How much cash did you drop in Year 1?

[tf2185]

If you are using the red light for night time, I would definitely buy the ceramic heat emitter. The reason is because beardies need complete dark to sleep. That light could actually be ruining her good nights rest. I'm not trying to alarm you or anything, but like I said before I would hate for you to have to go through the hassle of buying ten different things before finally finding the right thing. You can actually gt them online a lot cheaper than in the the store, along with the UVB light.

 

[Nova1014]

The biggest thing I found that cost me so much is food. I started out with crickets, after a while she wouldn't eat them, then repti worms, got bored of that and started her on Dubia roaches. I spent as much feeding her a month as my horse. I wish I had thought to start a colony of roaches before I got her. Now a year later she has all the roaches she can eat, I think with my breeders, 300+ females, I get a few hundred babies every couple weeks. I am out to sell some of my roaches to a pet store tomorrow, since my girl is going down for the winter I will be over run with roaches. Food will be your main cost the first year.

Glad I'm not the only one trying to juggle a spoiled beardie and a horse!

But I would agree, after dropping $200 to buy my girl and all her supplies I spend the most money on food. However I find it very helpful growing my own veggies in the summer months, especially with the Kale!

 

[LoveMy4BeardieGals]

thank you tracie for deleting all my posts when my "smart" phone decided to have a brain fart :mrgreen: you are fantastic as always! <3

 

[wykd]

do not buy a heat pad - thats bad idea get a che (ceramic heat emitter) or infrared IF you need it. They are fine as long as the temperatures doe not drop below 60 at night.
Enclosure - cheaper to build your own, you can get 2x4 panels of melamine from home depot cheaply, and a ceramic light base to mount in the enclosure along with a 24' linear light fixture really cheap. IE you can build a nice 2x2x4 enclosure for under 100.00 vs buying one for double or more. Also check craigslist for used enclosures as an option.

melamine enclosures absorb heat nicely and allow you to use lower wattage light bulbs and save on your energy bill some.

Raise your own feeders, dragons are chow hounds! Buy a starter colony of dubia's and a 1k load of small nypmhs and set up your own colony of feeders. This is the best route, you know that your feeders are gutloaded and what they are gutloaded with.

As for how much I dropped my 1st yr with reptiles? You dont really want to know, I bought dunners and higher end dragons etc.. i will say that in that 1st year i setup enclosures for 4 panther chameleons and 4 dragons all in the 1st yr. Luckily I did alot of the stuff myself vs buying it which saved a ton of coin, and was able to sell offspring from breeding the cham's and dragons to compensate for the other costs.

Getting a beardie was the most involved impulse buy I've ever made!

I've thought off and on for years about having one, but it was always on the "someday" list. Buut... Thursday my guy brought home a turtle he'd found in the middle of the road, realized they were illegal to keep as pets in our state (box turtle), released it, and suddenly... we just had to have a pet (nevermind that we already have a dog--4, if you count all the dogs living in my house, and a bird that belongs to my sister). xD We thought about a snake, but I can't do the mice thing. I wanted a chameleon, but he was crazy expensive. We found a cheap kit at our local pet store with 2 frogs (I don't remember the type but they looked really cool), cage included, but I'm not big on frogs (don't mind them, but eh). My guy and I did a lot of looking around and finally decided we could agree on a bearded dragon--after some research (and watching the babies cuddle in the tank at the store!) I couldn't figure out why that wasn't the most obvious choice. Naturally the tank he had was too small to keep a beardie in.

Friday night I ended up dropping over $250 (more than that week's paycheck!) on supplies and my Pretzel, and I know he's going to need more in the next few months (bigger tank, ReptiSun 10.0 rather than the 5.0 I have now, ceramic heat bulb for nights rather than the "infrared" one I have now, heat pad for winter, etc.). Not to mention food! We already keep around all the veg and fruit he could need, but bugs are so pricey. D<

After the initial cost of your first vivarium, supplies, and dragon, about how much did you end up dropping in the first year? We'll make it work whatever the cost, but do you have tips on cutting costs, things you did or wish you had done?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[samphychippy]

Besides food i found a good way for decorating my girls tank was to eaither make things or buy fish tank accesories.

For example:
In her tank right now is some scrap fabric used as carpets, a two story "clubhouse" made of two bricks on top of eachother and a piece of wood on top (so she can hide underneath or chill on top), an old small teddy bear that she likes to cuddle with, and a fish decor rock that is her basking spot. I chose the fish tank rock because it was light and cheaper. I also used a ceramic bowl for her food instead of a plastic reptile bowl.

Since yours is a baby then i would also suggest re using everything! I got a hollowed out log that my girl out grew and so instead of getting rid of it i turned it upside down, stuffed it with scrap fabric (my mom likes to sew), and she sleeps there every night. I also put small flat rocks under the log to keep it from rocking.

I use an undertank heater during the winter as well! she has never been hurt by it and i think it just adds that little bit of warmth she needs cause my room gets really cold at night.

 

[mini031]

after getting everything i needed for viv and all i have only had one of them for a month and the other one for three months, i do though get my crickets in bulk right now just 500 for 10 from our local reptile show, you can order a lot of things online, i have just recently ordered a varity of worms since i have many different reptiles there will be some in there for everyone since there are some worms the beardies can not and that wasnt cheap but we will see how long they last and see how i go about ordering more! we have a third one coming tonight i would say i would spend a lot in one year i spoil