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[mitchell.a.88]

Hey everyone! So over on the Skink side of things I posted about Nubbs formerly known as Cinnamon. Well he actually came over to me with a friend, a Chinese Water Dragon that I have named Archer (after the world's deadliest spy, Sterling Archer). I have no prior experience with water dragons but so far he's been entertaining.

One of the first things I did was got him into a larger enclosure. Now it's not as large as I would like but it's a start. It's the Zoo Med Iguanarium. Due to their humidity needs and the fact that it's an open air cage I attached a shower curtain around three of the sides to hopefully keep the humidity up.

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Here is a closeup of the shower curtain, I didn't want it to look too tacky...

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Basically it's held on with a lot of zip ties. I think it turned out nice looking though.

After the curtain attachment I added some plants and branches

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I would like to get a lot more in there and provide some good climbing space and cover though. But that will be after next payday.

Finally I added the Dragon

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He's a very handsome fella and I'm excited to have him with me!

[Susann]

That dude is SO cool! Man, if they ate dog food once a week I would've kept him for myself!
He's a chill man, and super handsome too. I hope he's happy in his new cage. He'd better be, it's looking amazing already!

[alichamp]

Wow, clever! What the story with Chinese Water Dragons? Beautiful!

[splashy07]

Absolutely awesome! I kept these years ago and loved them! Like having something that looks sort of iguana-ish but without the unmanageable size. Never met a nasty one either, even though most are imported. Only downfall is that they frequently defecate in their water, and need a large tub of it so this becomes a worry if not home all day. Same with the sailfins I used to keep with them. Awesome lizards and great pets, you are bringing back nice memories for me.
Absolutely love the cage! Best of luck with that handsome guy!

[mitchell.a.88]

I have a huge kitty litter pan for him for his water and fill it with at least 3 gallons of water that I change daily! It gets so nasty so fast >_<

[splashy07]

Yes, I had same. There was more than one in there, so always sitting in a you-know-what pool when I got home. That and the fact that they will only eat live were their only two flaws. Gorgeous impressive lizards. Had the Australian WDs for a while too. They eat almost anything but the same water pan issue. Great pets regardless, and I really love your guy, not often do you see them in such perfect shape! Oh, how it makes me want another....and not hard to come by around here either. Uh-oh......I better stop now.

[mitchell.a.88]

He's nearly perfect. He was kept in a small glass tank before and would rub his snout so his upper lip is injured. He's done perfectly well taking F/T pinkies from me but I've been moving him to dubias more, which he is loving! The crunching sound is only a little creepy

I'm very curious about co-habbing them. I've read some stuff online that they can be social reptiles. However with my BTS and my geckos I am hesitant to put any reptile with any other animals. If I had a larger cage I might think about getting another, but I'm mostly just curious.

[splashy07]

Nose rubs are common with these. Believe it or not, I cured mine with peroxide. Back in those days there wasn't a market for reptile remedies of any sort. Rescued one the size of yours with that issue. Wish they had dubias back then, it was even hard to find superworms so I spent a fortune on crickets and pinkies, and collected nightcrawlers which he loved. Looked awful silly with a big ol' worm hanging out of his mouth! Wish I could find those old 35mm pictures!!
Crunching on those dubias isn't bad, used to it from keeping beardies, and my BTs crunch them up pretty good too!
I kept a male and two females and a sailfin lizard together with no issues. The tank size was a 125g. Lots of good size branches for them and they were fine. They barely even noticed eachother. At the shop I dealt with at the time, my friend kept two males together!