r/personalfinance • u/[deleted] • May 05 '17

We decided NOT to buy a bearded dragon. Other

My wife and I were looking at getting a bearded dragon for our son for his birthday. A young beardie is only about $60. So we set aside $200 in our budget counting on buying a reptile aquarium and some incidentals.

Then we learned it needs expensive UV bulbs that last about 6 months and are about $40 each. Also the electricity cost the run this heat 24 hours can be a drain on the electric bill.

Also the beardie needs to go to the vet every 6 months for a checkup. And finally, food. They have a very diverse diet and can eat up to $15 per week in foods. So I did a total cost analysis for a beardie that lives 12 years and it turned out to be a whopping $10,000

Life pro tip, do a total cost analysis on pets before deciding to purchase. Even free pets are absurdly expensive. In 12 years both of my kids are going to be in college and I will desperately need $10,000 then. I will not need an aging lizard.

Edit: For everyone giving me shit about my poor son, don't pity him. First he didn't know about the beardie. Second we are taking that $200 and taking him to an amusement park. He's fine.

Edit 2: This post is not about "don't buy pets, they're expensive." The post is about "make sure you're aware of the full cost of something before making a decision." Yes we have kids and dogs. Yes they're more expensive than lizards, but for us well worth the cost. A reptile, not so much.

Edit 3: Thank you all for the "you're way overestimating" and the "you're way underestimating" posts. The accuracy of the cost really isn't the issue. The issue is we were expecting something minimal and almost made a big mistake. The point is, we did the research and it was way more than we were expecting and wanting to pay. To us, it wasn't worth it. We have other pets. We aren't frugal, but we are smart with our money. I am simply encouraging others to do cost analysis. And at the end of the day if a bearded dragon is worth 10k to you, awesome! Do it.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17 edited Feb 15 '22

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u/ShatBrax May 05 '17

I don't think I've ever seen a Bearded Dragon be more than maybe a foot in length.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

Both of mine were easily 2 feet. They got so large I had to expand their tank to a dual setup that I custom built by merging 2 tanks.

Of course I wasn't married so having the freedom to not decorate every room like a fucking country farm house really helped.

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u/im_at_work_ugh May 05 '17

Of course I wasn't married so having the freedom to not decorate every room like a fucking country farm house really helped.

I'm glad I married someone as nerdy as me, most people when they come over are always so surprised that my wife "allows" so many wall scrolls of half necked anime girls and almost necked anime figures before I have to laugh and tell them that stuff was all hers before we moved in together.

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u/listen- ​ May 05 '17

When my boyfriend moved in I told him he could put any of his weird decorative stuff in my house except the 7ft tall Rob Zombie cardboard cutout. Fortunately he was smart enough to already know that would be completely unacceptable in my country farm house. He is even ok with not having all his dolls on display, just the signed horror movies, which I am ok with. Also, he is whipped and also refers to his action figures as dolls now.

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u/Oatz3 ​ May 05 '17

The bearded dragon itself probably never gets more than a foot long. If you include its tail, then it probably can be 2-3 feet.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

My bearded dragon is on the small side a t 17 inches including tail. If you see on smaller it's a baby or malnourished

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u/Hemophiliacmouse May 05 '17

I have a male who is 2ft 2in. Genetics and diet play a huge role. Most of their growing is done in the first year, so if they are malnourished during that time, which many sadly are, they do not get as big.

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u/its710somewhere May 05 '17

Then they grow to be several feet long and need regular fresh food and special lighting/heating requirements, and people just don't care enough to keep up.

My friend has had one for years now and it's only about 8 inches long. Are there varieties that don't get so big, or it because he doesn't feed it the proper diet or something?

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

[deleted]

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u/its710somewhere May 05 '17

I'd estimate the tank at about 30"x 18". They give her "food pellets" whenever she is out of them and like once a month they give her live crickets.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

Uhh, that's borderline animal abuse. DAILY crickets and DAILY fresh veggies and fruit. Pellets are shit and should be used only as a cushion or when you are waiting on more crickets.

Your post makes me so sad, dude. If he can't take care of his beardie, I'll give you my address and I'll take it, dammit. Do your damn research before you buy a living creature!

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u/its710somewhere May 05 '17

If he can't take care of his beardie, I'll give you my address and I'll take it,

If it was up to me I would take you up on that. I don't know the first thing about lizard care, I had always just assumed it was normal. I'm gonna have to let him know he's not feeding her properly, and hope that it was just ignorance. I don't know that the poor thing has ever had a fresh veggie.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

OH MY GOD. I'm gonna go give my beardie some love now, that broke my heart :(

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

Yeah some just don't get very big - there are different breeds. Unlike most reptiles, they aren't affected by the size of their enclosure, so if yours didn't get very big that's probably normal. I had one who was only about 8 inches as well, but another from the same breeder was 2 feet. It just varies.

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u/alonelyturd May 05 '17

Unlike most reptiles, they aren't affected by the size of their enclosure

This is a wive's tale, usually used to sell people a pet they aren't prepared to care for. You can stunt their growth by not feeding them enough, but that would be pure animal cruelty.

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u/xxDeeJxx May 05 '17

Exactly what you said. I'm a long time reptile hobbyist who has rescued my fair share of poorly cared-for reptiles, and see sick/unhealthy ones ALL THE TIME because people don't bother to give them everything they need.

This thread alone is full of people saying you never have to take it to the vet, and there is also tons of other shitty advice in there that will make your beardy unhealthy and need to go to the vet.

If you want to own an animal, don't cut corners to make it easier for yourself, the animals well-being should come first.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

My friend used to have one that was at least 3 feet if you include the tail - more than half of that was tail, but you still need room for a 3 foot lizard!

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u/CMSigner ​ May 05 '17

Rabbits are too. They are cute and fuzzy and wonderful. Except they only partially litterbox train, make huge messes constantly, eat through cords in .00005 seconds when you blink, and live 10-12 years.

I love my rabbit, but I didn't know what the hell I was getting into.

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u/LordoftheFallen1 ​ May 05 '17

Well. We have a bearded dragon. We grow our own fresh food except the worms which pays for itself for most of the year. The house stays at a comfortable temperature already for the lizard so it's rare we have to have any heat lamps on it unless we leave for a few days. Yea he bulbs go out every once in a while for the UV bulbs. All in all from my experience my pit bull is probably more expensive than the lizard. But if OP doesn't feel comfortable with the added expense of a pet I agree they shouldn't. Except maybe a fish. Chameleons however... I really wanted one until I researched the cost of ownership for one.

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u/alonelyturd May 05 '17

I don't want to sound like I'm ragging on you, but UVB output declines at the six to twelve month mark, usually well before the bulb burns out. And bearded dragons should have an ambient temperature of 80-90 degrees, with a basking area 5-10 degrees hotter, and they shouldn't drop below 70 at night. Even if the ambient temperature of your home matches that, you'd be missing the warmer basking area and heat gradient that's recommended for all reptiles since they have no other way to control their body heat.

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u/LordoftheFallen1 ​ May 05 '17

You're over thinking this and making assumptions about my environment of which you know nothing about. The debate here isn't how well we take care of our lizard but cost of ownership.

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u/alonelyturd May 05 '17

I just don't want OP or anyone else reading this thread to get the idea they can save money by not following recommended care practices, to the detriment of the animal's health.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

I think if you have a good dog with out health problems it's fine. My pit is allergic to most things. So her food is really expensive.

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u/LordoftheFallen1 ​ May 05 '17

Aww poor doggo. That does sound expensive. We had a dog with a neurological order that ended up passing before we got this one. We only take in sheltered dogs. She was an expensive one. Fortunately the pit doesn't have the allergies or anything and even though I diet her carefully, the food per month still costs more than the added expenses of the lizard. The amount of electricity the lights take is negligible was mainly my point. Pets are indeed an expense to think about before committing though.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

Worms are actually very easy to grow - just need some bread, baby food, and a tupperware container.

However, they are not a sufficient source of protein on their own.

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u/LordoftheFallen1 ​ May 05 '17

I'll have to look into that. Thanks. I heard breeding other insects can go a long ways too

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

Yep! You can start a colony of Dubia roaches for around $60-$80 that will last forever.