chinese water dragon

[large_cichlids]

My chinese water dragon has been doing excelent when being handled.Ive been feeding him alot of crickets,and for once i put some salad lettuce in the tank in a corner with little carrots in them.Is there a chance hell eaT THEM.He is starting to look real puffy as he has a lil pot belly lol.

 

[Z Trip]

Well the pot belly might not be good. You seem to be feeding your animal alot which is good, now if you stop feeding it and the pot belly is still their, that means your little guy has internale parasites.

 

[large_cichlids]

what is internal parasites.Is it popular with wild caught animals.

 

[lovespunaround]

Yeah most wild-caughts have parasites in their intestines. Normally, it won't cause any trouble for the animal, but if the animal is put under a lot of stress or gets some other kind of sickness, it can be pretty bad.

You can have a vet look at your lizard's feces and see if it's got parasites.

 

[messiner]

your wd was most likely captive bread, it sounds like hes just fat to me. post some pics, but dont sweat it.

 

[Z Trip]

Well internal parasites are mostly found in the intestine but can also be found in other parts of the body aswell. Now some are benifitial, helping to dijest food. They will restrict growth because they need to eat to. Now a parasites job is to feed off the host without killing it or it will die to. But sometimes, many times the parasite become to many and the animal may infact die.

 

[hamato_yoshii]

I would say he probably wont eat the veggies, or at least not make a habit of it. What kind of "salad" did you give him, cuz I've found that some lettuce is detrimental to their health.

 

[Kobi9019]

Heres a little trick I have had success with for different species. Take a bowl or whatever you want to use and put the salad in it then take some waxworms or another "treat", except crickets becuase they will climb out, that he enjoys and mix them in with some on top for him to notice and the majority in the middle of the salad so that he will dig through it for them. He will eat some of the salad by accident when going for the worms and eventually should start eating the salad regularly. Give it a try it should work. gl

 

[synapse989]

yes please post a pic of your pot-bellied dragon