our water dragon

Question
QUESTION: Hello. We recently adopted a Chinese Water Dragon that was in the (poor) care of a relative. He/she is 2 years old but very small. We have the appropriate light/heat/vitamins/pool/food/space for it now and I think he/she is getting fatter/greener/happier.

My question is he/she is only 12" at two years of age...Can you only decide the sex by size? I keep reading he/she has to be 18" but he/she is 2 years...would the sex characteristics show by now regardless of size?

All characteristics point distinctly to her being a female.
Can that be decided at this point?

ANSWER: Hello Jennifer,

Chinese water dragons are very challenging for sure, especially when they are ill or have had poor care.
Do you have any pictures of him or her?  The males will or should have the crest of spikes down the back.  Are there are femoral pores on the inside of the inner thighs?  
How is her appetite doing, has she eaten for you yet?

Tracie

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Jack(ie)   QUESTION: Hi there. We have had Jackie for 2 weeks now and she is eating up to 8 crickets a day that are vitamin/calcium covered now. Jackie is going swimming every day and is getting a lot stronger. She (for all intensive purposes I will call her she) holds on much tighter and wants to take off more to go exploring. She is going from brown to green too. She does not have large femoral pores or any pores that are distinguishable on her legs and the spot below her vent is flat. She has tiny little spikes down her back but no real crown of spikes. Her throat is peachy pink. We feel terrible that she is only 12 inches when she should be so much larger but we are doing what we can to give her that little Buddha belly she should have and help her get stronger. Like I said, my relative got her 2 years ago and pretty much treated her like a desert animal. Attached is a photo of her lounging on a warm cloth. I thank you so much for answering this question. I have gotten so much good information on how to take care of her except about her gender.

ANSWER: Hello Jennifer,

How is Jackie doing today?  
She appears to be female, just like ours.  The males have much larger spikes on the back of the neck & down the middle of the back.  The females tend to have some color on their neck/beard area.  
Well, at age 2, she could grow or fill out a little more, but, it is unlikely she will get full size.  She looks good, overall, just small.  
What are the temperatures in the tank for her & what do you keep the humidity at?  
Which UVB light do you use, is it a fluorescent tube bulb or a compact/coil light?  How close can she get to the UVB source?
I hope she is doing better & is eating good.

Let me know how she is doing.

Tracie

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Jackie!   QUESTION: Hello again Tracie! At last...she's a she! I really kind of thought so. She is doing better each day. She is turning a lovely turquoise green on her underside and her stripes keep getting more striking. She really is very docile and delightful. She is up to 8-10 crickets a day. I feed her as much as she will eat and leave two in the tank overnight because I am a late riser. Her UVB is the tube kind from Zoo Med. And she can climb a branch to get about 12" from her heat source (a 100 watt reptile bulb) and about 4" from the UVB on the lid. She is in a tank that is way too small-15 gal. but she is hanging in there while my husband and I research how to make her a habitat with the appropriate height. All of this (except the tank) is new to her. She was living in sand with no UVB, on dried mealworms and a cap of water and a hollow fake log. Now she has a pool that she lounges in for hours and turf for the bottom. It is amazing after all I have read that she just has snout damage and a dislocated shoulder that has been getter stronger. She really could have been so sick by now. I put her in the tub with warm water and she is doing a couple of laps now.

Her tank gets down to about 74-76 degrees at night with Infrared heat (there is heat under half the tank as well). During the day it gets up to 86 degrees. One side of the tank is covered with plastic wrap to keep humidity and heat in. The other side is cooler with her pool. I spray the tank down for humidity several times a day but don't know how humid it actually gets.

Thank you so much for your information and help. Can I ask what kind of habitat structure you have your dragon in? That and feeding her are the biggest issues right now.

I really appreciate this. Attached is a photo of her hanging with my hubbs a few days ago. I have more photos in this blog post: http://snappytatter.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/a-happy-snappy-family/

I look forward to hearing from you!
Jennifer

Answer
Hello Jennifer,

She is beautiful, for sure.  That is great she is enjoying her pool now!  I am sure she feels like she is in heaven!  
Those colors are characteristic of females, definitely.  
Is the reptile bulb a mercury vapor bulb?  What brand is it?  
I think that she will be just fine, even with the snout damage.  Ours has bad snout damage, as she was a rescue we took in.   
Are you using a digital probe or a temp gun to measure the temperatures?  
We use a 4x2x2 tank, that is wood & has hardware cloth around it.  We are actually going to try & make a new tank, a taller one, but this one has done pretty well for her.  She has a mercury vapor bulb on one end, with a secondary lower wattage bulb for extra brightness.  We keep her basking around 95 or so.
Her pool is on the basking end, as well as she loves to jump from her log to the pool, all day!  

It sounds like you & your hubby have a great project in the works, then, to build a new tank for her.  
When you are done, send more pictures of the new enclosure.  

I am glad she is doing well & is eating too!

Tracie