How much does your Beardie cost per month for care?

[CA cowgirl]

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.

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...

[MTovar]

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

[MTovar]

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.

[allergenic]

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.

[Crazy4Herps]

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!

[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.

[Crazy4Herps]

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.

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.

[PurplePython]

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.

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?

[_Venom_]

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

[Crazy4Herps]

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?

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

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. 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.