We ended up getting him from a (semi) local breeder, and it’s been great having him. We’re all pretty much crazy about having him in the family and, best of all, our nine year old has risen to the challenge of helping to care for him. In fact, he puts together a tasty lizard salad (consisting of turnip greens and shredded yellow squash) every morning and then handles the cricket feeding every afternoon.

Here’s a quick rundown of the approximate startup expenses:

40 gallon tank — $80
Fluorescent fixture for UV light — $30
UV tube — $25
Heat lamp — $15
Heat bulb — $7
Reptile ‘carpet’ — $16 (four pieces @ $4 each)
Stone food bowl — $5
Log hiding place — $10
Perch for basking — $15
Critter keeper for crickets — $10
Dragon dust (vitamins to dust on crickets) — $5
Gut load for crickets — $8
Lizard — $150

So all in all, we laid out roughly $225 for the necessary gear, and then an additional $150 for the lizard himself. Truth be told, we could’ve gotten a cheaper (by about 50%) lizard at the pet store, but we wanted to be sure that we got a well-established individual from a reputable breeder to minimize any potential problems. We were also drawn to the particular color morphs that this particular breeder has been producing.

With regard to maintenance costs, we go through a bundle of turnip greens ($0.99 each) and a couple of yellow squash (under a dollar total) every week or two, as well as about $3.50 worth of crickets per week (10/day at $0.05 each).

So there you have it… I’ll try to post pictures at some point to show him off. And I’ll probably post some tips/tricks that we’ve picked up thus far at some point soon.

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» From the Archives (November 25th – December 1st)
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When he was three or four years old he absolutely fell in love with reptiles, and his passion for snakes and lizards has only increased in the time since then.

On his first day of kindergarten, his teacher gave them a rundown of what they’d be learning. She then asked if anyone had any questions. His hand shot up and when she called on him, he asked “Are you going to teach us about herpetology?” She didn’t know what to say!

A few months later, he was being evaluated for inclusion in an intellectually gifted program. At the end of the interview, the psychologist was making small talk as our son headed for the door. When she asked him which kind of reptiles he liked best, he responded without hesitation… “Snakes, how about you?” She thought for a second and then responded, “I’m not sure. Frogs, I guess.” He stopped dead in his tracks, turned slowly and said (ever-so-politely) “Frogs aren’t reptiles. They’re amphibians.” He ultimately got into the program, primarily on the strength of his aptitude for science.

And nowadays he now spends much of his spare time outside catching Anolis lizards and blue-tailed skinks.

Returning to the matter at hand, we actually considered getting a corn snake, as our son is particularly ga-ga over snakes. We also considered a leopard gecko, but they’re nocturnal and often inactive during the day. We ultimately narrowed in on bearded dragons due to their docile nature, diurnal behavior, and inquisitive personalities.

We’re currently in the process of researching exactly what it is that we need to raise a happy and healthy bearded dragon, where best to procure said lizard, etc. We’ve been to a couple of stores in town (the only two stores that sell reptiles) and we weren’t particularly happy with what we saw. At one store the enclosures were filthy, whereas the enclosures at the other store looked clean, but the one bearded dragon that they had in stock looked pretty sickly. Right now, we’re leaning toward purchasing directly from a reputable breeder — there’s at least one within driving distance, and numerous others across the country that offer overnight shipping.

So there you have it… It won’t be long until we’ll have to change the name of this site to Raising4Boys+1Bearded Dragon.

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Related Articles at raising4boys.com:

» Buying a Bearded Dragon
» Nine Year Olds and the Tooth Fairy
» From the Archives (November 25th – December 1st)
» From the Archives (September 16th – September 22nd)
» Ten Simple Chores for Kids
» Snake Birthday Party for our Seven Year Old