# Cost of Caring for Tegus $$$



## donut (Jun 19, 2011)

I'd like to make a comprehensive list of all the things required to care and maintain adult tegus. This would be very helpful to many others in deciding whether or not they are able to keep these wonderful animals happy and healthy. 

I am very new to everything, so I'm sure I missed some things or misquoted the price. I would be grateful for any adjustments made to this list!

*Initial Setup:*
Enclosure	$200
Heat lamp	$20
UVB lamp	$20
Water bowl	$5
Spray mister	$5	
Tegu $200

*Running Costs:*
Food $28.00/mo
Multivitamin	$1.00/mo ?
Bedding $3.00/mo ?
Electric bill	$10.00/mo ?
Veterinary bill	???


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## james.w (Jun 19, 2011)

I would say....

Tegu $150-350 depends if you get a B&W, AA, Red, Extreme giant 
Enclosure $300-400 depends on what type of wood, doors, light fixtures you use
UVB bulb $40-80 depends on which one you get and where 
water bowl $5
hide $5
basking rock/tile $5-10
substrate $10-100 depends on what you use an where you are located

not too sure on the monthly costs, never really calculated them.


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## adam1120 (Jun 19, 2011)

Uvb are more than 20 dollars like 30 to 70 for uvb light I haven't got my tegu yet but I priced out my enclosure a 8x3x3 around 350+ so maybe a lil more on prices Idk depending where u live.


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## rrcoolj (Jun 20, 2011)

My 8x4 cost around 450 but that's because I had to buy a lot of the tools. Price will vary with that one. Uvb will be atleast 40-50$. Those multivitamins and calcium powder will last quite a while unless you have a lot of animals to take care of. I still have my cod liver oil I bought when I first got my tegu roughly 2 years ago. The water bowl cost me like 3dollars(kitty litter pan) and the substrate cost mr proly around 50-75 dollars(1ft of substrate in a 8x4 cage is alot).

Food will vary depending on what you feed and where you get it from.

As for the starter enclosure, i recycled a lot of old reptiles supplies I had so it cost me next to nothing. But my tegu was 150$, regular black and white.


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## Strange_Evil (Jun 20, 2011)

I don't have a Tegu yet so this probably won't mean anything to most. But if you ask me i say there is really no set price on how much your going to spend on your Tegu. Simply because it's so many ways to go, some take cheap other's take expensive.

Some spend a extra few bucks and Buy Mercury Vapor Bulbs while others Buy Heat and Uvb lights separate to save cash. Some just spend nothing on uv and house outside.

I plan to buy two custom built cage's while most just build there owns.

We'll you get where i'm going with this, its all a matter of what road you take. But enough rant, what everyone else has said and you said is pretty accurate, i just wrote this so other's could get the real purpose of this thread, its just an estimate.

Just saying..


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## herpgirl2510 (Jun 20, 2011)

I will say this it costs me way more than than $28 a month to feed my tegus and they are not full grown yet. I try to provide them with food that would be fit for me to consume minus the mice. I would say double that for each tegu. I don't know what my electri bill is for each lizard I spend $90 extra a month on my electirc bill but I have three very large enmclosures and some smaller ones. I have not hd a vet visit but around here it is $50-$60 just to walk through the door. The food bill I am sure will go down when they are not juvies and eating eveyday . Also if I bred my own mice/rats it would be much less. When tonka eats 6 mice that is a $6 meal. In order to pay a dollar a mouse I drive 1 hour 20 minutes to get them. They are so worth every penny. I absolutely adore my tegus.


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## jumper123 (Jun 20, 2011)

I would say I don't spend more than 20$ a week on food and water. I have insurance on them and am a vet technician so vet bills are covered for the most part. I paid 150$ for a 7ft enclosure and the power sun? Zoo med 160 watt bulb was 45$. I use a big equine water tub so they can swim and drink that was 75$ I think.


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## Rhetoric (Jun 20, 2011)

Running Costs:
Food $28.00/mo
Multivitamin	$1.00/mo ?
Bedding $3.00/mo ?
Electric bill	$10.00/mo ?
Veterinary bill	???

Enclosure - I found one off craigslist for $50 but I have not seen anything like it since. The other enclosure cost ~$400 to build. I did not build it either, it came with my other 2 tegus.

Heat/UVB lamp - The actual light fixtures can be bought at a lowes or home depot, even fred meyer for like $10 each. Petsmart will sell them for $20-30 a piece. You can also get the ceramic fixtures, those vary in price, they are then mounted to the top of the enclosure. I went with an MVB bulb for both of the enclosures, it was like $50-60 for a solar glo bulb. These need to be changed every 6 months. I also use a 48" reptisun 10.0, that was like $40 or something. Not everyone uses the tube style bulbs in addition to the MVB, its up to you.

Water bowl - I used a dog place mat when my tegu was smaller, then I upgraded to cat litter pans. The litter pans were like $8 or so. Just the most basic I could find.

Mister - $10-15. Now that my tegus are in the garage I just use the hose with a mister nozzle, its a lot more convenient lol.

Tegu - Varies, Guru was $150 as a baby. He was just under a ft when I got him. The other 2 tegus were $200 for them and their enclosure but I knew their previous owner.

Food - Depends, I buy food in bulk, if theres a sale I try to get as much as possible. Safeway recently had a sale on ground turkey and I walked out with a little over 12lbs for $20. Usually its $7 for 20oz. I also have a bunch of frozen fish I bought on sale. Livers and gizzards tend to be pretty cheap, they seem to be alright in moderation but I wouldn't make them a staple. If you're only getting one tegu I wouldn't worry about getting too many whole prey items in bulk. When I had just Guru I would get between 10-15 mice/rats. He wasn't eating enough for me to order them on-line.

Multivitamin/Calcium - Multivitamin is like $9 and calcium is like $6-7. Cheaper if you get it online.

Bedding - Cheap for me, Guru is on a hemlock mulch. It was Either $14 or $16 to get enough for his enclosure. He poops in his water so his substrate doesn't get dirty too quickly. The smaller tegus are on eco-earth and topsoil. One of them poops wherever it feels like. I've had the smaller ones for 2.5 months or so and have replaced $20 worth of dirt. I scooped out all the nasty parts and added a couple more bags (which I got on sale).

Electricity - Varies

Vet - I would try to keep some money stored, even if its like $5 - $10 a month. Just for a check up it costs almost $80 where I am. Then they pile on fecal exams and whatever else. I haven't had any ugrent problems with my tegus yet (knock on wood), I wouldn't say a vet bill is a monthly thing but it never hurts to have some money saved.



All in all, I would recommend preparing for the more expensive costs, its better to have too much saved than not enough and have to skimp on things. There are some alternatives you can use, substrate. Other things should not be substituted, UVB bulbs.


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