SELECTING A HEALTHY GREEN WATER DRAGON
When selecting your green water dragon, use the following guidelines:
1) Avoid large adult imported water dragons. They are often in poor condition (thin with rubbed snouts) and do not adapt as well as smaller animals. Generally, the importation of large adults should be discouraged and they should be left in their natural habitat to breed. Captive-raised adults, on the other hand, usually make good pets.
2) When available, select young animals that are 10 to 16 inches in length. If they are healthy when imported, many adapt quite well to captivity. As a second choice, select healthy looking hatchlings, but expect a somewhat greater mortality rate than experienced with larger captive-raised individuals.
3) Before picking out an animal, make sure its eyes are alert, its body and tail are rounded, and it is active.
4) Pick up the animal and thoroughly examine the body and tail for lumps, swelling, or serious skin damage. Make sure the limbs, hands, feet, and digits are not swollen or damaged. The head, particularly the snout, should be free from serious damage. Gently tap the snout of the lizard to encourage it to open its mouth (discontinue this procedure if the lizard doesn’t do so after two or three taps). Look inside the mouth for any signs of swelling, bubbly mucus, or caseous (cheesy-looking) deposits along the gum line. Avoid animals with any of these symptoms. Turn over the animal and examine the vent. Avoid any specimen with smeared or caked diarrhea around the vent or a swollen vent.
5) Keep in mind that personality variation is not a significant factor when selecting green water dragons. Their personality range is much more consistent and uniform than the personalities of other common pet lizards, such as green iguanas. In addition, male green water dragons are not aggressive toward humans when sexually mature.
Examine the vent for signs of swelling or caked on fecal matter. Either case indicates likely infection.