We decided NOT to buy a bearded dragon.

[u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/powercorruption]

If you're spending $1k a year on a reptile, you're doing it wrong. Vet visits twice a year!? Holy shit.

[u/Pinsy14 → u/powercorruption]

Right? The electric isn't all that much if you're set up properly, and I never brought my Beardie to the vet once, and she lived to be 11. Most places I've seen say 12 is the absolute Max. So I think I did pretty good and I don't think I spent more than $250 a year on her excluding maybe electric.

[u/[deleted] → u/Pinsy14]

I'm not sure 100% on the exact details, but one 60W bulb running 24/7/365 should be 525 kWh/yr, or about $84/yr. (Man, lights are expensive!)

The biggest primary cost seems to be food. $15/wk would be about $750/yr or $8200 over the life of the pet.

[u/dpinsy14 → u/[deleted]]

Even $15 a WK seems like a lot. It's a tiny animal. And a reptile. I dunno. Maybe I'm crazy. My dog costs way more, obviously. Wouldn't trade either for any amount of money though. Shrug

[u/thejusner → u/dpinsy14]

I spend about half that for my bearded dragon per week on food, and after finding some good information on this thread it sounds like I'll never spend money again.

[u/[deleted] → u/dpinsy14]

My dog costs way more, obviously.

My dog is a 3kg minpin, but we only spend (the equivalent of) about $100/yr on dogfood.

Of course, we also spend about $100/month (edit: extra) on rent for our pet-allowed apartment. :(

[u/longgoodknight → u/powercorruption]

I'm glad someone else said it. We have had two beardies. The lights ARE the most expensive part. 6-12 months between replacements is about right. I'm not sure either of them ever made a checkup trip the vet. (One was a rescue and did need some medical care when we first got her.) But the rest of those costs seem very high.

A roach colony also will help reduce feeding costs significantly and it is far easier to setup and maintain then you might think, but it would probably over produce if you are just feeding one animal.

I would bet we were well under $200 year for the beardies (we already had the cages, and we had the roach colony for feeders.) Our other expenses were superworms or waxworms for occasional treats, vitamin supplement dust for the feeder roaches, electricity, and the heat lamp which lasted 2-4 times as long as the UV bulb.

[u/TheL0nePonderer → u/powercorruption]

Seconded. The cost analysis done here is totally bogus. Seems to me like just an excuse not to get one. You can cut the bulb cost in half by buying from places other than PetSmart. Set up a cricket or dubia roach colony, food is pretty much taken care of. The idea that they need to go to the vet every six months is absurd. The only thing I regularly spend money on is vitamin and calcium powder. And we are talking maybe an average of a couple bucks a month. This is total nonsense, I hope people don't take it seriously.

[u/lucky_lulu → u/powercorruption]

Yeah, what? I had my leopard gecko for 7 years (he was a rescue, so was older than that when he died), and only had to take him to the vet like 3 times.

[u/Geshman → u/powercorruption]

My UV Lamp has lasted forever (I bought one that still works today). The heat lamps are a little more expensive ($16 for 4, last anywhere from 1-6 months).

My beardie doesn't really care for crickets, or any fresh food for that matter. I give him a little of the bearded dragon food that has dried insects in it. He really doesn't eat much (maybe it's his age. I got him from people that didn't tell me how old he is).

The heating in the winter doesn't add to your bill because you need to heat your house anyway. In the summer it doesn't take too much to heat up (although it will be working against your ac).

I'd estimate that over the 2 years I've had him I might have spent $1000 on him. (It's hard to quantify electricity costs)

[u/xxDeeJxx → u/powercorruption]

You've obviously never kept large reptiles.

Properly kept monitor lizards/iguanas/tegus/etc. are very expensive to keep.