way more than that..i cant remember exactly how much but well over 100...my husband thinks if you pay more in vet bills than you did for the pet itself, than its not worth it. pretty lame I know! we are however getting her a much bigger terrarium on his next payday if we can afford it. it all depends on circumstance though since were going to have a baby within the next week...

i didnt know they had a liquid form of the calcium..maybe I should look into that..seems better...THANKS!

First of all, be careful how much liquid calcium you use....they can be overdone and cause more problems for your dragon. You will need a uvb lamp. Putting the tank in front of a window does nothing for UVB. It wont pass through the glass at all! The cheapest UVB light would probably be a Reptisun 10.0 for your little dragon. it must be about 1 foot away from her for it to be of any use. Sorry to hear your husband feels that way about vets.....doesnt make sense to me....good luck and keep us posted!

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Warmest Regards from Lyn

Gee I hope he doesn't feel that way if your baby ever gets sick!
People like that should be ,....
well nevermind!

Vets in California like most everything else are considerably more expensive. Even within a given area prices will vary from one vet to the next. Call around.
Using the sunlight thru a window for UVB has two major problems. If the windowglass is closed no UVB comes thru. Our window glass is actually designed to screen out UVB. If the window is open the mesh screen blocks out a good portion of it as well. And never leave an animal in a glass tank where direct sunlight will fall on it. It will cook your animal. Its like being in a car in the sun with the windows rolled up. With the size of enclosure a waterdragon needs it would actually be cheaper to build the adult size than to continue buying ever larger ones.

Lucysfriend- It doesn't matter how long you have been a member. If you have something to add that you think will help feel free to chime in!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Hi Merlin
Thanks for the kind words
I just dont like any animal in trouble & will do what I can to help.
Where I live we finally got a decent vet. Otherwise I would have to go at least 50 miles to find one. That was years ago when I had pre-hensile tailed skinks, snakes and chameleons!
Ahh before children...LOL
Now my daughter is gonna be 6 and I'm thinking....haha

As lyn was saying even tho your dragon is in the window everyday and getting uva rays she/he may not be recieving enough uvb ( Vitamin d3 ). Another consern of mine is how long does your dragon stay in the window. Her aquarium acts as a magnifying glass and can cause her to over heat. What about humidity. Is her humidity at around 65 to 75 percent.? Is she able to get out of that sunlight and allow her body to regulate temperatures. Heres the nutritional side... Meal worms contain a ratio of 1:3-14 of calcium and phosphorus. Which means shes getting more phosphorus than she is calcium. Shes getting a ratio of 1 part calcium to 3-14 parts of phosphorus. Night crawlers ( earthworms ) are an excellent source of calcium ( for her bones, body and muscles ) They have a ratio of 1:1.4. Balanced ratio. Try gutloading the crickets with grains like bran and chicken meal. Sometimes in the wild crickets will lack the grains and will go after the greens like collard greens,dandelions,kale,and mustard greens. Try these in place of the meal worms and see if this helps. Mabey shes just getting burnt out on the meal worms. If you want and dont want to handle the crickets due to them biting, Stop by your local pet store and grab some feeding tweezers after youve gut loaded them Usually you also want to allow the crickets up to 12 to 24 hours to feed ( gutload) before u feed them to your dragon. So while your gutloading try the greens and earthworms. Hope this helps. Let us know.

P.S Congrats on the baby. My fiance and I are also expecting with in the next 4 months. Hope to find out the sex of the baby on the 13th.

Sobe~

(Shes in a 20 gallon aquarium right now, right in front of a window so shes getting plenty of uv rays and the heat is usually around 85....)

Unfortunately UVB and most UVA will not pass through glass or plastic. Even window screening will filter up to 50% of UVB rays. I would definately do some research on Metabolic Bone Disease since it doesn't seem your dragon is getting sufficient UV.