# saving money



## reptile_dude (May 31, 2008)

One of the main things that hold us reptile keepers back is the expenses.
I'd like to know some tips about saving money on reps Eg: electrical, feeding, substrates, supplements, accessories e.t.c. for large and small collections of herps. thankyou


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## luke123 (Apr 13, 2008)

using lower watts on things where possible


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## Harrison (Feb 29, 2008)

Look in the "Equipment" area of the forums because there is a great bargain thread there right now which will save you LOTS of money.


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## gregmonsta (Dec 3, 2007)

In a homebuilt stack you can keep the heat well with radiator insulation foil from B&Q. A 10m 100watt heat cable on a pulse stat can give a warm spot to four large vivs and be backed up with four 25watt spots connected in series on one dimmer stat. .... that's four vivs nice and warm using only 200watts.


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## Pliskens_Chains (Jun 8, 2008)

gregmonsta said:


> In a homebuilt stack you can keep the heat well with radiator insulation foil from B&Q. A 10m 100watt heat cable on a pulse stat can give a warm spot to four large vivs and be backed up with four 25watt spots connected in series on one dimmer stat. .... that's four vivs nice and warm using only 200watts.


got any tips on building a stack like that? im interested on saving money too


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## fantapants (Jan 4, 2008)

our royal stack is heated with heat cable. actually works really well. we have 5 vivs in it and got the longest cable that renacor make. we ran it through each viv and made a zig zag area on the right hand side of each viv, so the cable was spaced approx 1 1/2inches apart on each row. we had enough to heat a third of each viv and then connected it to a stat. 

the stack probably cost us £120 in wood and inculding glass, runners vents etc and is 6ft tall x 3 ft wide. the heater cable and stat took the price up to £180. add a few new hides and bowls etc and you are looking at £200 for 5 spanking new vivs, all up and running. bargain if you ask me. and the heater cable is MUCH cheaper to run than even heat mats.

another good money saver is to have wooden vivs instead of glass as they retain the heat much better.

breed your own food, we breed roaches for the lizards and frats for the royals. we also send the kids out collecting weeds for the beardies and tortoises so we dont have to pay for salad.

i dont buy ANYTHING that says reptile on the packet, unless its something important like a stat. substrate is free in the form of newspaper. or get some horse bedding like aubiose (depending on the animal), its about £8 a huge sack and can be composted.

hides and water bowls can be collected from poundland and are easy to clean, i just put mine on a hot wash in the dishwasher. broken paving slabs (scrubbed) make great basking rocks for beardies and rough surfaces for sankes, as do fruit tree branches, rocks and potted plants (again, depends on species requirements). plastic plants can be found in "tat shops", florists, bargain shops etc. garden centres can be a great source of natural looking ornaments too.

the main expense for us is the leccy bill, and as much as we have tried to economise, the reptule running costs is still about £35 a week! but if i went to the petshop or reptile suppliers for everything i use i would be paying about £100 a week for the lot. 

so yes, you can save TONS of money!


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## reptile_dude (May 31, 2008)

Wow some excelent ideas there, 35.00 a week is great.
does anyone use solar power? I was reading that on the latest solar panels you can save up to 35% on your energy bill!!!


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## Pleco07 (Aug 15, 2007)

I save a lot of money by breeding my own livefood, making hides etc, looking in the woods for branches etc.

and as tinkerbruce said 



tinkerbruce said:


> i dont buy ANYTHING that says reptile on the packet, unless its something important like a stat. substrate is free in the form of newspaper. or get some horse bedding like aubiose (depending on the animal), its about £8 a huge sack and can be composted.


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

reptile_dude said:


> Wow some excelent ideas there, 35.00 a week is great.
> does anyone use solar power? I was reading that on the latest solar panels you can save up to 35% on your energy bill!!!


 
you can but it takes YEARS to start seeing the saving from it as its expensive to fit.


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## gregmonsta (Dec 3, 2007)

Pliskens_Chains said:


> got any tips on building a stack like that? im interested on saving money too












This is my main Idea .... my everglades will go in the bottom but you can configure the height of the vivs to whatever you want .... to use the smaller spots in series you'll want them all the same size.
Been checking prices and ... if I use plexi-glass instead of glass to begin with (keeping the costs down) then I reckon I could build this for less than £200.










This is what I've figured so far .... if I go ahead with the hardboard subfloor with 2mm holes. I'll be lining it with radiator foil and using 10meters of heat cable. Running between the vivs in the indicated corner and then hidden behind more holey hardboard lol. This will be pulse statted to 30Celcius.
In the bottom viv I'll be using a 100watt red spot bulb for penelope (everglades ratsnake) as it's the biggest viv and this will be dimmer statted to keep the cool end at about 20Celcius.
The 'smaller vivs will get 25watt spots and will be wired in series to another dimmer stat.


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## reptile_dude (May 31, 2008)

some great ideas, keep them coming! bump


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## vetdebbie (Jan 4, 2008)

reptile_dude said:


> Wow some excelent ideas there, 35.00 a week is great.
> does anyone use solar power? I was reading that on the latest solar panels you can save up to 35% on your energy bill!!!


 
My husband was looking at that to run our reps/fish and he reckons it's 2 grand to set up - that's with installing it yourself, so it's on the back burner at the moment!


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## Graham (Jan 27, 2007)

If you use flourescent tube lighting consider changing all your ballasts (starters) to electronic ones rather than the old-technology magnetic type. Electronic ballasts are considerably cheaper to run, extend the life of your bulbs, and at the same time can increase output, they don't flicker and they start up instantly, and they also run cooler.


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## repkid (Nov 30, 2007)

Make hides from cereal boxes etc. I Buy bowls that are for like rats and stuff. I got a little mealworn dish that cost £1 which was for a rat or something and it was more ideal than any of the reptile products and £4 cheaper!


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## vetdebbie (Jan 4, 2008)

Graham said:


> If you use flourescent tube lighting consider changing all your ballasts (starters) to electronic ones rather than the old-technology magnetic type. Electronic ballasts are considerably cheaper to run, extend the life of your bulbs, and at the same time can increase output, they don't flicker and they start up instantly, and they also run cooler.


Sounds good! Being a bit thick about this kind of thing -how much (approx) and where can you get them from?


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## Graham (Jan 27, 2007)

Price varies according to wattage (which has to match the wattage of the tube of course), and you can get double, triple, and quadruple ones to run more than one tube from the same ballast, this works out cheaper than several single ballasts if all the tubes are the same wattage.

Single ballasts start at less than £20 and I found my local electrical wholesaler was cheaper than anywhere online.


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## Dextersdad (Mar 28, 2008)

gregmonsta said:


> In a homebuilt stack you can keep the heat well with radiator insulation foil from B&Q. A 10m 100watt heat cable on a pulse stat can give a warm spot to four large vivs and be backed up with four 25watt spots connected in series on one dimmer stat. .... that's four vivs nice and warm using only 200watts.


I like your thinking.


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## reptile_dude (May 31, 2008)

bump up


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## Mason (Jan 21, 2008)

basically as others have said.

most 'reptile' branded products are used commonly elsewhere and rebranded/sold for more. 

We buy vermiculaite in bulk from garden centers, use horse substrate like auboise and hemcore @ under a tenner (RETAIL!) for 20KG (20KG aspen @ trade is closer to 20)

We buy our frozen food in bulk.


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## dracco (May 17, 2008)

I go to auction rooms and buy bits of furnisher that can be made into vivs my recent was a beautiful piece I got for £8 it already had beautiful glass doors so all I had to add was ventilation and the lights and it was ready.


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## Viper (May 10, 2008)

Use papertowels/newspaper instead of orchid bark etc !!


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## littlejay (May 25, 2008)

I do all the obvious ones as mentioned breed my own foods, use ordinairy spot bulbs not branded rep ones. I also make all my own Exo Terra type plants which saves a bomb. I use 1 4ft UV tube over 2 2ft vivs instead of seperate ones, buy things in bulk where I can and if Im paying a lot of cash in a Rep shop I ask for a discount- if you dont ask you dont know if they'll say yes!. I also ask local pet shop to order me stuff in and they let me have it at cost price just odds n sods like clamp lamps etc. For locust food I get all the trimmings from the green grocers plus I ask the allotment guys for all the stuff they thin out and chuck away.
littlejay


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## alan1985 (Jun 26, 2008)

*save*

i save money buy making the hides, making the backgrounds and look for logs sand stone and other rocks every where i go the kids think its great finding bits for there repsI(my reps realy,lol), and making my vivs, honestly watch car bootsales, charity shops etc... you can make a viv out of just about any furniture the easyist is old kitchen cupboards all you need to buy realy is glass runners and glass, personaly i use plexiglass as it looks like the realy thing, it wont smash and its about half the price.


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## tarantulabarn (Apr 21, 2005)

reptile_dude said:


> One of the main things that hold us reptile keepers back is the expenses.
> I'd like to know some tips about saving money on reps Eg: electrical, feeding, substrates, supplements, accessories e.t.c. for large and small collections of herps. thankyou


If you have a room just for your hers black the window out and change thr daytime to nightime and nightime to daytime, using most of the power durng the cheaper hours, if you have economy7 or a seperate nightime rate, if a basking spot is not needed use cables instead of bulbs, for decent wood accessories go to the woods and find some pieces of root from fallen trees, take a saw with you, i do this, hose or jetwash then oven or microwave,


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## Robbie (Dec 4, 2006)

Bulk orders of frozen food is the way to go. A few online stores offer free postage if your order is over £x.
Plus items always work out cheaper. On huge orders of pinkies you are paying something like 8p per pink 

Most of my natural decor is actually natural. Either boiled or baked to kill off beasties and what have you. The woods is the best store in the country 

I use insulating wrap under my heatmats, to avoid heat loss. I'm not sure if it helps massively in the long run but it gives me a bit more peace of mind.


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