Total cost of owning a beardie.

[albitjerz]

Just wanted to menton that I bilt my berdie home out of a woden squair table. I fliped it upsidown and put plexi glass walls on the sides and a screen top. Also put in tile flooring and log, rock, lights and all the fixens. Bilding the house was cheep The table cost 10 bucks at a sale. The plexi glass was 20 at Lows (thay cut it for free). Tile was three foot squair and on sail for a wopping 98 cents. Of corse the "fixens" to go inside are a bit more expensive along with the lights. But it is possable to but these things slowly over time and then bild your home little by little. Then you can get your vitamins and calcum and cricketts just before you get your dragon. I would recomend that you think about wair you can cut other costs in your life so you can have some berdie money. Feeding and replacement bulbs are a bit of an expence. Also I would recomend trying to get a adult rescue berdie. I personaly got an injurd juvinile from a breeder wich cost 25 dollars (becuse his tail was slightly bitten off by a littermate). My point is you can make a berdie affordable if you are commited. So good luck this can be fun not hard. Lisa and Puff

 

[Aznrainbowdime]

I agree with albitjerz . Being a new owner to be can be stressfull and WILL cost alot of $$$ and time... but if youre 100% commited it will be fun. As much money as I've spent on MJ, and countless nights of 'girls nights' cancelled.. i am having much more FUN taking care of my baby !

 

[munchkins9802]

PRiceless!!

Now I know you wanted a much more serious answer but once you get past the intial set up costs,etc it is defintiely priceless. My husband likens the cost between getting a rabbit and a dog, more than a rabbit but not quite as much as a dog or at least no more than a dog.

Get one if you can find a way to do it all right!

 

[Aznrainbowdime]

yeha im still considered a newbie... i've only had MJ for a month. So im constantly finding things im doing wrong.. going back to the store, etc. But once I have everything set up correctly and baby's happy.... it will be a SMOOOOOOOOTH ride. 8)

 

[zebraflavencs]

Yes ! Planning in advance is always the way to go...
Okay = Poor mom with two handicapped children, 3 dragons, 8 geckos, 2 dogs, 1 cat...
I spend NOW with an adult, and two juvie dragons around $20 monthly, and that is for the roach chow and supplements. In the beginning, (was it only 6 months ago?)
I built my own vivs ( and they are HUGE !) got all the lighting ( two vivs were built with Mercury Vapor Bulbs in mind) for around $250. I tend to look around dumps, and cl, and flea markets, and other places to find things I can use to make furniture, wiring for lighting, tiles, screens for vents..... You can indeed find some serious deals for pennies on the dollar if you know what to look for. So with all that in mind, get your roaches ( yes, do call Jason, he's is Awesome !) build your viv ( make that two one for your school home and one for the original residence with parental units) make them identical. Once you do that, you are basically set. You can also plant collards in a 5 gallon pickle bucket ( I did that, and next year I have a 12' x 12' plot planned for the greens) to help save you $$.
I hope this helps out, not exact $$ amounts, but it differs with each area and dragon. The original set up is the most costly.
Janie.

 

[sara24354]

I did months of research before getting my beardie. I started like this (I also own a leopard gecko)
$119 29 gal tank from pet smart,$20 reptisun 10.0 and basking rock $11,repcal vitamins and herptivite $5 and $9 from pet mountain.Given a 10 gal tank for geckrdered crickets for $20 quite a few died.Started getting them from a friend(he rescues animals and ordered in bulk) $1 dozen.
My hubby fell head over heals in love with the girls and decided both needed bigger enclosures. Went to order a bigger tank at local pet store and found I could get a 40 gal breeder for less than I paid for the 29 gal at pet smart.
The lady at the pet store NEVER got back in touch with me,BUT hubby had gone to a swap meet looking for car parts,called me from daughters cell phone,Honey,I found a much bigger tank at one of the booths here,should I check on price? I called as soon as I got home and told him YES check on it. He called back in just a few minutes,he wants $40 for tank,llid and lights etc... for fish,but $20 for the tank itself. I told him to explain that we only needed the tank and he brought home a very nice 55 gal tank wood trim for $20. We put our dragon in the 55 gal and the gecko in the 29 gal. I still get crickets from my friend when he has them,or there is another local pet store that sells them for $1 doz,and now super worms for $4.99,wax worms as a treat or mixed in with her crix.Collard greens are her fav. but mustard greens turnip greens also included $2.00 a bunch here and can go up to 2 weeks on one bunch. I also mix in fruit from time to time.

 

[ldvictor]

Well....
30 gallon tank will only be okay for a few months, so you'll need a 40 gallon breeder (at the least).... $110
I just have the basics in my tank
Tree... $21
Basking spot/ cave combo.... $30
Log for her to climb onto the tree (could have done w/o)... $10
Magnatic second basking spot.... $20
Paper towels... $5/ month
UVB fixture... $20
UVB bulb if you don't have the reptisun 10.0... $20
Basking bulb.... $5
Basking bulb fixture... $20
Total: $151 w/o the tank

That's just the initial. Then, every month
Crickets, 2000.... $42
Cricket food... $10 ish
Worms... $10 ish
total: $62/ month or $744 a year

2000 crickets a month? Ours only eats about 6 dozen a week with a worm(s) supplement. Maybe ours is finicky.

 

[zebraflavencs]

What kind of worms ?
Janie.

 

[ldvictor]

What kind of worms ?
Janie.

Supers and now PW since I have discovered premiumcrickets.com

 

[jargonchipmunk]

Just wanted to say here... 2000/month might even be a lower estimate if you're ONLY feeding crix. There have been 6000 cricket months here. We have two young dragons, so 3000 is closer. Some of those weren't consumed, but died. Not a lot though. With crickets you'll always have die off. I'd say they actually ATE 2500 or so a piece that month. Most months are closer to 2000-2200 or so though. Way less on the months I treat them to a big order of phoenix worms. (but that's more expensive obviously.)

I'm still waiting for the ready-made colony of dubias I got to start really pumping 'em out so I can stop the cricket nightmare.

 

[ThyDemise]

DIY is definitely the way to go if you can. I've saved so much money by building or converting entertainment centers, hutches, etc. into cages. Garage sales are great, as is craigslist. This week alone I've seen two decent sized ET centers in the for free section. And I will also put another vote up for the person/people who suggested starting a feeder colony in advance to getting the dragon, also another great money saver.

 

[mckyle9423]

The only problem with starting up a colony now is that there's absolutely no way I could keep roaches in my house, unless I hid them

 

[ThyDemise]

so hide them :mrgreen:

 

[mckyle9423]

I'm not sure how easy it'd be to hide them for 3 months and then start feeding them to a dragon xD

 

[DragonsInKansas]

They are super easy to hide, they don't stink, don't require an light and don't make any noise.

So you can have them after you have a dragon, just not before??