Have you ever thought about picking up a Chinese water dragon? Australian water dragon? Green Iguana? Frilled Dragon? but you either can’t afford one of these beauts or they get too damn big? Well guys, I got a present for you. It’s called MHD. It may sound like a disease or a drug, and trust me, it’s just as contagious, and addictive as either of these, but really, MHD stands for Mountain Horned Dragon. The easiest dragon.
Legitimate Dragon
What’s not to love about a green-brown body, long, prehistoric tail, beautiful almond colored eyes, and a dewlap that looks like a mosaic painting? Nothing! If you have a fever for a first lizard, but don’t want something that’s gonna grow up to weigh as much as you do, you must consider one of these beauties. Being semi-arboreal and tropical, they will not only bring the reptile to your life, but also bring that sweet tropical vacation getaway right into your room.
Dragon’s Domain
Iguanas require a room, chinese water dragons require a quarter of one, but MHDs are perfectly content with a 30 gallon aquarium, and in a beauty contest, blow both of the previously mentioned contenders out of the water. Or shall I say, trees. The bigger the better for an enclosure, of course, but a 30 gallon is fine, and the minimum should be a 20 gallon aquarium, tall. The trickiest part for these guys is the water feature. They do prefer running or bubbling water for drinking, so a cheap aquarium pump would be great if you could afford one. A powerhead, meant for a large fish tank filter would be even better, and you could go out and buy some cheap tubing and make yourself a great waterfall. As far as temperature goes, 90 degrees fahrenheit is minimum for the dragon’s basking spot, and the cool side shouldn’t get below 75 degrees, which is a difficultly large temperature gradient for a short enclosure lengthwise, such as a 20 gallon tall, but it can be done. Daily Misting is required: you want to SOAK their enclosure, and live plants or moss, along with running water and a mostly enclosed tank, make for a perfect humidity balance. Feeding should be daily: small amounts of live insects. MHDs will NOT eat prekilled food. Most insects provide a great and healthy meal, but I suggest starting your newcomer off on mealworms, superworms, crickets, or termites. Handling is the best part of these guys, because of their relatively low intelligence they will relax on your hand, wrist, shoulder, or lap, for hours without fuss.
Hunting a Dragon
The most difficult part of keeping these dragons will come early in your taming-of-the-dragon saga: finding one. These beautiful beasts are rarely found in pet stores, and that makes your chances of obtaining one via an online source greater. With all things mentioned previously in mind, your dragon saga will be on its way in no time.
at 8:53 am
My son’s father bought him one for Christmas. Since reading this I have upped his/her terrarium to a 55 gallon. I have red heat lamp, UV light, waterfall, ceramic log-vertical, wooden tree-horizontal. Across length of tank, so she doesn’t have to walk on bottom of tank. There is a pool for bathing-which she lived in at the pet store(they had her for a while I guess) but she isn’t full grown-I don’t think.
I’ve been doing LOTS of homework!! There isn’t a lot of info-most of it contradicts each other!! I want her to B happy and healthy. She isn’t eating much since moving to her new terrarium. Having a lot of trouble keeping humidity levels up!! I have moss covering bottom of the tank-heating pad under it. I’m soaking it several times a day. The top of tank is screen…lamps R sitting on top not hanging. Should I cover it with tin foil or something? Please send me as much info as U can!! I’d really appreciate any help!! Feeding, Humidity, activity level, and just Wutever else I need to know!! I never thought I’d like having a reptile…but I LOVE her!! More than my son actually!! LOL
Thank U!! Robin
at 7:36 pm
Keep the cage humid. I cannot stress enough how much these lizards prefer drinking out of MOVING water. even a small aquarium pump blowing air through aquarium tubing into a water dish improves their health dramatically due to the fact that they are getting more (enough) fluids. Live food, as mentioned in the original article, is also highly prefered over anything prekilled or thawed. If you want any more specifics, feel free to ask. Good luck with your MHD!
at 7:14 am
I bought a medium size waterfall, which has an optional fogger. I went and bought that the following day because no matter how much misting I do (saturating moss) I can’t get humidity up!! Where should i put the humidity gage? I have near the top inside…should I move it down? Just afraid it will B too hot and dry at the top. I have enclosed the top of Terrarium with tin foil-lights sit on top too!
Drinking-She does drink from the waterfall-shoves her head right into it!! Only problem with that is it runs down her tail and onto bottom of tank!! LOL But it’s fun to watch!!
Feeding-I have crickets, meal worms, she has only eaten 1 cricket. I read on another site they love dew worms. Bought a dozen of those yday-I tried to give it to her but she wanted no part of it. Dropped it down onto moss closed the door and she tilted her head and DOVE for it!! Pretty impressive actually. How much should she eat? 1 worm a day? 1 every 3 days? Keep in mind crickets and meal worms R in there too…if she finds them-opposite end of tank.
Thank U so much for your response/help!! It’s greatly appreciated!!
at 8:01 pm
That’s awesome! As long as you have running water and she is drinking regularly, you’re good. I can imagine that it’s fun to watch her drink, it sounds very amusing.
Now as for feeding her, a lot of people will disagree with me, but when I had my MHD, who lived 3 years with me and is still alive, healthy, happy, and beautiful with its current owner, I fed her as much as she would eat. MHDs, unlike some lizards, tend to stop eating when they are content. You will notice similar feeding behavior with most iguanids, with the exception of Chinese, Asian, and Australian water dragons, who have been known to eat themselves to death. Feed her what she likes to eat, but if you don’t give her any diversity in her menu at all, make sure to dust her diet with a calcium powder supplement. A second thing to remember is that you absolutely MUST have a flourescent light WITH UVB, preferably full spectrum. There really is no excuse for not having one. I had a 14 inch Savannah monitor who I neglected to give UVB exposure to, and I found my monitor in a crippl;ing and very painful spasm one night, caused by MBD, Metabolic Bone Disorder. It is a horrific sight and can only be avoided by giving UVB exposure to the creature at risk.
You sound like you care about your lizard. A truly refreshing thought after dealing with so many unattentive reptile enthusiasts. Keep it up!
Sean
(Reptilesmurf on Youtube)
at 4:50 pm
help dude my horned dragon is an asshole! he bites and hissis and wont let me -pick him up i obtaned him a week ago he wont eat or anaything he was like this when i got him and i think abuse form pet store or he is wild cought heres a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZNhn0c_g8I&feature=youtu.be
at 7:16 pm
Help I have MHD . When he goes into his water pool to poo, he scratches his head . He has minor cuts by its eyes . Does it only when in the water – is a sign of stress?
at 8:07 pm
If he has cuts, he’s scratching at them. he’s not scratching to cause them or because anything else is irritating him besides the already existing cuts. Here’s what you should do. Buy and anti fungal treatment. The lotion/cream works the best in this case. He may be scratching them because they are infected. Also, If they are worsening, clip his nails back as far as you can WITHOUT CUTTING AWAY AT THE CUTICLE and file them so they are dull. Because he is going to have dull nails for the time being you are also going to want to make sure to feed him things that he doesn’t need his claws to kill. The scratches should heal up in a few days to a week or so but you need to watch him closely and repost if things get worse or don’t get any better in time. If reptiles are bad at fighting any ailment, it is without a doubt open wounds.
Good luck and let us all know how it goes,
Sean Frymire
at 10:14 pm
Really worried about my MHD!! She has had wut looks like a scar on her lower lip. Kind of deformed since we got her. Not to the point that it interferes or seems to bother her. So I never worried about it. But now there is a growth starting on side of her face. It doesn’t look like a scratch or sore and again doesn’t seem to B bothering her. It has a slight redish colour, but other than that it just looks like lumpy skin.
She also has lost 2 claws on one front and 3 claws on same side rear foot. I’ve been looking for reason’s for the nail loss…I’ve read that they don’t know Y it happens, and they don’t grow back…is this true?
She is still eating with gusto!! But she doesn’t seem as bright as she did. She brightens up when I pick her up. But almost as soon as I put her down she shuts her eyes again!
Thanks for your help!! Take care!
at 6:11 pm
Treat her drinking water with “general cure” aquarium anti-parasitic fish medication. I Know it says its for fish, don’t be thrown off by that factor. also, I would put her into and ICU enclosure. Just bare tank with paper towels on the bottom, UVB AND UVA, but preferably full spectrum. What is the Ph of the water in the enclosure? I had a Tegu with that same thing and the anti-parasitic cleaned it up nicely
at 5:15 pm
Thanks for the info. I don’t know wut the pH level is in her water. Lately I have feeding her water from a medicine syringe. Its the only way she will drink. Not drinking from her water fountain as she was!! So its just tap water.
But since I last msged you she has laid eggs. She has gone a long time without eating. Probably a week or longer. Knowing that she was displaying egg laying behaviour I just let her be.
She has finally eaten a worm today, finally. But her colour is awful!! Skin is splotchy, pale and very dry!! Is this normal after laying eggs? Is there anything else I can do beside wut you mentioned before??
Thank you so much for all your help!!
at 9:24 pm
I forgot to mention he also likes to get on the mesh lid and hang from it under the light. Is that normal?
at 12:59 am
My son and I have a MHD who is doing pretty well it seems (his appetite is never lacking). Ours was born in captivity and has always been pretty fun. Tonight however, my son was holding him and about 2 inches of the end of his tail fell off. I tried to reassure my son that it was ok and that that does happen with lizards but even though I’m a biology teacher he doesn’t believe me (the mom factor I guess). Has anyone here had their MHD’s tail pop off?
at 10:25 am
i just got a mountain horned dragon and the petstore told me that it was a Acanthosaura crucigera species and that theyre supposed to get from 10 to 12 inches but they didnt seem to know much else like, they asked me what the little scares and bumps behing their eye was so i told them i think its where theyre either growing or lost their horns.. so my question is do they generally grow their horns back or when do they start growing thier horns because mine doesnt look like it lost its it looks like their just coming in but its over 12 inches (the pet store told me its almost an adult ._. )
at 12:52 am
We have a MHD had him for a about two months. For the last two days he has just laid on the bottom of his tank and has not eaten. He is really week and can barely hold his head up. Any suggestions on what we can do.
at 10:39 pm
they sell so many of the MHD lizards at my pet store
at 2:22 pm
Hello.
My names sam. I recently lost my Fat-tailed gecko,
and i became intrested in the possibility of finding a new reptile companion.
i was in petsmart and was looking at the mountain horned tailed dragon and they couldn’t really give me any information on it because they just started selling them, I was also looking at the Mail Uromastyx with interest and i was wondering what your thoughts are on what could possibly make a better pet, I’m a college student with a part time job adn my boyfriend has a fair bit of experiance with reptiles but told me that it was soley up to me because he has never had or seen one of either of them before, I want an animal that i can hold and handle, and I don’t really know how friendly either one can be, some people say they both hate being handled and others say that they like it.
please give me your honest answer on what you think would be the best answer, I’d rather have the opinion of someone who has more experiance than me,
thank you so much,