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Nearly two-foot long male -- still growing.

Prologue:  Nowhere full grown, we grew this laddy buck over about three years from a little dude about the size of an American anole.  Somewhat similar to its green cousin the Chinese (or Asian) water dragon, the Australian water dragon weighs in at about six to ten times the cost.  These guys make very mellow scaly buddies.

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Of course Australian water dragons can climb.

Origin:  Aussies find these guys lounging about their billabongs, tanks, and streams.  River strollers walking along their banks can hear these guys plopping into the water like bullfrogs do here.  Australian water dragons are quite common in their home environs.  However, since nobody but smugglers can "export" them from Australia, all the Australian water dragons you see are captive bred.  You get a better product, but they do cost more than wild caught specimens.

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Just out of his shipping deli cup.  Crickets behind him much too large for his size.

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Not really scared of people from day one.

Multi-Talented:  Australian water dragons can climb like a squirrel, swim like a water snake, and eat like a pot-bellied pig.  They can also burrow like a turtle during cold snaps.  They do quite well outdoors in our southern states.  Not so much during Iowa's below zero deep freezes. 

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Like most lizards Australian water dragons get along fine together when they're small.

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Right size crickets for one of the little dudes.  They really love house flies at this size.

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Snoopy little guys.  Excellent claws for climbing and digging.

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All the necessities of Australian water dragon life -- needs a larger water bowl.

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Yum.  Baby Australian water dragon enjoying a tasty wax worm.

Little Guy Foods:  Australian water dragon babies eat anything one of our American anoles would eat -- small crickets, house flies, Phoenix worms, wax worms, and fruit flies.  Theoretically they also eat soft fruits and vegetables.  This never happened while I was watching, but the crickets certainly enjoyed their last meals.

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Slowly growing and still unafraid of humans.

Substrate:  Australian water dragons, like most lizards, love to dig.  In the wild they dig hiding places.  They also dig to protect themselves against weather extremes (too hot as well as too cold).  The females dig burrows to hide and incubate their eggs.  We kept the little guys over paper towels.  As they grew, we put them over aspen.  They continually kick their substrate into their water bowl.  Aspen makes less mess than most substrates.  I also like aspen because it comes in huge bales, and it keeps the dark critters from disappearing into the woodwork.   All the lizard litters would work.  Most are messier in the water.

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Expectantly awaiting lunch.

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Excellent place for a fly to hide.

Foods de Jour:  Australian water dragons eat a wide variety of "delicacies."  Depending upon their size (and the size of their lunch critters) they will eat frogs (don't expect them to scarf bullfrogs, but don't trust them around green tree frogs), rodents (pinkies to start), small birds, cat food, cockroaches, fish, worms, nightcrawlers, and we almost forgot gut-loaded crickets, mealworms, superworms, Phoenix worms, houseflies, wax worms, and yabbies.  They reputedly (but not for me) also eat soft fruits like grapes, melons, and bananas.  Mine also ignore boiled eggs and chef's salads.

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Food finished, time to leave.

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Starting to get his male coloration.   Good claws.

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Claws on an adult.  Could be the same guy.

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He likes to climb and observe his surroundimgs.

Excellent Claws:  Australian water dragons use their claws to scrabble (the verb, not the game) over rocks and wood and even up trees.  They're not considered as much of a tree lizards as the green iguanas, but if you take your dragon to the park on a hot day he will likely revert to his arboreal roots.  They also have less of a tendency to slash your wrists than a thrashing iguana yearning to breed free.

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Probable male at top. 

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Room at the top for males and females.

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Wax worm temporarily escaping notice.

Temperature:  Australian water dragons, like all lizards, prefer warm temperatures.  However, they seem to do just fine (eat, run around, look wise, and defecate in their water) at room temperature.  They reputedly survive near freezing weather by burrowing into the ground.  They probably need a period of brumation to trigger their breeding juices.  

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Warily examining his surroundings.

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Male preferring to exit his cage.

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Female sampling the waters.

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Finger-fed superworms tempt them as they grow.

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Yank.

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Yum.

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They do like their superworms.

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We prepared an excellent veggie and fruit buffet plus yogurt for their dining pleasure.

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He did a perfect Pilates plank in it for about an hour, so we fed it to a blue-tongued skink.

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Oddly enough, they eat red and green leaf lettuce.

Food Again:  My Australian water dragons turn up their noses at fruits and vegetables.  The above mini-buffet contained frozen mixed vegetables (thawed, of course), blanched zucchini, strawberry yogurt, and sliced purple grapes.  He ignored the entire menu, so I put the dish in with our blue-tongue skink.  The skink ate the whole selection with relish -- except the zucchini, which I don't like either..

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Male.  All these photos are of the same two lizards over time.

Sexing:  Australian water dragon males grow a foot longer than the two foot long females.  However, rather than measure them, look at their chests.  Males have a red chest.  Little ones all look alike.

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Same male  -- 15 inches long.

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Same male.

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Female -- same exact age but only 13 inches long.

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I can't see a hemi-penis on the most colorful guy.

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I can see the hemi-penis bulges on the less colorful guy.

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Nice crest on the less colorful guy also.

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Both of them on the look out.

More Sexing:  Australian water dragons probably need to reach a certain age before you can reliably sex them.  These two are about two years old.  Their sexes seem to be the exact opposite of the color sexing method.  So, what are you gonna do?

LA

Lighting:  Australian water dragons undoubtedly need full-spectrum bulbs to give them the vitamin D₃ they need to assimilate calcium.  Since they eat many foods that contain bones, they may not need dusted crickets.  However, good lights and occasional powdered supplements on their crickets were part of their normal lizard regimen.

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The two sexes get along fine.  They kick all their litter away -- usually into the water.

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Bathing beauty shot.

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Room enough in this larger hot tub for two.

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Looking prettier as he grows.

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Nice nuchal crest -- looking more like a dragon.

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Looking very malish these days.

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Obvious dragon crest these days.

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Still looking even more malish.

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Still a probable female.

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Male.

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Female.

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Glamour shot.

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Too late for the Easter bunny.

April Egg:  We found this egg in their water dish.  It undoubtedly drowned but we took it out and saved it anyway.

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Maybe she can figure it out.

Breeding Box:  On average, Australian water dragon females produce 30 eggs per clutch.  So she should have more eggs in her.  We put some moistened coconut fiber in the bottom of this foot-long plastic container.  When we started moving stuff around to make room, she jumped into the breeding box.  Maybe she'll figure it out.

Last Words:  Australian water dragons make perfect (but pricey) lizards.  They're easy to care for, friendly, and darn good looking.  LA