Mountain Horned Dragon
- Thread starter jaizei
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I have not personally kept one within my own collection, but have been responsible for several during my past work experience in petstores.
Most are wildcaught, similar to the situation with Russian tortoises, so be prepared to have any new arrivals seen by a qualified vet and treated for internal parasites.
Most of my experience was at least 5 years ago or more, when care information on MHDs was still pretty sketchy beyond the one-page petco or petsmart caresheet. I think the fact that most were WC and few were treated and acclimated well after being imported from across seas led to a lot of dead ones in captivity a few months in.
Our success was keeping them mostly like Old World chameleons: tropical, lots of foliage, high humidity. It was commonly said that they wouldn't drink from standing water, so a drip system or constant misting was necessary. I don't know how true this is nowadays. Temps don't need to be very high, maybe a basking area in the upper 80's/low 90's (rather like a redfoot tortoise?).
They're mainly insectivores, so a diet of crickets and other conventional feeder bugs should do.
There is a handful of hobbyists out there breeding them, so hopefully the captive-bred population will grow. Once acclimated and healthy, they tend to do well and are quite cool. I like them because they do not get large, 12-14" max.
Most are wildcaught, similar to the situation with Russian tortoises, so be prepared to have any new arrivals seen by a qualified vet and treated for internal parasites.
Most of my experience was at least 5 years ago or more, when care information on MHDs was still pretty sketchy beyond the one-page petco or petsmart caresheet. I think the fact that most were WC and few were treated and acclimated well after being imported from across seas led to a lot of dead ones in captivity a few months in.
Our success was keeping them mostly like Old World chameleons: tropical, lots of foliage, high humidity. It was commonly said that they wouldn't drink from standing water, so a drip system or constant misting was necessary. I don't know how true this is nowadays. Temps don't need to be very high, maybe a basking area in the upper 80's/low 90's (rather like a redfoot tortoise?).
They're mainly insectivores, so a diet of crickets and other conventional feeder bugs should do.
There is a handful of hobbyists out there breeding them, so hopefully the captive-bred population will grow. Once acclimated and healthy, they tend to do well and are quite cool. I like them because they do not get large, 12-14" max.
Bryce has one. Dante has many problems from being WC, so do many others that I've seen. If your willing to spend the time and money fixing them up/panicking about doing something wrong, they can be pretty cool. Dante likes girls way more then he likes Bryce, if he sees me he'll run like crazy to jump onto my chest for ear rubs. They need warmth, LOTS of warmth, Bryce made "heat vines" by running heating cable through pipes. They also benefit from a MVB bulb and soaks, much like a tortoise. Even with Dante being coddled along we've had some scares. He had to spend a week in with one of my lizards because even with his heating system he was getting to cold, causing the addition of a heat lamp to his terrarium. I can send pictures of his set up if you want 
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