How Much A Bearded Dragon Costs To Keep

As pets go, Bearded Dragons are relatively easy to look after. They’re not particularly expensive to keep compared to other reptiles. There are some upfront and ongoing costs though, such as the cost of setting up the vivarium initially. Then there are ongoing costs such as the electricity required to keep their environment correct – and in 2023 this shouldn’t be underestimated as the price has gone up quite a lot recently. The cost of food and potentially veterinary costs also need to be factored in. Let’s look at these in a bit more depth.

Cost Of Buying A Bearded Dragon

Bearded dragons cost varies depending on their color and their genetics and general availability. The price can vary between $40 up to $900 depending on the rarity of the bearded dragon you’re wanting to buy. In most cases, bearded dragons bought from a pet shop will be around the $50 mark. Rarer morphs will need to be bought from a breeder. We’d recommend even buying normal morphs from a breeder rather than a pet shop. You might pay more, but you’re far more likely to buy a healthy bearded dragon that way.

Factors Affecting Cost Of Buying A Bearded Dragon

Baby bearded dragons are usually cheaper to buy than adults because the babies haven’t yet had so much investment put into them. Sexing bearded dragons is harder as babies, so you won’t necessarily be able to choose. Sex is also a factor in pricing, since females often fetch a higher price than males. Since baby bearded dragons haven’t developed their full colour potential yet either, they’re cheaper because nobody knows quite how spectacular they might, or might not, turn out.

Initial Setup Cost Of Bearded Dragons

Although we’ve listed the cost of the Bearded Dragon itself first, the actual purchase of the bearded dragon shouldn’t happen until you’ve done all your research and decided you can definitely look after one. If you’ve decided all that, you’ll want to get your Vivarium set up first before moving your new dragon in. Some people call a vivarium a tank or a terrarium.

The initial cost of the Vivarium will vary depending on whether you want to buy all brand new gear or whether you’re happy with second hand. The price of the vivarium is probably the biggest up front cost of keeping a bearded dragon. We’ve written a post which can help you decide whether you should go for new or second hand.

Second Hand Vivarium Costs

A second hand vivarium is going to vary in cost depending on how desperate the original owner is to sell. It’ll depend on what it also comes with. They’ll probably start around the $100 ( also £100ish) mark though for a reasonable 4 feet long enclosure. eBay can probably help here.

If you’re buying a bearded dragon from an advert they often come with all their gear as a package. The prices seem to range from about $75 to $250.

New Vivarium Costs

If you’re going to be buying brand new vivarium equipment you’ll definitely be paying a lot more. However, you do have the peace of mind of knowing that everything is brand new. It should have a warranty. It’ll be clean and sterile and never been lived in before.

What you’ll need;

Vivarium Itself

These can cost anywhere between $150 all the way up to $400 or more. This will depend on whether you want just the vivarium. You also have to decide if you want it made of wood or glass. Finally, whether you want a built in cabinet or are happy to stand the tank on the floor or a cabinet you already have.

Heat Lamps

Bearded Dragons originate from the arid desert and forest regions of Australia. They’re used to a temperature of anywhere between 24 and 43 degrees celsius. This is considerably warmer than most of us would like to keep our houses at. A vivarium is quite small and the dragon will require the ability to choose their own temperature throughout the day. A heat-lamp is the best way to provide the range of temperatures required. Through the use of a heat-lamp, the basking end can be kept at around 40-43 celsius. The cool end should be kept at around the 24-26 degree mark. Correct temperatures are essential to your Bearded Dragon’s health.

The Basking lamp bulb itself will cost around $4-5 and will probably need to be replaced every 6-9 months (they fail fairly regularly). They’ll of course also require a bulb holder, which will initially set you back around $15. Lamps are going to be potentially one of the more significant ongoing cost of keeping a bearded dragon.

You might require a ceramic heating element for overnight warmth, depending on what temperature your house gets down to overnight. These are also a good backup plan in case your Basking Lamp fails as the ceramic heating element will be more robust. These are relatively cheap, around the $10-15 mark.

UV Lamps

Bearded Dragons require ultraviolet light to synthesise Vitamin D3 to metabolise calcium properly. Without enough calcium in their diet or Vitamin D3 synthesis your bearded dragon is going to be at grave risk of Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) which is a fatal condition. You can check this post which goes into the lighting requirements in more details.

We’d recommend a UV Strip light at the back of the tank as a separate item from the basking lamp. In the wild the bearded dragon would be able to step out of the direct sun and into the shade. They would still be receiving good doses of UV even whilst in the shade. A separate strip light for UV mimics this situation.

A UV strip light bulb with a T5 fitting and the mount will cost around the $40 mark.

Electrical Timers

Your bearded dragon is going to want around 12 – 14 hours of UV light and basking lamp temperatures. These need to be switched off overnight when they should be sleeping. You can of course switch them on and off manually but it’s generally more convenient to set up a timer. Any electrical store is likely to carry mechanical mains timer switches. They can usually be set to have multiple on-off schedules too. They’re likely to be around the $5 mark for mechanical timers, or $25 to $45 for an Alexa enabled smart switch. Fortunately, this part of the cost of keeping a bearded dragon is likely to be one off expense.

Thermometers and Thermostat

You’ll need at least two thermometers, one for the cool end and one for the basking end. It’s quite important to measure the humidity in the air as well. This is because bearded dragons come from Australia. The areas of Australia that dragons tend to live are quite dry arid areas with a low relative humidity. Too much humidity can therefore lead to respiratory issues for your bearded dragon.

You can get away with 1 thermometer and move it around to check the temperatures at either end. However, this is fiddly and can lead to erroneous results as the thermometer will need time to settle to read the right temperature. Of course, opening the tank up to move the thermometer around also disrupts the temperature a bit too.

Analogue or Digital Thermostats?

We’ve used a couple of digital thermometers which have a lead that hangs down into the basking area. The leads are at about the same height as the dragon is when he’s basking. The cool end has a lead attached to the wall. They both come out to the LCD displays outside so I can see them easily. The hygrometer is a simple analog affair which is stuck to the back wall.

Analogue thermometers that stick to the back of the tank will cost you around $5 each. Digital ones (which are much more accurate and easier to place the probe in the right place) are more expensive. They’re around the $15 mark. You can also get thermometer-hygrometer combinations for about $5 now.

On/Off Or Dimming Thermostats?

The thermostat is necessary to control the heat of the basking zone, as it is easy to overheat your dragon. There are two types of thermostat. An on/off type which will control the temperature of the basking area by turning the basking lamp off if it’s too warm. There are also ‘dimming’ thermostats. These regulate the temperature by adjusting the brightness of the basking lamp depending on the temperature of the basking area. If it’s too warm the thermostat will dim the bulb a little, allowing the area to cool more slowly than the on/off approach. The dimming thermostats are more expensive than their on/off counterpart but do provide a more natural environment. Dimming thermostats do not work with MVB (D3) bulbs though.

On/Off thermostats are around the $25 mark and the dimming thermostats are around the $50 mark. A third type of thermostat is available for ceramic heaters called a pulse thermostat. It’s similar to the dimming thermostat, but only suitable for non light emitting heat sources. Since it pulses the heat source, which if it were a light would cause it to flash. The pulse thermometers are around the $50 mark too.

Flooring / Substrate

This can vary depending on what you’d like to put down on the floor for your bearded dragon. We’d generally not recommend a loose substrate like sand or woodchippings. This is especially true for young bearded dragons. These can cause impaction, which leads to pain and suffering and potentially vet bills.

Tiles can be good, or newspaper. We’d probably avoid kitchen roll or toilet paper as bearded dragons have been known to eat it. The chemicals in these aren’t going be good for them, not to mention the risk of impaction again.

We’ve written another article about substrates. You can check it out to decide which substrate is best for your bearded dragon.

So, flooring for your vivarium is going to set you back around £15 – 25. Whether this is a one off cost of keeping a bearded dragon or an ongoing cost largely depends on the type of substrate you end up choosing.

Furniture

By furniture I mean thinks like basking logs, hammocks (though I don’t particularly like hammocks!), hiding caves, plants and things. The level of expenditure here is so variable it’s not really useful for me to go into it. And if you’re a little bit handy you can actually make your own caves, basking rocks and things.

At the very minimum you’re going to want to provide a couple of bowls for food and water.

The cost of this aspect is going to range from a couple of quid up to where-ever you want. It all depends on how fancy you want to go.

Summary of Upfront Cost Of Keeping a Bearded Dragon

Second hand / used vivarium is going to vary between £75 to £250 depending on the deal you get.

New vivarium is going to vary between £300 to over £500.

You can find more information about bearded dragon equipment you’ll need here

Ongoing Cost Of Keeping A Bearded Dragon

Fortunately Bearded Dragons aren’t that expensive to keep. Hopefully the upfront costs haven’t put you off. Let’s face it, a brand new puppy from a reputable dealer is going to cost you close to twice that. And that’s before you even think of buying his bowls, leads, vaccinations and bed…

The ongoing costs for bearded dragons are as follows;

Electricity

This is, in our experience, is so minimal it’s barely worth even factoring in to the cost of keeping a bearded dragon. We’ve looked at other people’s costs too. Most agree that for one vivarium, the extra cost to your electricity is going to be something around $1-2/week. This will depend on a few factors such as the size of your tank and your energy supplier.

This works out at roughly $4-8 per month, or $12 to $24 per quarter.

Updated for 2023. You can see from above that we used to say it was minimal costs for electricity but unfortunately since the end of 2022 and into 2023 that’s no longer really the case. Our bearded dragon vivarium draws about 200 watts of electricity, which means every 5 hours it’s using 1 unit of electricity (or, technically, 1 kilowatt hour). Certainly in the UK and Europe the price per unit of electricity has almost tripled in the last year. The US may not be as bad but is still feeling some pressure.

Your bearded dragon vivarium is likely to use at least 2, to 2.5 units of electricity per day, so to work this cost out you’ll need to know the unit cost of your electricity and that will vary by state. In the UK it’s approximately 30p/unit (as at July 2023). So my bearded dragon is now costing me around 60-75p per day in electricity. That’s £4.20 – £5.25 per week, or £18 – £22.50 per month. It’s not huge, but it’s a lot bigger today than it was when we originally wrote this post and we’d recommend you really strongly consider if you can afford that outlay before embarking on keeping a new bearded dragon.

Light Bulbs

This is an ongoing cost of keeping a bearded dragon that most people will forget to factor in. Particularly if you’re looking at the vivarium and the lights all appear to be working properly. The problem is that the UV bulbs degrade over time. The recommended time between changing them is between 6 – 9 months. The Mercury Vapour All In One (MV-AIO) bulbs are recommended to be changed annually. T5 fluorescent tubes should be changed every 6-9 months.

The MV-AIO bulbs come in at around $50 and the T5 strip lights are around $25. This means you’re looking at around $50 every six months. This equates to about $9 per month (rounded up).

Food

This all depends on what you’re going to be feeding your bearded dragon. It also depends whether you’re going to breed / grow your own. You’ll need to bear in mind that they’ll need a mixture of live food and leafy greens and vegetables.

If you’re buying all your food is that you’ll be looking at around $5-10 / week as a ballpark figure. This depends on a number of factors such as the size of your bearded dragon. The season can affect the amount too (sometimes your dragon isn’t going to be as hungry). It also depends on whether you’re buying greens specifically for your bearded dragon. If you’re happy to share the greens you eat for dinner with them it will reduce the cost.

Supplements

Standard supplements will last quite a considerably long time. For example the calcium dusting powder that you will need to dust some live insects with, generally costs around $5-10. But it is going to last up to a year. So the cost of these supplements is negligible.

Vet Bills

These can vary wildly depending on the genetics of your bearded dragon, the luck of your dragon and the husbandry you provide. Not all vet trips are due to bad husbandry. Some are going to be basic checkups, others will be just bad luck.

The last vet trip for our bearded dragon was around $25. This included a course of antibiotics – $25 for this sort of treatment really wasn’t bad. It is still cheaper than the average vet bill for a puppy or dog.

If Vet bills are a concern you can consider Exotic Pet Insurance. Insurance provides cover for up to $1000 of vet bills. For the basic cover it costs around $128/year which can be spread over 10 months, making $12.80 per month. This is easily going to be the biggest cost you’ll face. But it can provide peace of mind against having to make a health decision based on finances.

We also have an article dedicated to helping you budget and pay for vet bills for your bearded dragon.

Summary Of Monthly Ongoing Cost Of Keeping A Bearded Dragon

• Electricity up to $40
• Replacement Lights $9
• Food up to $40 (but likely less)
• Supplements up to $1
• Vet Bills up to $13

Total, up to around $100 per month, if you include the pet insurance. Around $90 per month if you don’t mind taking the chance on not having pet insurance, but it’s probably worth putting that $13 per month aside anyway to get a contingency stash in case of the unexpected.

So, Are Bearded Dragons Expensive To Keep?

Hopefully this post has helped you to see the potential cost of keeping a bearded dragon as a pet. There is some scope for reducing those costs as you can see, and in particular when it comes to the food, if you can buy in bulk, or breed/grow your own food, these can be brought down quite considerably.

Keeping a dog or a cat is going to cost you just as much if not more per month. Both have the potential to upset the neighbours whereas your bearded dragon won’t offend anyone! And a bearded dragon is considerably cooler.