My Mooshu passed away on Friday, well actually one of my cats helped it along, I was devistated since I had lost a joey (baby sugar glider) that morning.

Anyway, I went and found a pet store, it appears the only one in Tallahassee, that had a (one) water dragon. Well, I purchased it and brought it home. I'm a little worried because I was told that it was about the same age as my Mooshu when I purchased him in February (4 months old). However, this one is about 1/2 the size that my Mooshu was. It (don't know if it is male or female, pat store staff advised that you can not tell at this size) is about 2 1/2 inches from snout to the base of it's tail. Was petstore correct in the age?

The WD was very active at the petstore, so I figured that he was healthy, even though my Mooshu was brighter colored (blue & green). This one appears to have green on it's underside but is more of a brownish color on top.

Well, I brought it home and arranged Mooshu's old cage for it. Today, it doesn't seem to be very active and I am worried about it. Should I be or is it just stressed from being in a new environment? Also, I am afraid to let it go a couple of days without eating since it is soo small, but it doesn't seem like it wants anything right now. Also, I noticed that he was on the basking rock and lays there sometimes like he is sleeping? Is this normal? What should I do? Someone please help!!


Mary

He is probably very stressed. You probably also need to take everything out of Mooshu's tank and clean it. Newbies should be quarantined. You need to give him/her at least a week to adjust. What are temps and enclosure like?

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MARSHA
A man without a woman is a bachelor, A woman without a man is a genius!.

We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart!

welcome to the board, Sorry your cat got at your old lizard. What can we do to help you make this one more secure?

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

First off, I'm no expert; I'm a noob to Chinese Water Dragon myself, but here's my limited knowledge on the subject.

I have a Chinese Water Dragon baby as well. he's about 8-9 months old and is just over 10" tip to tail. So I'm guessing yours is about the same. here is a good reference site for general age sizes:
How Old is My Chinese Water Dragon? (Age, snout, vent, tail, length)

You probably should have cleaned the cage before you got him, but too little too late for that. Your old Chinese Water Dragon may have built up an immunity to certain viruses that may be present in the enclosure. Your new dragon may not have those immunities yet, so there is a possibility he could have contracted something. I would get him to a reptile vet for a simple check-up for parasites, mouth rot, things like that.

If he was active at the pet store, that's a good sign that he more than likely is/was healthy. His lack of enthusiasm is probably due to stress from being handled and moving into a new environment. This, in-turn, can lower his immune systems defenses, so it will be easier for him to get sick while he is stressed. As for his sleeping on the basking rock, yes, I think this is completely natural. Mine will stay on his basking branch and fall asleep to the point where he looks dead. He scared me a few times when I first got him. Now I just laugh and put crickets on his head to wake him up.

Which brings me to my next point. My Chinese Water Dragon was having trouble eating as well. I found three things that really helped: 1)Variety. At first all I was feeding him was gut loaded mealworms and veggies. Turns out he doesn't like them much, he LOVES crickets! So maybe try a different kind of food. I'm currently trying some small feeder minnows, so we'll see how that goes. 2) I found that when mine was having problems eating, he would eat much more readily if the food was placed right in front of him. I found that if you shake a cricket and make them dizzy, they are less likely to jump away. So I did that, and placed them right in front of him, and he would gobble them up. 3) My Chinese Water Dragon refuses to eat anything that isn't moving (i think this is why he doesn't like mealworms, they just don't squirm around enough). So, another trick I've learned is that if you place a cricket on his back he will squirm quite a bit. This really helped as well.

As for the coloration, as far as I can tell, and from all the pictures I can find, I think it is normal for a younger Chinese Water Dragon to be bright colors on the underside, with a dark top and tail. My Chinese Water Dragon is the same way, and I've had him checked for parasites 3 times and all were negative. His temps and humidity are fine, and he is active and eats quite a bit for such a little guy. All in all, I think he's a happy camper. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure it's just a camouflage until they are old enough for fend off predators.

I highly suggest you take a look at this website. It has ALOT of good info that really has helped me out. I'd especially take a look at all the illnesses and symptoms that she has listed if your worried about him being sick.

Care of The Chinese Water Dragon lizard (enclosure, diet, health, illness, temp, heat, humidity, cage, vivarium, terrarium)

If you go to my pics..you will see that Drago is much darker and a brown/green than Cassie. When I bought them as juvies, they were both the same bright green. I think its just in their genes. Neither one of mine like veggies or baby food except to walk over them. Haven't tried fresh fruit yet. They LOVE crickets and meal worms. Want to try minnows soon...just to give more of a variety. Sometimes, if the crickets were too big, they wouldn't go after them. Are you feeding pinheads or bigger?

it just sounds like stress to me....just make sure you have plenty of places for him to hide and feel safe give him about a week if hes still down then have him checked....try to feed him every day anyway just to make sure hes not hungry....the color thing thats just fine I would think since each dragon isnt the same their going to have different shades of color and differences....