Special Needs Chinese Water Dragon Vivarium (Read Description)

I acquired 2 special needs chinese water dragons that had come from a place that did not take care of them properly..

My female is Lilly, or Li as I call her usually. She's going to be a year old this August, and is still pretty small. When I got her she was only about 4 months old, and was already suffering from deficiency, malnutrition, and metabolic bone disease. She also had a neurological disorder in her left arm, that disabled her from using it. Because of this, she would drag it along with her when walking, and eventually she stunted the growth of her pinky finger on her hand, and it does not have a claw. Since coming to me, she has improved immensely. She went under antibiotic treatment, getting shots in her little leg everyday (that was a task!), force fed nutrient packed liquid diet, and water physical therapy for her arm. She now has full function of her arm! She still has damage from her MBD but I'm still working to reverse it. She's a lot better than what she was.

Amun Ra is my male, and I just call him Amun. He is a year and about 4 months. Amun was being kept in a 5 gallon fish tank. Because of this and stress from his environment, his tail broke off. He's grown immensely since he's come to live with me, and his tail is growing back. He's very very intelligent. He is harness trained, and will go on walks outside sometimes, or to the pet store. He loves swimming, and his favorite food is fuzzy mice (frozen and thawed). He only gets those occasionally though!

Lilly and Amun have become very good friends, and are pretty bonded. I was nervous putting them together, but luckily for me they became best friends instantly. They usually will sleep next to each other, and Amun will have his arm over Lilly like he's protecting her. They swim together and play together. They're very happy now, and I'm glad I was able to save them. Cost me a lot of money but making them happy and healthy again was worth every penny.

Their habitat is 8ft tall, 5 ft wide, and about 2.5 feet deep.
20 gallon swimming tank with in tank filter.
150 watt day bulb, 100 watt night bulb (i dont turn on the night bulb during the summer or it gets too hot at night) and a tube strip UVB light.
They have an automatic mister/rain machine that goes off every hour.
Temps are usually around 86 during the day, 90 basking, and 75 at night. Humidity is around 60-70% (except during this video because I was filming with the glass doors open as to avoid a screen glare)
Substrate is jungle soil (not coconut fiber, I hate that stuff.)
They also have an ultrasonic fogger that I use in the fall, winter and spring and have it set to go off in the early mornings. I love it, it works very well.

If you have any questions about Lilly, Amun, or my vivarium, feel free to ask in the comments!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• reptiles
• dragon
• habitat
• cage
• vivarium
• lizard
• chinese water dragon
• water
• fish
• pets
• Lilly
• Amun
• special needs
• herpetology

[laugh2urself]

cool beans awesome setup nice cwd's

[mandieiscoolduh]

@laugh2urself Thanks, took awhile to build, but definitely worth it.

[jlmnrst9xys]

Sorry what type of wood did you use for the actual vivarium?

[mandieiscoolduh]

@jlmnrst9xys I used solid oak that I water sealed with a water sealant and UVB protector. Pretty much the same stuff you would use on an outdoor deck. The wood I bought at either Home Depot or Lowes, can't really remember. I was in and out of there so much to get supplies for this it kinda is running together lol

[reptofreak4]

cool chinese water dragon

[mandieiscoolduh]

@reptofreak4 Thanks.

[lego3311]

thumbs up if you just looooove reptiles

:D

[milldabeast519]

nice looking tank ,its very similar to mine. why does your male look 2 be a female and your female look to be male??lol . i also had built a special needs tank for my dragons. i had a 9 year old with a spinal issue/metabolic bone disease.now i house the siblings from that dragon and a few new ones.

[sharkonhackz]

hey um i have twp chinese water dragons my male has three toes missing and i dnt ko y so just asking will u kno any thing and my female has a swolen eye it is red and pussey just asking plz help

[sharkonhackz]

well then thats ur problem my female had 2 babies with a expert in there there was nothing wrong with her and u said u had one male and one female u have two females

[sharkonhackz]

@sharkonhackz and u will get more than two babies next look stuff no a afennse but srry just telin u th trth

[sharkonhackz]

@mandieiscoolduh um u got it all wrong they are both females cuz the male is never that skinny and light and the male have lots of spikes and they r huge and the crown of it is long and huge so i would kno cuz i hve 6 cages of chinese watr dragons total i have 22 total 15 babies all the rest male

[chikota1234]

U have them backwards oh and I love ur set up it's cool

[stix23331]

You got it back wards I think, the female is a male and the male is a female :/

[makshakmc]

wai till they get older its madness i have 2 bigones and 2 babies i managed to hatch a couple of eggs the problem is the male has got so big he just abuses the female basically rapes her at least once a day she no longer likes to be held and has bite marks and no spikes on her neck there all rite till they get to about a year maybe year and a half thats when he starts to dominate then the eggs 4 maybe five lots per year

[lego3311]

@lego3311 i guess no one likes reptiles here