Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Could somebody run down what kinda exspenses i face with gettin a beardie. I have the chance to get either a 6-7 inche or a full size adult cuz i kno i dont want babies.

I need to know:

about yearly cost (whats included as well if u could)
how many crickets i will be buying weekly
level of care
any other vital info i should know

ive read alot of caresheets already but none are specific to costs. I kno its alot to ask but id really appreciate before spending all my pay cheques in something i wont have my heart into. And so u kno im 16 but i work at a pet store too.

Thanx alot for reading,
Jawz

tank (40 breeder critter cage) $100
Heat lamp (from home depot) $5
Light fixture (from HD) $10
Halogen bulb (HD) $5
Fluoro bulb (HD) $5
or
Fluoro bulb (UVB producing zoomed reptisun) $20
Sand (HD) $3 (can use paper instead and that is free)
Cage furnishing/hide (pet shop) $30 (or can find you own for free)

Crickets at least 100/wk (pet shop) $10/wk
Crickets online (reptile food 250 box) like $15/2wk
Cricket food (egg layer mash from coop) $10/yr
Salad (from supermarket) $1/2days
Pellets (online 5lbs at a time repcal) $20/2months
Calcium vitamin supplements (I recomend zoomed) $20/2months

I think that about covers it. I may have missed some stuff. But that is the major parts.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

wow grimdog, do you actually use a whole jar of supplements every 2 months?

I bought one of each and I will be lucky to use it all in a year. Then agian, when I bought my dragon she was 3 months old, so I only supplimented her food once every other day.

I think you pretty much covered everything except maybe another $20-$100 for fecel checks by a vet. It's always good to have at least 2 every year, to ensure there are no hidden problems. (4 would be the most you would need a year, unless something is wrong).

I sometimes forget that I feed hundreds of crickets at a time with lots of supplements for young dragons and breeders. I actually say a month for me. Maybe 4-5 with one dragon.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

yeh the crickets per week is kinda killing me..hmm maybe ill just get another gecko. Or save up for a while. Thanx alot for helping me out.

seriously crickets are not that bad if you can have them shipped to your house. And don't mind them. 3/4" crickets will live for several weeks if kept right and 250 or 500 (reptile food sells in these quantities) would last you several weeks.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

The crickets aren't really that big a deal...

You can get 1,000 online for like $10 + shipping (about another 8 bucks with airborne) at www.reptilefood.com.

We usually buy about 5-10,000 at a time for our dragons... Half of the ones we order will be the size we need, the rest will be a size or two below what we need. By the time we need the smaller ones, they've grown up to a useful size.

Keeping crickets in large quantities isn't that tough either... like I said, we order 5-10K at a time, and we don't have many die off...

Here's our cricket care article.
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Axe
The Reptile Rooms

I guess KS's "tools and toys" need a lil work, heh...

Here's a working link to our cricket article.

www.reptilerooms.com/Sections index-req-viewarticle-artid-53-page-1.html
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Axe
The Reptile Rooms

I do not feed crickets to any of my dragons due to the Parasite potential. Some do not agree with that but many are falling in line with more and more problems with parasites and them opening the door for various other problems. (Most of which occur after you ship an animal out to a new home, creating many stresses. Stress being the catalyst to set off all the problems associated with the parasites.) Once you receive your dragon and if you wish to feed crickets, that is fine but I do have to recommend that you wait until it has had time to settle down and the major stress of moving to a new environment have been over come or adapted to

i read that earlier today and kinda peaked my interest cuz id be willing to breed mealworms if that could be a substitute.