How much does it cost to own a beardie?

I'm thinking of getting a beardie. How much should I expect to pay for a normal beardie and all the enclosure stuff I'll need. And then how much on a monthly basis for feeding and misc care?

Well, beardies are amazing pets! But all of the equipment can cost quite a bit. For a normal beardie expect to pay anywhere between $20-$100. Then for supplies I paid about $230 ($100 cage included). That's about all you will pay initially, but for food they eat a lot. 1000 crickets will last me about 2 weeks, my boy is a PIG! Others are different, but expect to pay ~$15-$30 a month on crickets and and his greens. You could do what I do and breed your feeders, saves you TONS! So, overall, it will cost about $150-$400 depending on what you already have at the beginning, and about $15-$30 every month after that. But definitely worth it!:gj:

Here is what i would do for a baby.

You need a large cage( 50 gallon)
UVB or a MVB
Heat lamp
fixtures
beardie
basking rock or what ever
and for substrate use tile or paper towels
calcium
vits
feeders

Id say you will be spending no less than $250 to start out, and then another $40 a month on crickets until they are adults, but then you need a bigger cage, replace things that are too small for him, and replace lights and uvb accordingly. They are great pets but boy are they not cheap!

I think im forgeting something?

I bought a 110qt tub, am using paper towels for substrate(or newspaper), a 36" flourescent fixture was $20 used, and the ReptiSun 10.0 is $30. Repcal is around $7 but you can get calcium tablets from the pharmacy for around $6 for 70 of them, just crush them up and they work fine(no D3 though), Herptivite is around $12 or so now. Digital thermometers are $6 and spot bulbs from WalMart are very inexpensive, usually under $5. I use a halogen flood bulb, 70 watt I think, and it creates a nice basking area. Tried a different bulb(GE true color or something) and he just hid. Switched it back and he's happy and basking like he should.

Veggies are inexpensive, and can be bought in the frozen form. I just bought 2 bell peppers, one yellow and one orange, and already had a green one from making fajitas, so I cut them all up in strips, frozen it all and now have enough for my Beardie's salad for a good 2-3 months. Collard greens, romaine and whatever else you think he may like in his salad, is all relatively cheap.

Roach colonies are a bit expensive on start up but once they start producing, you won't run out of feeders. They eat what the Beardie eats(veggies, fruits, need high heat and humidity, need protein in the form of chick feed). Roaches don't smell at all, they have a much higher meat to shell ratio than nasty crickets, live for a much longer period(some to 5 years), and they don't carry parasites. Crickets can carry coccidia and pinworms which can transfer over to your Beardie. Plus they STINK and die for no reason.

Mine gets salad 5-6 times a week, soaked 3-4 times a week in the bathtub for 30-45 minutes, and gets roaches 3-4 times a week. He was hatched in January of this year and is already about 14-16" long. Chunky butt :) Everytime he gets roaches, I dust them in a mixture of 3 parts calcium, 1 part Herptivite. Works great and he's thriving.

I don't think I spent more than $60-$75 on getting him set up since I already had most of the supplies. The tub was also $12 compared to a $100 40 gallon breeder tank. It's just as clear as a tank and MUCH easier to maintain.

Great info, much appreciated.

Question: How tall is that tub?

It's about 30 x 16 x 16, maybe a bit bigger. He's quite comfy in it and has plenty of room. I don't use a lid with it and he is unable to get out.

Sounds much more affordable with a route like that. My only concern now is how to mount the lights.

Mounting lights is simple. :) Either hang them from a hook in the ceiling with rope or chain, put up a single wall shelf above the tub/tank and clamp the lights there (or suspend with cord in the case of a florescent), or make a simple light stand with a good wide base and PVC pipe. :)

When I had my beardie, the most expensive things were the food supply (vary it, not just icky crickets), and the Mercury Vapor UVB bulb even though I got it at a great price online. Beardies are awesome lizards, but they're mega pigs when it comes to amount of food they take. :)

i bought my beardies for 60 bucks each.. then i got them a 40 gallon breeder for 100.. lights and uvb and UTH for 100.. trees and climbing material i used from my previous tanks and i pay about 60 bucks a month worth of crickets.. and wax worms and mealworms cost about 20 bucks a month..

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Originally Posted by PsYcHo_99

i bought my beardies for 60 bucks each.. then i got them a 40 gallon breeder for 100.. lights and uvb and UTH for 100.. trees and climbing material i used from my previous tanks and i pay about 60 bucks a month worth of crickets.. and wax worms and mealworms cost about 20 bucks a month..

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Alright... Do you house two beardies in the same tank? If you do you need to seperate them ASAP! Many many problems can happen if they are together. What kind of uvb did you buy? Beardies do not need a uth, and Im guessing its not on a thermostat anyways? Waxworms can be too addicting and mealworms can cause impaction. Beardies are not climbers and are rather clumsy( from personal experiance) and do not need climbing materials unless it is there to help them reach they uvb and heat.
Please look at some caresheets, they will really help and will tell you why and what all you are doing wrong.

ST, I bought a 36" fixture and it fits perfectly in a diagonal across the tub. Look at your local fish stores for used fixtures, they may have them.

The only decorations I have in my Bearded's tub is a large river rock for his nails, a Texas holey rock(it's long, flat and white) for basking, and sometimes I will put a piece of wood in there, just for change of pace. Gets him climbing around and wears down those nails.

Mealworms and waxworms are useless feeders. If you want the Beardie to actually grow(and not have parasites from filthy crickets) and not have to spend a ton of money each month on crickets, go with a roach colony. They are SO much cleaner, it's ridiculous. They eat everything the Beardie eats, so even if the Beardie won't eat veggies, you can feed them to the roaches, and in turn, your Beardie gets the nutrients from the veggies. I have Orange-Headed roaches, they are awesome. Don't fly or climb and are chubby little guys.

I'll get a picture of the Bearded's tub so you can see where the lights are mounted. The basking bulb is just a regular 70 watt halogen flood you can get at Walmart or a hardware store. Don't spend your money on those stupid reptile bulbs, they just burn out and cost you $10. I paid maybe $5 per flood bulb and they last forever. I use a ceramic 10" shop lamp that I bought at WalMart and it clamps onto the side of the tub easily. Just direct it down to a flat rock for basking, attach a digital thermometer probe, and you're set.

Agreed. Never use the worms for Beardies unless as an occasional treat. Possibly with the exception of Phoenix worms. Roaches have become the 'new craze' in lizard feeding. :)

And unlike snakes, lizards NEED their heat from Above. UTHs are nearly useless with them, so spend the money on a good UVA/UVB bulb and lamp instead. Another good use for basking rocks in the enclosure is to soak up that warmth through the day and release it at night for them...just like in the wild. :D

We recently bought a Bearded Dragon, here is our tank. Keep in mind alot of our set up is done to be "aesthetically" pleasing, a stick you find (and bake) in your back yard would work just as well as the $20 fake one we bought:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...dterrarium.jpg

Here is a rundown on all the prices (minus the stand cause thats not really needed)

Bearded Dragon: $65 (PetPlus)
55 gallon tank: $75 (PetPlus)
Big Stick: $20 (PetSmart)
Little Stick $15 (PetPlus)
Water Bowl: $10 (PetSmart)
48" Hood With UVB/UVA Bulb: $80 (PetSmart)
Thermo/Hygrometers: $20 (WalMart)
Lamp With Ceramic Bulb: $40 (PetSmart)
Hammock And Ladder: $15 (PetSmart)
Fake Grass: $2.50 (Home Depot)
Backdrop: $5

TOTAL: $347.50

As for food plan on $5-$10 per week.

All great info. Thanks!

How much of a hassle is it to buy 1000 crickets and store them for feeding? How bad do they stink and are they really loud?

Well, at lots of pet stores you can't even buy a thousand crickets, so that option is pretty much out. (Or maybe thats just our Petsmart. They're always running out. :rage:) And personally, I wouldn't buy that many anyway. Though I don't own a BD, (I own a CWD who loves his crickets. =3) the crickets smell, are loud, tend to die, just overall are terrible. not to mention I always get a few escape even though I covered the cricket cage in tape. >_> If you plan on buying in bulk, go with about 100. Think about 1000 crickets chirping simaltaniously. :rolleye2::rage::O:taz::weirdface

But anyway, thats just my opinion. Keeping so many crickets (the most I keep at one time is 20-30) seems like hell to me. Maybe if you have them set up in a room no where near where you sleep and you have a good set-up for them it won't be so bad.

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Originally Posted by spaceturtle

All great info. Thanks!

How much of a hassle is it to buy 1000 crickets and store them for feeding? How bad do they stink and are they really loud?

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Not much, just keep ther cage clean. And buy from a site that has high quility feeders so your not getting anything unwanted.

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Originally Posted by gothkenny

Well, at lots of pet stores you can't even buy a thousand crickets, so that option is pretty much out. (Or maybe thats just our Petsmart. They're always running out. :rage:) And personally, I wouldn't buy that many anyway. Though I don't own a BD, (I own a CWD who loves his crickets. =3) the crickets smell, are loud, tend to die, just overall are terrible. not to mention I always get a few escape even though I covered the cricket cage in tape. >_> If you plan on buying in bulk, go with about 100. Think about 1000 crickets chirping simaltaniously. :rolleye2::rage::O:taz::weirdface

But anyway, thats just my opinion. Keeping so many crickets (the most I keep at one time is 20-30) seems like hell to me. Maybe if you have them set up in a room no where near where you sleep and you have a good set-up for them it won't be so bad.

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You buy them online, its about $20 shipped for 1000. If you buy from a petstore to feed a beardie you would find yourself broke very fast. They are horrible quility as well and not gutloaded at all with good food.

Only Male crickets chirp;)

Its all about where and how you house them. Like mice

Save yourself some money and the headache and buy some turkistan roaches and dubia roaches. Turkistan are much smaller and breed fast. Dubia are much larger and breed slow. Once your baby becomes adults, you can sell all the turks and just feed off dubia :D