How much does your Beardie cost per month for care?

Just curious how much the average pet owner spends on a single Beardie per month. If you're a commercial breeder or own more than one, then I guess you can try and divide up the costs...though I understand it won't be fully accurate.

Also for "costs" I'm including everything but the initial purchase price of the Bearded Dragon.
:gj:

if you buy crickets in bulk, and vitamins last a while, there pretty cheap. before i bought in bulk he was like 35 dollars, in crickets

Don't your bulk cricket orders only last a week or so?

I have heard of most people pay $25 shipped for 1000 crickets....assuming a Beardie eats 100 crickets a day- 1,000 sure goes by fast! Based on my calculations, owning a Bearded Dragon is a very, very expensive reptiles....I'm just trying to figure how other owners do it. :)

Thanks

Ill put it this way, Beardies are awsome and cute, but not cheap. I was paying $25 every two weeks for 1000 crickets, and beardies eat ALOT especially once you see how many they eat in one go, and then know that you have to do that three times a day. Granted 80% of people under feed their beardies...

Just remember, its how many crickets a healthy beadrie can eat in 15 minutes three times a day. Unless you breed your own feeders id expect around $50 a month on crickets and vegies, and around $25 once they are grown and eat mostly Vegs.

Also take into hand that alot of the crickets you buy WILL die or out grow the size/length your beardie can take ( Which is the width from eye to eye on your dragons head) So if you have 1000 crickets you surely will not be feeding all 1000 to it.

Hope this helps- Matt

why mine eats like 60, and all my husbandry skills are right, so mabye mine willl get more expensive, then as time goes by. yea, i buy about 500, and at least 100 die by the time i finish thrm

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Originally Posted by BOWSER11788

why mine eats like 60, and all my husbandry skills are right, so mabye mine willl get more expensive, then as time goes by. yea, i buy about 500, and at least 100 die by the time i finish thrm

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60 a day or a week?

oh sorry i didn't specifly 60 a day, i let him eat all he can in like 15 min, somtimes i tad longer

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Originally Posted by BOWSER11788

oh sorry i didn't specifly 60 a day, i let him eat all he can in like 15 min, somtimes i tad longer

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Oh ok, 60 a day sounds right lol :)

I have a Blaptica Dubia colony going, costs me close to nothing to feed my 2 dragons.

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Originally Posted by Shaz

I have a Blaptica Dubia colony going, costs me close to nothing to feed my 2 dragons.

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Thats a very good way to go, but by the time they your colony is big enough your beardie may already be an adult.

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Originally Posted by Beardedragon

Thats a very good way to go, but by the time they your colony is big enough your beardie may already be an adult.

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Depends how many you start with.

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Originally Posted by Shaz

Depends how many you start with.

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Very true, although the cost of getting a huge amount of Dubias isnt something most people can afford. Lobsters maybe, but they are not a roach I would recommend.

How much is it specifically to get them started?

I'm surprised how many people voted its less than $25 a month. I was trying to budget for a lot more than that and couldn't figure how so many people could afford a pet thats upkeep seemed so expensive (and higher than a dog...or two:O).

I think I've got some googling to do now....:D

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Originally Posted by Calift

How much is it specifically to get them started?

I'm surprised how many people voted its less than $25 a month. I was trying to budget for a lot more than that and couldn't figure how so many people could afford a pet thats upkeep seemed so expensive (and higher than a dog...or two:O).

I think I've got some googling to do now....:D

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I started mine with grown 200 females and 100 males, i payed $80 for them and in about 3 months i started feeding from that colony.

beardies are like potato chips you cant just have one i told my wife only a pair yeah well now we have 22 adults and 17 babies i cry every morning when i have to clean cages and the scary thing is thats not the only reptile we have in our house

I would say veggies are less than 10 dollars a month per dragon, maybe a bit more as they get older. We paid $50 for 500 mixed dubias that were mostly large nymphs and subadults, with about a dozen adult females thrown in for free. This colony was started about 5 months before we got our 2 beardies. About 2 months before we got the beardies we also got 2000 turk nymphs for $44. We have now had the beardies for just under 2 months now and they have pretty much decimated the turk colony (which is now rebounding) and have not put much of a dent at all in the dubias. I would estimate that we now have about 2500 dubias even after feeding exclusively from their colonies for the past 2 weeks or so.

With that said, if you start a colony of roaches early, preferably a large slow species like dubias and a fast small species like turks, your cost of feeders will be much less than if you had to buy all the time. We noticed our turk production when way up after we cooled them down a bit, right around 70 as opposed to the dubias which are kept in the 90's.

I spend around 100 dollars a month on my 4 Bearded dragons. I have more that eat crickets but they get the bulk of them. My dubia colony is still growing.

When it comes to expenses and lizards, I consider the cost of UVB bulbs and heat products and the ongoing electricity costs above the cost of food.

I feed leos, tiger sallie, water dragons, and my single bearded dragon off of my dubia colony. I feed the dubias various mixes of extra cat food, dog food, left over salads, garden scraps, weeds, etc. So they are basically free after the initial investment.

My beardie loves dandilions as well. My yard is overflowing with dandilion and other healthy weeds (like plantain, clover, etc) year round. So I spend very little on my beardie for his salads. And he get's a few adult dubia a day.

The most expensive reptiles I own are my snakes and the frodents I have to supply them with.

Frodents thats awesome, great name by the way mine chad too!

I know this is a little off topic, but Capt Howdy, I LOVE the tat in your avatar. I think it is my favorite tat I've ever seen.

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Originally Posted by gp_dragsandballs

I spend around 100 dollars a month on my 4 Bearded dragons. I have more that eat crickets but they get the bulk of them. My dubia colony is still growing.

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This puts my live rodent weekly cost into perspective! My live rodent costs are less than $9/week. And once I get my racks tomorrow I think I'll be able to switch over the rest of the snakes to frozen... I think all thoughts of getting insect eaters are now again diffu$ed! I just hope I intercept these thoughts every time...

If you start them very young on pellets, beardies are not as expensive to keep. After a couple weeks on pinheads I used to take a thin wire and push pellets along to stimulate feeding. They all go to pellets in no time and you can mix dusted greens. Nice fat healthy dragon and less money to feed. Just takes a bit of work at first, but it is worth it in the end.

Mark

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...doo/erwin3.jpg

I couldnt figure out how to edit the post above after i posted it. I would actually not get pinheads for hatchlings. I just kept dendros as well so I bought ALOT of pinheads. I would however recommend the 1/8ers. I found smaller crickets for new hatchlings created less picky eaters. It is more expensive up front, but none of my dragons ended up eating crickets. Repcal pellets and greens was thge diet I used.

I have a huge dubia colony, and use self-sustaining soil for substrate. All I spend money on is greens, a head every 2 weeks. So it costs me roughly $3.00/mo to keep my bearded dragon.

The only other cost is $20 every 6 months for a new UVB bulb.

When I first got my sweetheart, I spent a couple of thousand dollars on vet bills. Poor Budo. Ever since I've spent roughly $30 per month on liquid calcium. Other than buying greens during the winter and replacing the MegaRay yearly, I don't spend much on Budo. Have a dubia colony, love it!

anyone have a website where I cna buy like a starter package of a dubia colony? I currently own a tarantula and I want a bearded dragon but Id rather start up my dubia colony before I even think of buying a bearded dragon lol.

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Originally Posted by PurplePython

anyone have a website where I cna buy like a starter package of a dubia colony? I currently own a tarantula and I want a bearded dragon but Id rather start up my dubia colony before I even think of buying a bearded dragon lol.

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The Roach Guy (http://theroachguy.com/) is your best bet. Great customer service, great roaches, great prices. I mean, you're not going to find healthy roaches for cheap. Originally they're pretty pricey but it seriously pays off in the long run to breed your own feeders, even if it's just for a beardie and a tarantula.

That's a good idea. You'll want to give the colony at least a few months to establish before starting to feed them off.

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Originally Posted by Crazy4Herps

The Roach Guy (http://theroachguy.com/) is your best bet. Great customer service, great roaches, great prices. I mean, you're not going to find healthy roaches for cheap. Originally they're pretty pricey but it seriously pays off in the long run to breed your own feeders, even if it's just for a beardie and a tarantula.

That's a good idea. You'll want to give the colony at least a few months to establish before starting to feed them off.

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thanks a lot man. Yeah I want to give it plenty of time to build up before I start getting into bearded dragons. I have been studying up on bearded dragons and everyone says they eat like savages lol.

EDIT - what package should i purchase? And do I need to buy that starting package and that chow and water crystals, or can I just buy the roaches and feed them normal stuff and give them regular water?

20 bucks for 1000 crickets plus vegetables other people buy in this house = Less then 25 a month

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Originally Posted by PurplePython

thanks a lot man. Yeah I want to give it plenty of time to build up before I start getting into bearded dragons. I have been studying up on bearded dragons and everyone says they eat like savages lol.

EDIT - what package should i purchase? And do I need to buy that starting package and that chow and water crystals, or can I just buy the roaches and feed them normal stuff and give them regular water?

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Yes, beardies are wonderful eaters. Nothing like these picky ball pythons. :rolleyes:

The more adults you purchase the more quickly the colony will get going. If you've got some time on your hands, you'll be fine starting out with only a few adults plus a ton of mixed. I don't remember exactly, but I think I got the 120 mixed originally, and there turned out to be many more older roaches than younger ones... I think I had at least 3 big adult pairs instead of one. :D The roach diet and water crystals are really handy and easy and probably some of the better gutloads out there, but fruits work just fine. Don't give them a water dish; they will drown! Water in fruit plus occasional misting is usually good enough, but if you want to, providing a wet paper towel is also good.

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Originally Posted by PurplePython

EDIT - what package should i purchase?

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As many as you can afford. The more you purchase, the faster your colony will grow and be ready to start feeding off males.

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Originally Posted by PurplePython

And do I need to buy that starting package and that chow and water crystals, or can I just buy the roaches and feed them normal stuff and give them regular water?

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The water crystals are a good way to provide water to your colony, but buying them from roach sites is a racket. You can get a 5 lb bag on eBay for next to nothing.

Roach food is another racket, the ingredients are also not listed since the sites generally don't want you to easily replicate it (which you can, easily). Providing your own food is much easier.

The other issue with not knowing the ingredients of the roach food is, well, not knowing the ingredients. For some reason it was thought that a roach colony needs insane amounts of protein (they don't), so people feed their roaches garbage like ground up dog and cat food. Remember that what your roaches eat, your dragon eats. Do you want your dragon to be eating dog and cat food?

The roaches need a well balanced diet with starches, carbs, and protein. An easy way to accomplish this is to provide ground up alfalfa pellets as well as rolled oats (ground up or not). There is surprisingly a great amount of clean protein in both. Make that, water crystals, and fruits and veggies (bananas, apples, carrots, etc) available at all times.

With a plan like this, gut loading is not necessary as your roaches will already be full of clean food.

Hope that helps.

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Originally Posted by allergenic

An easy way to accomplish this is to provide ground up alfalfa pellets as well as rolled oats (ground up or not). There is surprisingly a great amount of clean protein in both.

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Sorry, I meant to add that any local farm/feed store usually has 50 pound bags of either, for less than $10-$15. That will last a year or two.

thanks for the info! glad a few of you guys took the time and offer your advice to me.

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Originally Posted by PurplePython

thanks for the info! glad a few of you guys took the time and offer your advice to me.

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Good luck with breeding them. :) Dubia are awesome!

mine is over 100 bucks a month. i cannot stand crickets, they stink and climb and die to fast. i feed pheonix worms. my beardie loves them. but eats alot of them. over 100 worms a day. they are low in fat, very high in calcium. you dont have to dust these at all. works good just hurts the wallet

WAY too much considering I feed mostly pheonix worms supplimented with crickets. I cant wait til this guy is on mostly greens.

My juvenile beardie [~11 months old] doesn't really eat that many crickets. Maybe a dozen a day. But he won't eat them every day if we offer them. He almost prefers his veggies. We've started giving him freeze-dried meal worms, and he loves those to the point of picking them out first, then sitting on his branch to bask after about 10 minutes he'll come back down to eat anything else we offered.

We were thinking of trying silkworms. Has anyone here tried those?