This is more like a survey question, how much did everyone spend on their enclosures? Do you prefer natural, or does it matter if its natural looking or not? Background? Is plain better to you, or naturalistic features? Just curious, feel free to post pictures
$65 for a craig's list 55 gallon and stand. Of course, I'll need a wider viv soon.
$15 for tile/bricks
$50 other decorations (most of which are no longer in the viv. )
$30 for light fixtures
$40 Reptisun and basking bulbs
$20 for thermometers
Looks like about $220 for everything. Of course, that doesn't include Charlie himself, the vet, food, feeders, etc. Or the electricity bill. Yipes.
It is not very decorated yet, though - very bare bones. I'm hoping to work on it this summer, not sure what route I'll go for looks. My fishtanks are both very natural and I enjoy the live plants, but bearded dragon setups seem to require a lot more craft skill to get looking good, so we'll see what I'm capable of.
Not finished yet with tank but so far $200 on a deluxe kit that came with lights, food and water dishes and lid and substrate. I will be making my own basking rocks from rocks here on property as well as branches. We live organicly so everything is safe for our pets. I still have a few things to buy though so we are not done. We do not even have a BD yet.
Good question. I spent $200 on a used reptile enclosure, 100 gallon plus lights, and hoods etc. but after coming here I realized that I had to replace quite a few of the lights, like the coil UVB, so I think another $80 on proper lights, and then decorations and dishes, and repti carpet. Probably about $350 on the enclosure. I sort of wish I hadnt added that up now LOL.
Currently under construction, but here goes...
wood - free
stain - $8
sealer - $17
metal screening for vents - free
screen trim for vents - $27
finishing nails - $1
plexi glass for doors - $5
gorilla glue for doors - $2
decorative trim wood for doors - $23
So, that would be $83 so far. Still need to buy the hardware for the doors and the lighting fixtures. Then decorations.
For the record... this viv is actually two. It's 6ft x 4ft x 2ft. So, there are two dragons that will be living in this viv. I guess that's not so bad when you cut it in half.
Okay... Nobody is allowed to throw anything at me here. Ok? But... the wood was the hurricane covers from my old store and the boss let me have it when we moved. Then at my husband's job they were cleaning out an old storage shed and that's where the roll of screening came from. Then, a neighbor was cleaning out his property and he gave me a piece of plexiglass that he had in the garage. I took it to get it cut and the guy managed to get 3 doors out of that piece, so I only needed one more door. He had a leftover scrap piece that was like 3/4" too long on one side and about 2" too long on the other (basically, made for me), so I got it for $4.33 because it was just leftover scrap from someone else's order. If it makes you feel any better, I have lots of buffing and polishing work going into the plexi, plus this project has so far taken 8 weeks of my life at the rate of every spare minute I have after working 60 hrs a week.
You know, not to get all preachy or anything here, but I have to say that the entire project has basically fallen into my lap as if it was meant to be. Not that I would ever pray for viv supplies, but I do feel like someone is watching over me and my dragons with this project. And I appreciate every scrap that falls into my lap because my finances are sooooooo tight.
Yes, it is thinner than quarter inch and it's kinda banged up. I'm figuring nearly 3 hours polishing time to get it looking good. But I can find the 3 hours if I have to. I can't, however, find the $80 I was quoted for what I wanted to buy. And my babies are worth it. :love5: I'd carve something out of stone using an old spoon if that was what they required.
Well at first I bought this Zilla Deluxe Bearded Dragon Kit from PetSmart. My dad convinced me to buy it. I only bought it because it came with three lamps, a blue basking bulb, a nighttime bulb, a UVB coil, a 40 gallon breeder with a sliding screened top, a food bowl, a water bowl, repticarpet, and beardie food pellets. PetSmart was having this awesome sale so It was originally 200 and I got it for approximately 150 (not including taxes). I thought that was a pretty good bargain because I was thinking about buying everything separate. That meant three 20 dollar clamp lamps = 60 dollars. A 40 gallon breeder = 80 dollars (I think it was about that much, not too sure though. it didn't have a sliding top either so I would have had to buy that) and that was 140 already. So I got a couple of other bonus items along with it. The cool part was that PetSmart's sale was also on reptiles, so instead of paying $120 dollars for Fiz & KD ($60 per dragon) I got them both for $60 ($30 per dragon). So I saved a lot of money there.
But I have retired my 40 gallon breeder and it is currently sitting vacant in my bedroom. My parents tried to convince me to give it away or try to sell it or something but I refused. I knew that there would be a time where a beardie who needed me would come along & I would need a tank for him, right? So hopefully soon, I'll get around to cleaning out the tank and then storing it in my closet or something. For now it's hogging space atop of my dresser.
Anyway, Fiz and KD both have custom melamine vivs now. They're similar in size and shape except Fiz's is a little bigger 8)
I don't know about KD's tank, but for Fiz's tank we had to buy:
Melamine
Plexiglass
Trim
Paint
Self-Adhesive Linoleum Tiles
Poplar for the plexiglass track
I gave my dad a $100 dollars so that's about how much we spent & created this for Fiz:
He loves it!
I don't have any pictures of KD's viv but his is made of stained wood on the outside instead of the white on this one.
I also had to buy a reptisun ($24), Fixture ($11), New Basking Bulbs for KD & Fiz (A Value-Pack of 2 Zoo-Med Basking Bulbs for $15? I think), New thermometers ($12 for KD & one I found on clearance for $3). A second Reptisun for KD ($24) & a fixture ($8) and some other stuff that I really can't remember. LOL