The much belated 1st year of costs of my BD, $1408.33 USD

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DorgEndo

Sub-Adult Member
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Beardie name(s)
Devlyn
The much belated 1st year of costs with my bearded dragon $1,408.33 USD Feb 2019 to Jan 2020

$1408.33 USD

Worth it.

I was not planning on making up a list like this, but I had been keeping receipts in a binder. Grocery store foods I had to make some guesses at costs, otherwise everything is all accurate. So feel free to read through it and if anyone has questions I will try to have a good answer

  • Vet visits for 1st year $592.45 (42% of total)

    Other things like acquiring Devlyn, bugs, greens, decorations, supplements, bath, misc etc. $815.88 (58% of total)

I made no attempt to try and keep costs down. I am sure I could have reduced costs, but sometimes I just wanted to buy her treat foods, get new stuff for her house, or try different vegetables even if she ended up not eating them. The vet costs were all 100% necessary, which was a substantial amount of the total

Quick background - I got this girl from someone who was rehoming her. The lady who sold Devlyn to me found she was in over her heads with how much attention and care a bearded dragon needed. Devlyn had always been sickly, the lady had taken her to a vet once and did one round of medicine for pinworms but never went for a follow-up to see if treatment worked. Devlyn definitely came from one of the major large scale breeding farms (boo) and was sold by an independent small pet store that went bankrupt a few months after they had sold Devlyn to the lady. If I had to guess the lady probably spent $800 between Devlyn and all her stuff, especially since she had bought the 40 gallon starter kit with all the outdated potentially harmful stuff some people get duped into buying. The first vet corrected the lady that set-up wasn’t good enough for space or the lights inside so the lady bought a 75 gallon enclosure with very good lights and more things inside for Devlyn

All costs are US dollars

$594.85 February 2019

  • $250.00 for my dragon, her enclosure, table, lights, plain calcium, roach chows, extra supplies, and starter dubia roach colony

    $261.30 First vet visit for ($92.50) New Small Animal Annual Exam for Avian/Reptile and ($168.70) for Reptilian Chemistries

    $53.55 Fecal exam, because she wouldn’t poop during the first vet visit and I brought in poop later

    $30.00 Panacur deworming series medication

    Estimated $25.00 grocery store purchases trying to figure out if she would eat her greens, she didn’t but the roaches ate them

$151.80 March 2019

  • $25.00 silk worms, $4.69 wax worms, $16.71 BSFL, $3.13 crickets, $16.27 new calcium with D3 and multivitamin supplements, $46.00 random decorations

    Estimated $40.00 grocery store foods, trying more variety

$150.75 April 2019

  • $53.55 New fecal after 2 rounds of Panacur, parasite free!

    $25.00 butterworms, $16.71 BSFL, $4.40 crickets, $10.00 hornworms

    $21.09 Foot bath just for Devlyn

    Estimated $20.00 grocery store foods, things are in season and cheaper

$24.50 May 2019

  • $2.50 crickets, $10.00 hornworms

    Estimated $12.00 grocery store foods, things are in season and cheaper

$105.06 June 2019

  • $3.13 crickets

    $89.93 cork bark, hammock, small animal ladder, fake plants, hornworms

    Estimated $12.00 grocery store foods

$36.44 July 2019

  • $7.75 Bene-bac, $16.99 DragonFuel Arcadia

    Estimated $12.00 grocery store foods

$60.94 August 2019

  • $25.00 hornworms, $5.00 butterworms, $3.13 crickets, $15.81 superworms

    Estimated $12.00 grocery store foods

$253.60 September 2019

  • $194.05 Vet visit for ($64.30) Re-Examination Small Animal Medical Progress, ($129.75) Small Animal Radiograph and Certified Radiologist Review [my vet always includes an independent review of all x-rays]. She was eating less and less so I wanted to rule out health issues from possible brumation

    $53.55 Fecal exam, clear of anything

    Estimated $6.00 grocery store foods, she was eating less and less

0.00 October – brumation (roaches just eat leftover scraps and oatmeal, they cheap once they are established)

0.00 November – brumation

0.00 December – brumation


$30.39 January 2020

  • $18.76 hornworms

    $3.63 crickets

    Estimated $8.00 grocery store foods, she did not want vegetables, only bugs after waking up

BONUS MONTH, since I got her mid-February 2019 so here was her full months of February for 2020

Technically if you go by 365 days of having her the total was about $1,797.20 USD mostly because of a re-do at the vet early Feb 2020 for tests and a return of pinworms (which I blame on crickets and will never buy again)

$388.87 February 2020

  • $238.80 Vet visit for ($93.80) Large Animal Annual Exotic Exam and ($145.00) for Reptilian Chemistries

    $53.55 Fecal exam, oh no pinworms again ☹ I blame crickets and never buy crickets again

    $22.17 Panacur Medication

    $42.35 New enclosure decorations like climbing wall and new hammock

    $7.00 seeds to plant to grow my own flowers and vegetables for Devlyn to eat

    Estimated $25.00 grocery store foods, thankfully she started eating greens again

  • Vet visits for 1st year technically $906.97 for first 365 days because of Feb 2020 costs (50.5%)

    Other things like bugs, greens, decorations, supplements, bath, misc etc $890.23 (49.5%)

She was cleared of pinworms after treatment again, that testing was later so costs not listed here. No more crickets for her ever again even though she really likes them
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
Yes I knew they were expensive --- in fact I wish kids (teenagers) did not buy them -- so many post on here w/ sick dragons and you think your talking to an adult unless they tell you up front they are only X age and then add in oh my parents wont let me take them to the vet or they wont let me buy this staple feeder etc etc etc -------------- people that post in introductions the parent usually when having issues w/ the dragon saying the dragon belongs to their 10 yr old only to find out they are more complex than the kid can take care of -- and then realizing after getting into it they are having to spend more money than they wanted --- pet stores dont tell you that and they dont come w/ manuals on how to take care of them -- so w/ that being said I know they are a spendy pet --- :)
Karrie
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Thanks for keeping track and posting this. It will be a helpful example for those trying to gauge the cost of caring for these guys.
 

DorgEndo

Sub-Adult Member
Photo Comp Winner
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Devlyn
You know I keep feeling like I missed a receipt somewhere and it is driving me bananas, lol

I definitely will do the same now for year 2 and I will try to keep the details just like this one. Im glad I decided to post this :)
 
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