Issue in my Planning: Cost

[ColoradoRiverRafter]

Hey, I have a could-be-big problem on my hands. What is the average cost for a bearded dragon and its set up? What about the feeders? I need to know all the costs.

 

[ez2bbad64]

it depends on the age of the dragon. babies eat alot more live feeder for example Falkor who is around 16 weeks old is eating about 100 3/4' crickets plus his salad a day. peaches eats 8 crickets plus veggies and my other adults are limited to 8-10 bugs per day each so they eat their veggies! ( i go through over a 1000 crickets in a week and a half! with 6 dragons) you can get them cheaper in bulk i pay $27 with tax for 1000 crickets at a local petstore and $30 for 1000 super worms otherwise places like petco get 13cents a cricket and $5.49 for 50 supers i have adult dragons to feed that i use the supers for. the tank you will need a 40 breeder the tank sells for around $119 new i have seen it on sale for $79 but if you watch the paper you just may find a used one maybe try placing a wanted ad on craigslist for the cage. the uvb light i use is a reptisun 10.0 pet mountain sells it for $19 plus shipping petco gets $50 for that bulb. i just use a ordinary 100w bulb for heat the clamp lamp runs a few bucks under $10. i dont know what the fixtures for the uvb cost right now i use the undercabnet ones from wal-mart for $9 hope this helps!

 

[Freeie]

Humm costs...

UVB $20 (ReptiSun 10) or MVB $40 (petmountain.com)
Basking bulbs $5 to 10.
Viv $100 to 200 depending on what you get best is 4x2x2. Might find one of them used.
Flooring (tile) $5 to 10 depending on viv size and type of tile you choose.
Therm digital $20 (a must)
Calcium & Vits $10 to 15 for both.

Bugs ... For one 500 crickets (mulberry farms) $14 might last a week to a week and a half.
Veggies... for 1 maybe $2 to 5 a week. (even if they dont eat them they must be offered every day)



Decor you can get by with stuff around the house. Rocks sticks cardboard boxes.

Thats just a quick over view. Based on a young dragon. Adults food is a bit cheaper because they dont eat as many bugs. They eat mainly veggies and little bit of bugs.

 

[Burtonx84]

hi there,

this all depends on the size and age of your beardie. I dont know where you are from but I will assume colorado. I live in Canada so I assume your prices are a bit cheaper then our up here. A good site to take a look at in your area is Kijiji.com you can find everything you need there at reasonable prices.

Beardie and 30 gallon usually sell for about $150 ( With everything you need )

My Beardie eats about 8-10 crickets a day and a nice salad. ( banana, apples, potatoes, romaine lettuce, and shreded carrots. )

So I get 750 crickets for $15. That usually lasts me about 3 months. other then that make your salads in bulk and your looking at about 10 dollars a week.

Check out kijiji for a tank, You can go big and save you the trouble of upgrading or start off with a nice 20 - 30 gallon.

Hope that Helps

 

[Burtonx84]

Humm costs...

UVB $20 (ReptiSun 10) or MVB $40 (petmountain.com)
Basking bulbs $5 to 10.
Viv $100 to 200 depending on what you get best is 4x2x2. Might find one of them used.
Flooring (tile) $5 to 10 depending on viv size and type of tile you choose.
Therm digital $20 (a must)
Calcium & Vits $10 to 15 for both.

Bugs ... For one 500 crickets (mulberry farms) $14 might last a week to a week and a half.
Veggies... for 1 maybe $2 to 5 a week. (even if they dont eat them they must be offered every day)



Decor you can get by with stuff around the house. Rocks sticks cardboard boxes.



Thats just a quick over view. Based on a young dragon. Adults food is a bit cheaper because they dont eat as many bugs. They eat mainly veggies and little bit of bugs.

you go through 500 crickets in two weeks wow thats crazy

 

[Freeie]

Young beardies eat up to 100 a day. Thats about 5 days worth or so depends on the beardie and its hunger As much as they can eat in a 10 to 15 min time frame 3 times a day.

Just think i had 4 babys at once i ordered 2000 crickets at a time only lasted me 2 weeks :?

 

[Burtonx84]

Yah, My female just laid her first clutch I am looking forward to that, 27 eggs so I can only imagine when they hatch how many I am going to go through.

 

[ColoradoRiverRafter]

Okay, thanks....Could I get some total costs here? Not including bugs and food.

 

[Burtonx84]

Okay, thanks....Could I get some total costs here? Not including bugs and food.

$100 for the Dragon
$50-$100 depending on the size of the tank.
Decorations can be found around the house and out side
depending on the age and the substrate you chose to use $2 dollars newspaper - $20
Basking Light and Lamp x 2 = $25 x 2 = $50

So for a startup your looking for about $250 - $300

Depending on where you live if you have a Bigals or not they sell Bundles for 169.99 which comes with a 30 gallon and everything you need and usually a free baby beardie.

Hope that helps, and anybody feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Sea2SJK]

Okay, thanks....Could I get some total costs here? Not including bugs and food.

Mine costed around $500 for setup, beardie($60), and cricket breed setup. You can breed your own cricket for lifetime. It cost only about $50.

 

[DragonsInKansas]

If your parents will let you breed roaches, then that will save you TONS of money

 

[sbattisti]

I just went through all this, and I think the $500 number was about right for the initial setup for me. Take into account that I didn't get anything for free, and I bought a very expensive ($230) terrarium. If you can find stuff on craig's list and so forth, you can probably get started with half of that.

There are a lot of small costs that add up, too. For example, in order to set up a bin to breed roaches, I needed a rubbermaid tub, some screen, a glue gun, water crystals, roach food, roaches, and a heating mat. You may have many of these things already lying around the house, but if you don't, you end up spending a decent chunk of change. Right there was close to $50, mainly because I didn't own a glue gun or a spare tub. I also needed to get a timer and a stand for my lamps, etc., etc. I also went with the more expensive, but well-reviewed Mega-Ray mercury vapor bulbs.

Obviously, the lizard and the terrarium are the two biggest initial outlays, and then ongoing, as people have mentioned, food is the biggest cost, along with (hopefully) regular vet checkups.

 

[Freeie]

$300 to 350. Thats with giving you 200 for the viv. Must be 40gal breeder and above.

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Google can be your friend in the search for less expensive set ups.

 

[sbattisti]

And, if you live in Philly, I have some stuff I could sell you cheap. I wanted to post it here, but I don't have a "sales" account.