Chinese Water Dragon | Fire Breather or Toothless

Authored by Todd Cornwell Unique Birthday Party Parties for Kids & Reptile Rescue

Chinese Water Dragon (Physignathus cocincinus)

A Fire Breather or Toothless?

Water dragons are one of my favorite lizards. They get pretty big (18-32 inches), typically have none of the iguana attitude, and don’t require a ton of special care like bearded dragons. Water dragons like a jungle type setup. Lots of climbing branches, leaves to hide in, and a nice large water feature. They will be found all over the cage, climbing, hunting, and basking.

Enclosure, Lighting, and Heating

When I set up a water dragon tank, I use a non molding substrate that handles moisture very well. Cypress, Eco Earth by Zoo Med, coconut fiber, etc. several inches deep, so that any spillage can just be absorbed. The water dish needs to be deep enough for swimming, and big enough they can stretch out in it.
Heat is fairly standard, 85-95 basking spot, 75-80 on the cool side. (Make sure to read up on Cold Blooded Keeping) As with most lizards, I use a UVB bulb on a timer for at least 4 hours a day, right above the highest basking spot.

Feeding

Feeding water dragons is easy, for the most part, water dragons are carnivorous. Eating dusted crickets, small roaches, and most other bugs. Occasionally, I would feed a pinkie mouse. Too many and you can have kidney issues, but say 1 pinkie a month. Meal worms I feed sparingly, as the hard exoskeleton on them can cause impaction if they eat too many. I usually have a tub of them around, and will feed them fresh from shedding when they are soft. I like to make a nice water feature for them, a waterfall, or river running through it. Some tend to like moving water instead of stagnate water for drinking.

Captive Issues

One issue that tends to occur with water dragons on a consistent basis is nose rub. They don’t seem to recognize glass. So when they run along the bottom of the tank, they rub their noses on the glass over and over till their noses are raw.
An easy fix for this issue is to tape some of the picture background at least 4 inches up, or even black paint that far up. Just something so they can’t see out from the floor.

Overall, water dragons make wonderful pets, friendly, easily handled (after they grow up a little, as babies, almost everything is scared).
We had one that lived to be 20+ years old. He would ride on our shoulders, and take crickets from our fingers.