Chinese water dragons are known to be very rewarding pets but can get troublesome due to their eating behavior. Your pet likes to have different meals every day and eats only a little bit in one sitting. Initially, you may have to convince your dragon to eat and the best way to do so is treating it with its favorite snacks.
Your pet is omnivorous in nature i.e. you have a large variety of snacks to choose from. Crickets, waxworms, locusts, and earthworms are the favorite insects for your dragon. Since insects contain a large amount of phosphorus and have low calcium, it is better that you don’t use insects as a sole diet plan.
You should also take care not to feed your dragon with too many mealworms as excessive phosphorus may be difficult for your pet to digest. Also, the exoskeleton found in worms can have a negative impact on the digestive system of your pet and make it sick. Insects that are gut loaded can be offered to Chinese water dragons as they contain valuable nutrition. Dusting insects with a powder supplement that contains calcium and vitamin D ensures that your pet has strong bones.
What is interesting to note here is water dragons are not very fond of eating veggies. You can use finely chopped vegetables and fruits if your dragon likes to enjoy a variety of snacks. You can choose food that contains adequate calcium and low phosphorus content. If your dragon avoids eating fruits and veggies, you can use the same ingredients to gut load your insects. In this way, your dragon will receive balanced nutrition and benefit from the variety of vitamin and mineral content.
Fruits and vegetables should make not more than 10 to 15 % of your dragon’s meal portion. You can use finely chopped figs, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and cantaloupe. Among the veggies, your dragon will benefit from collards, sweet potato, green beans and carrots at time. Green vegetables such as kale, broccoli or spinach are high in oxalate content which is not favorable for Chinese water dragons.
Water dragons also need a constant supply of clean water to drink in the enclosure. You should break the favorite snacks in smaller portions when you feed a baby dragon. They can be given everything listed above except pink mice and fuzzies.
