Jack S. of Bethesda, Md., thinks his Chinese water dragon is “the coolest pet on Earth.”
But his mom has taken a little longer to get used to this foot-long green reptile, even though she gave it to him.
Just a year old, Jack’s new pet looks like a tiny dinosaur, with bulging eyeballs and big, frog-like legs. Sitting perfectly still on Jack’s shoulder, he’s even kind of cute. But Leo is a lot more work than the typical dog or cat.
“I didn’t really do enough research before I got him,” says Jack’s mother, Judy. “But it’s OK. We figured it out. We all help, and it’s very educational.”
There are plenty of families who want an interesting or unusual pet. But the main thing families have to know about weird pets is that they can be hard to care for. Frequently, the whole family has to be involved, says Meredith Davis, the head vet at Eastern Exotic Veterinary Center in Fairfax, Va.
“They might buy a pet for a holiday or on an impulse, and then realize there’s more to it than what you might find at the pet store,” Davis says. “It’s definitely good to do some research beforehand.”
But an unusual pet can be rewarding, too, adds Davis, who sees a lot of unusual patients. One local family has a sugar glider, a squirrel-size marsupial–an animal with a tummy pouch for babies, like a kangaroo. Another family has a pet hedgehog, which balls up like a spiky softball in front of new people (including Davis!). She also sees ferrets, rats, birds, turtles, geckos and, of course, reptiles.
Jack and his family might not have known much about reptiles when they got Leo, but they do now. Chinese water dragons are cold-blooded, which means they can’t control their body temperatures. So Jack’s dragon lives in a large tank heated to 85 degrees at all times by special lamps. A water-misting machine keeps the humidity in Leo’s tank just right.
Jack, who is 7, does a lot of the work for Leo by himself. For example, he makes sure Leo’s warming lights are on when they’re supposed to be, he checks that Leo’s little swimming pool is always full of clean water–bottled water, if you please–and feeds Leo crickets.
“He eats about five or six at a time, but only every three days,” Jack says. He puts a few live crickets in a cardboard box and sprays the bugs with a special calcium powder and vitamin solution so they’re more nutritious. Once in the box, Leo grabs the crickets one by one and swallows them in one gulp.
