brad

Hi everybody!

First an intro. My name is Brad. My girlfriend and I are animal
lovers and we do bird rescues, currently 11. We have 3 dogs,
pekeingese. We also have three fish tanks.

My girlfriend works for a petstore and has recently been put in
charge of small animals (reptiles, rodents and birds.) She recently
brought home an underweight Chinese Water Dragon. His back and tail
are nothing but bone. He is about 2 1/2 inches long, snout to vent.
He has been to the vet and we were told to keep him warm, give
him .04 ml of Baytril daily, and feed him three times daily.

We have set up his tank and have finally stablized the temp at 93
degrees and the humidity at 69%. He has shade, and spends a lot of
time in the water, which is probably normal. He seems active when we
take him out to hand-feed. We are feeding him baby food, turkey,
chicken and beef. I warm the food to between 90 and 95 degrees.

My questions are.

1. How much should we be feeding him daily?

2. Is there an easy way to get him to open his little mouth?

3. Should we be adding anything else to his food, calcium, vitamins?

Thanks

Brad and Peggy

trinton

Ok I am fairly new to Water Dragons, however, over the past month I
have been learning alot so here goes my first thoughts on what you
had to say about this baby.


<< First an intro. My name is Brad. My girlfriend and I are animal
lovers and we do bird rescues,>>

My hates are off to you for doing bird rescue or any kind of rescue.
I use to and would again if I had the money and time. However, I
know it is a very hard job to do, cause sometimes no matter what we
do the patient doesn't make it.

<< currently 11. We have 3 dogs, pekeingese. We also have three fish
tanks.> >>
Wow you have your hands full!!

<<My girlfriend works for a petstore and has recently been put in
charge of small animals (reptiles, rodents and birds.)>>

I am glad some pet store has memebers who care for their animals! I
have heard of and seen to many lately who don't have a clue and don't
care to have a clue about most of the animals they have and
expecially the reptiles.

<<She recently brought home an underweight Chinese Water Dragon. His
back and tail are nothing but bone. He is about 2 1/2 inches long,
snout to vent. >>
Ok my first impression is this is a hatchling and a very very young
hatchling!! One that most likely shouldn't of even been sent to the
store yet. Our's is a few months old and he is already 7inchs from
snout to vent. So, 2 and half inches is way small!

<<He has been to the vet and we were told to keep him warm, give
him .04 ml of Baytril daily, and feed him three times daily.>>

It is good that you took him to the vet but I am sure he is way to
small for them to get any kind of parisite tests done.

<<We have set up his tank and have finally stablized the temp at 93>>
If you want to keep him warm I would say his warmest part of the tank
should be between 95 and 100 for a baby (please someone tell me if I
am wrong).>>

<< the humidity at 69%.>>
Humidity for a hatchling should be more like 80 or 90%


My questions are.

<<1. How much should we be feeding him daily?>>
As much as he will eat. There isn't a limit to how much to feed this
little guy. Of course if he seems to be over eating (eating until
unable to move or bloating) then cut back a bit.

<<2. Is there an easy way to get him to open his little mouth?>>
Only way I know of is put the dropper or what ever you are using on
the tip of his snout until he licks off what ever is in the droper

Be careful "prying" his mouth open. Sounds like he could have bone
desise (can't remember the name) and that means her/his bones/jaw can
break easily. So be careful.

<<3. Should we be adding anything else to his food, calcium, vitamins?


Yes you should put in some calcium and some vitamins this will help
with healing and with bone development. Just be sure to not over
dose the poor little thing LOL (because s/he is so small).

Ok as I said I am new and am only repeating what I have been told for
our hatchling.

T

brad haberman

Thanks T.

I have tried putting food on the little boogers snout and the sucker just
snubs it. He is very animated when I get him out of the tank, I think he is
doing and looking better. I just called my girlfriend to see if she can
bring home a couple of small wax worms to see if he will even try to eat on
his own yet.

I am concerned about that these little guys, the sick ones, though. When we
went to pick him up from the store he was in a small tank with a small bowl
of water. I have since given him a larger bowl, and he now spends what I
would estimate to be at least 1/3 of his time in the water.

Again, when we picked him up, he had two different lights shining on him. I
found out that I could keep the heat in his tank at above 90 degrees with
one of the lights. Last night I decided to try the other light to see waht
kind of heat it gives off. I shut off the one and turned on the other. I
checked in on him after 15 minutes. The temp in his cage was now at 110
degrees. I shut it off and returned to the first light. 110 was too far
above what I have read. They had both lights going in the tank. Maybe that
was okay and maybe not.

At the store we found his feeding syringe on the table with food still in
it. Assuming that he was feed in the morning before 9am, and we didn't get
there until 1pm that leaves four hours that the syringe has baby food in it.
We were also told that he had not had his meds for the day. His syringe
should have been cleaned and put away, before changing gloves and moving to
the next patient.

My girlfriend tries her best to take care of everyone there, but she only
does what she has been shown, and although she is in charge, she is not able
to okay vet appointments outside of the store, reptiles and birds go to
another office. The dragon has been sick with an eye infection since the
first of July. On the 10th, 11th and 12th my girlfriend documented in the
log, and told her supervisor that the dragon had to go back again. He
finally went on the 12th. Peggy decided at that time he was coming home.

Before Peggy took over this position she complained that people weren't
giving medication at nights and on her days off, although they were signing
off on it. I gave her a few suggestions to see if anyone was even touching
the bottle. If these little guys are not getting there meds, then something
needs to be done about it. They are lucky that I am not in charge, I love
pissing people off when it comes to things like this. They'll find
themselves cleaning toilets.

I told her about groups like this, places she could go to ask questions, but
she has been brainwashed into believeing that as soon as she makes contact
with someone they know where she lives. So, here I am, asking for help on
subjects that I am not familiar with. Thanks Again T.

Brad

danny fortin

I would strongly encourage your girlfriend to contact us directly. It just gets too complicated having with a third party (no offense meant). If she is scared of us pyscos ( : then I would reccomend she sets up a free yahoo account at her local library or internet cafe and communicate with us from there.

The dragon should be kept in a tank with one cool side and one warm side. The warm side should have a basking spot 85-90F. The water bowl should be on the cool side of the tank. He should also have a flourescent uv light over the entire length of the cage.

Also, go to www.triciaswaterdragon.com .

As you've found out, petstores are notoriously horrible with the way they keep there herps. I'm glad that caring people such as yourselves are doing your part to make a difference.

Good Luck

Danny


I have tried putting food on the little boogers snout and the sucker just
snubs it. He is very animated when I get him out of the tank, I think he is
doing and looking better. I just called my girlfriend to see if she can
bring home a couple of small wax worms to see if he will even try to eat on
his own yet.

I am concerned about that these little guys, the sick ones, though. When we
went to pick him up from the store he was in a small tank with a small bowl
of water. I have since given him a larger bowl, and he now spends what I
would estimate to be at least 1/3 of his time in the water.

Again, when we picked him up, he had two different lights shining on him. I
found out that I could keep the heat in his tank at above 90 degrees with
one of the lights. Last night I decided to try the other light to see waht
kind of heat it gives off. I shut off the one and turned on the other. I
checked in on him after 15 minutes. The temp in his cage was now at 110
degrees. I shut it off and returned to the first light. 110 was too far
above what I have read. They had both lights going in the tank. Maybe that
was okay and maybe not.

At the store we found his feeding syringe on the table with food still in
it. Assuming that he was feed in the morning before 9am, and we didn't get
there until 1pm that leaves four hours that the syringe has baby food in it.
We were also told that he had not had his meds for the day. His syringe
should have been cleaned and put away, before changing gloves and moving to
the next patient.

My girlfriend tries her best to take care of everyone there, but she only
does what she has been shown, and although she is in charge, she is not able
to okay vet appointments outside of the store, reptiles and birds go to
another office. The dragon has been sick with an eye infection since the
first of July. On the 10th, 11th and 12th my girlfriend documented in the
log, and told her supervisor that the dragon had to go back again. He
finally went on the 12th. Peggy decided at that time he was coming home.

Before Peggy took over this position she complained that people weren't
giving medication at nights and on her days off, although they were signing
off on it. I gave her a few suggestions to see if anyone was even touching
the bottle. If these little guys are not getting there meds, then something
needs to be done about it. They are lucky that I am not in charge, I love
pissing people off when it comes to things like this. They'll find
themselves cleaning toilets.

I told her about groups like this, places she could go to ask questions, but
she has been brainwashed into believeing that as soon as she makes contact
with someone they know where she lives. So, here I am, asking for help on
subjects that I am not familiar with. Thanks Again T.

Brad