There are 2 important things for everyone to know about Painted Dragons:
(1) They only grow to about 6cm SVL - they are a SMALL dragon
(2) ONLY the males produce vivid colurations. Although the females have quite pretty patterning, they only show a browny colour with specks of white or black.
As far as keeping Painted Dragons, I have my trio in an enclosure which is 850mm x 500mm x 450mm. This has a solid top and only 2 small plastic vents on the back wall for ventilation. It is constructed of 16mm MDF, varnished in 3 coats.
Heat is supplied by a 100 Watt combined heat/UV globe (as available from URS). This runs 12 hours a day, switched off at night. This is not run on a thermostat because the room temperature is thermostatically controlled. Also, the URS globe does not allow for use with a thermostat. The globe is not inside the enclosure, but sits in a reflector dome which I have incorporated into the roof of the encosure. The dome sits over a cut-out hole of the same size and sits on a rim to hold it in place. Temps should be around 45+ at the hot end of the enclosure. Cool end should be ambient and is not really too important, just kept above 20-25 degrees, although I have still witnessed plenty of activity at these temps.
Substrate I use is Breeders Choice recycled newspaper pellets. This is laid in the bottom between 7-10cm deep. Depth of substrate, regardless of material, is important as it is a natural and common behaviour of these lizards to burrow for security and warmth (particularly if heating is not provided during the night-time hours). The problem I have found with Breeders Choice is that when using large quantities of live food for feeding, they will bury before the lizards eat them. It is for this reason I will be switching to sand in the near future, but having no experience with this substrate, I cannot give any advice.
I provide a commercially available hide box/rock underneath the heat lamp which the lizards bask on and shelter under. They almost always can be found buried under the substrate, inside the hide box during night hours. Fake plants are scattered randomly around the enclosure, as well as a branch or 2 to climb on. Although they are typically known as a ground dragon, they will often climb on an exposed branch or hide in the leaves on a fake tree. My male especially seems to use the open branch, displaying his mating behaviour on a more grand scale to attract the females.
A small water bowl is provided at the cool end and this is used quite often. Sometimes the dragons will sit in it (even on cooler days) for moderate periods of time, and will often defecate in the water bowl. I find because of the high temperatures required to keep this species, water must be changed daily to prevent staleness (and/or evaporation).
These lizards will eat a variety of foods. I have had success feeding them Crickets, Roaches, Mealworms, Daisies, Dandelions, Blowflies and occasionally Puppy Pal Dog Food. I have only tried this on 2 occasions with the dog food. It's not something I'm really keen on feeding them, just because meat would probably not make up any part of their diet in the wild. Interestingly, the females tended to be more interested, while the male tasted and showed little interest after.
These guys are VERY active if given the right conditions and given time to themselves. They seem in my opinion to be very communal and their antics are quite interesting, including chasing, waving, bobbing of heads, etc.
Painted Dragons are very skittish in my experience and handling is not a bonding experience, rather a struggle to keep your lizard from escaping. It is for this reason that I absolutely recommend a top-opening enclosure. I HIGHLY doubt that you will have your lizards for very long if you have front-opening enclosures. Not without great difficulty in keeping them anyway. They are FAST, and even that doesn't do them justice. I remember putting my hand in to pick up the water bowl one day. The male was standing right near it. I moved slowly and before I knew what had happened, he was on the other side of the enclosure. It was literally like he had teleported because he was dead still in his new position but I didn't see a single movement.
Clutch size for Painted Dragons is between 2 and 7 eggs, usually at the lower end of that scale. They will mate several times in a year so it may be necessary to separate the males from females after the first or second clutch. This is because they are naturally annual lizards (living only about 1 year in the wild) and will literally breed themselevs to death in captivity to try and expand their population. If continuous breeding is allowed to conitnue, the lives of your lizards will be dramtically shortened. I have heard very reliable accounts of Painteds living up to 7 years (and counting) in captivity, but these specimens were showing signs of "ageing" and I am yet to follow up on their status.
My eggs have been successfully hatched at temps between 28 and 31-ish degrees. They should take approximately 41-47 days to hatch. I noticed on 4 separate occasions during this period of incubation that temps in the incubator dropped to 27 degress. As soon as I noticed this each time, it was corrected immediately, but may have been like that for up to 24 hours on each occasion (eggs were checked daily).
Care of juvenile Painted Dragons is very similar to that of the adults, but I prefer to house all hatchlings on paper-towel so my Painteds were no exception. I found hatchlings ate within 3 days of being out of the egg on baby roaches and crickets. These dragons were only provided with a combined hide box/rock underneath the heat source and a water bowl at the cooler end. Hatchlings were housed in a 2ft fish tank with a 60watt heat globe as their bask light, instead of the combined UV/heat globe.
I strongly recommend that Painted Dragons (and all dragons really) receive regular exposure to unfiltered sunlight. I provide my lizards with 3 days per week outside, at least for 2 hours each time. This length of time is not needed, but I recommend no less than 20-30mins at least 3 times a week. A UV globe is a good substitute in the enclosure for periods of 1-2 weeks when bad weather may prevent sunning of the dragons.
Hope this is helpful to all people interested in this great species of Australian dragon. Please feel free to contact me if you need any more help.
Simon Archibald
