# Chinese Water Dragon Only Eating Wax Worms!?



## ShaunH101 (Jan 29, 2012)

Hi all,

I've had my CWD for about 3 weeks now, he's 14" long including the tail, so from what I've read, about a year and a half old...

Anyway, every sine I've brought the little thing home, the ONLY thing it'll eat are wax worms! :sad: I've tried giving him: Silent Crickets, Meal worms, 4th locusts and pinkies... Nothing, only thing it'll eat are waxies!

Anythings I could try to get it to eat the more nutritious food items? 

Thanks,
Shaun.


----------



## xxx-dztini-xxx (May 12, 2009)

I would take away all waxworms and dont offer any atall, the longer he has waxworms the longer he wont eat anything else. Take them away and if hes hungry he will have to eat what is on offer.
Waxworms are not atall nutritous in any way, they can also cause fatty liver disease.
My cwd will only eat crickets at the moment, but atleast they can be gutloaded, its a case of keep trying and dont give in im afraid.


----------



## ShaunH101 (Jan 29, 2012)

Thanks for the reply!! 

So should I keep trying with the crickets everyday? Or should I wait a day or two and wait for him to get really hungry, and then offer him some cricks?


----------



## kirky1980 (Apr 4, 2010)

id stop with them aswell and offer well gutloaded food everyday and if it dont eat dont stress just do the same everyday until he will eat and it will eat eventually natural instinct to feed will kick in soon enough : victory:


----------



## xxx-dztini-xxx (May 12, 2009)

yea as above id start offering crickets, or mealies, or locusts from now on, gutload them with lots of nice veggies and salads and hopefully when hes hungry he would have notived them so when hes hungry they will allready be there :2thumb:


----------



## Salazare Slytherin (Oct 21, 2009)

I am with Steff... fussy eaters, a healthy waterdragon can last a long time without food, it can sometimes get to the point of them going a few weeks (which can stress the owner out if they are not used to that kind of thing), but if they are hungary they will take what you offer them eventually.

Beggers can't be choosers.


----------



## Arcadiajohn (Jan 30, 2011)

This is just the animal showing wild preferences.

MHD are the same! They eat vast amounts of beetle larva from the trees in which the live in the wild, so will always prefer grubs if offered.

This is another case of the reptile industry needing to adapt and change as we learn more about the animals in the wild! Crickets and locusts are simply not enough to cause an animal to thrive on thier own, this is my personal belief.

What reptiles especially diurnal, arboreal lizards eat a diet of mass produced nutrician poor insects that are not even native to the country? It's a real poser isn't it.

These dragons would in the wild consume all sorts of insects that feed on a wide variety of food sources "natures gut loading" they could seek out birds eggs for protein and calcium, small tree living rodents, amphibs in some cases and of course other small reptiles. Some fruit and green matter is also consumed. I am convinced that many of the "insect eating" species actually eat more veg than we realise in the wild. Look at Agama Agama for this, as juveniles they hardly eat any insect matter in the wild!

Personlly it's all about variety! Wax worms are very good in the right quantities, I really like to feed fruit beetle lavea and now that silk worms and calciworms are readily avilable again I also offer these.

So what should you do? In my personal opinion these intelligent large lizards should be fed a wide ranging diet until we find out categorically what they feed on in the wild. I guarantee it isn't a man altered African locust when they come from Asia.

Gutloading is essential with the feeding prey sources. Use a good quality supplement to the brands instructions. I actually use a mix of cereals and tropical fish food flakes to gut load crickets and locusts. This is offered with fresh veg also to keep them hydrated. The fish food is very rich in protein and vitamins.JBL make very good quality tropical flakes.

Fruit beetle larvea will be hungrily taken by all of the Asian dragons, water dragons, forest dragons, calotes, MHD will all love them.

Silk moth larvae, calciworms, mixed quiets and black crickets, hopper locusts and roaches if available.

You could try small quail eggs every now and again and some keepers swear by a monthly mammal? Offer some green foods, I had an adult male CWD that simply loved to attack and eat an orange every now and again, not normal behaviour but true non the least. 

The main point is that it is eating! Don't stress it out if possible. I'm sure it will try other things eventually. Fatty liver disease is a real issue! But takes years of bad care to manifest usually. I would be more worried about over providing synthetics supplements!

As leaf scatter baskers these lizards require high Uv levels, an index of 5-7 is advised if you go by the weather reports in the wild. 

As long as you have a good thermo and photo gradient and are able to hydrate the animal properly I'm sure it will settle down. Don't forget that water dragons have been designed by nature to grip onto a tree, this body shape make it hard for them to drink from a bowl. A regular spray down or misting of the viv will help the animal to transfer drink.

I'm sure most of the issues with babies is dehydration simply because they can't obtain water.

Good luck and above all enjoy reptiles!!!

John


----------



## Salazare Slytherin (Oct 21, 2009)

Arcadiajohn said:


> This is just the animal showing wild preferences.
> 
> MHD are the same! They eat vast amounts of beetle larva from the trees in which the live in the wild, so will always prefer grubs if offered.
> 
> ...


 
WOW what an awesome post John:2thumb:
Do you have any "wild" ideas on how the products in the pet trade can be improved.

For me personally when the weather permits I take the dog for a walk, take a few jars, let him run around the feild opposite us and I collect a few different things for my lot this ranges from spiders, woodlice, earthworms, beetles etc, even the leos got a few.

This is on top of the bulk of locusts, crickets, meal and wax worms I buy too, only at this time of year do they get the cricks locsusts and worms.

Due to my own circumstances I am thinking of starting up a roach colony too, as at the moment I tend to be getting a few sent to me now and again by friends and they are relished too, I just havent had the chance to get round to it.

I have actually yet to see my own water dragons touch veg, I offer it but I havent seen them eat it, I just gutload everything with whatever scraps of veg the iguana leaves and what we dont eat from out tea. If it can be put to some use with something else I try not to waste it.

Even our bread goes out for the birds but the neighbors don't like it, but hey ho thats there problem not mine. lol.

I deffo hear you on the MHD, I think you seen a previous post I made about how fussy mine were but due to the unavilibility of worms from all petshops in my area they did starve themselves and then started taking crickets after about a month.

I love dog walking because I pick up wild foods for the iggy out and about too, no pesticides, no poisons etc etc  I am happy.
It does make you wander, peeps spend a fortune and alot of what they can eat is on there doorstep.


----------



## Rthompson (Feb 19, 2011)

Whenever mine would become attached to a specific food I would remove it from the diet for the forseeable future.

I would then operate 2 starvation days of which for 48 hours I offer them no food of any form, on the 3rd day they would usually take whatever was offered.

It is important that you do not instantly start re-offering wax worms after they have taken something else, I would eradicate it from the diet for atleast a month and then begin re-introducing it as a treat.

Based on it's age I would also suggested dropping Meal worms and using Morio worms, much larger and will probably pose more of an interest, however it is important to keep a varied diet.
As they grow mine showed less of an interest in smaller insects like Crickets / small hoppers, and only showed interest in something of substance, Morios, Pinkies, Dubia Roaches, Large Locusts, Earthworms (The list goes on) it may be ideal to ensure you are offering something that matches his size, I would certainly suggest keeping away from pinkies during this time aswell, these are a full meal and will sit in the stomach for a while, You do not wish to encourage him to enter a cycle of eating every few days.


----------



## ShaunH101 (Jan 29, 2012)

WOW, thanks everyone!! Awesome advice!!  I'll report back later in the week! :2thumb:


----------



## xxx-dztini-xxx (May 12, 2009)

some excellent advice here
will try mine with some fruit beetle larva, where do you get this? will have a look online


----------



## Arcadiajohn (Jan 30, 2011)

All the live foods online sites should get them, try livefoods by post?

Not expensive and quite readily available now.

Have a look at calciworms also. Weird little things but full of goodness or so I read. I have used them once or twice but they were always very tricky to get hold of. Better now I hear.

John 





xxx-dztini-xxx said:


> some excellent advice here
> will try mine with some fruit beetle larva, where do you get this? will have a look online


----------

