It's not impossible. But if you want your dragon to thrive, you need a 105ish basking spot, and a source of UVB light. Ok, the ONLY recommended UVB is the Reptisun 10.0. $24. You need to change it out every 4 months or so, because even though you can't see it, the light is decaying and providing less and less UVB. Or you can buy a much more expensive MVB (mercury vapor) light, which would act as the basking bulb, but they are in the $60 range, and have to be replaced just as frequently. (You _can_ buy a UVB meter for about $160 and then replace your bulbs when necessary, without guessing). Then, if you go with my method of a fluorescent UVB, you need a 100 watt basking bulb, or whatever wattage at the height you mount it gives you the proper basking temp. Not so expensive, $8 each, replace when it burns out. Then you need a ceramic heater to maintain a not-so-cold night time temp of 70-80, if your house cools down into the 60's like mine does. The viv itself needs to be large in part because you want to have a temp range from 105F to 80ish, which is difficult in a smaller viv. Isabel is not so active, but when she gets running around in her 40 breeder, it seems small...Luckily, mostly all she does is bask in one area or another. The cost to your animal of inadequate UVB is metabolic bone disease.
Then there's the food. Crickets are easy, but carry worms. After deworming Isabel once, she was switched onto silkworms and superworms, which do not carry parasites. I know this because aside from the literature about it, she has not been reinfested with hooks, etc. after stopping eating crickets. When I took her to the vet shortly after purchasing her, when she stopped eating, she was found to have three kinds of worms and two kinds of coccidia! Silkworms are nice, but a little expensive if you buy them at a ready-to-eat size, and they require once or twice daily care, too! Supers are easy. But dragons LOVE silks. So guess what Isabel gets. Oh, yeah. There is no guarantee your dragon will EVER change over to a veg diet. Isable didn't, and I tried starving her out, though I wouldn't go over a week. I suppose when I get the uro, I will offer her greens again, since I will be preparing them anyway, but I don't expect her to eat them. Back to parasites. Dragons carry coccidia. You can't completely eliminate them, and some say you ought not, anyway, but when they are present in large numbers, as determined by counting them in a fecal, they need to be treated. So this is daily medication for a week, off a week, on a week, wait two weeks, follow up fecal, then usually another course of the same treatment, then another fecal, and then you're probably good for a year. AND THEN there is adenovirus. Read up on it. Virtually all bearded dragons carry it. Some die from it. I didn't know there was a prevalent disease like this, or I may not have even bought a dragon! It is quite difficult to find a baby that comes from parents who aren't carriers. So, do you test for it? I chose to, in case Isabel had health issues down the line, I wanted to know her status. So that meant sending off for a kit from University of Illinois, taking a fecal sample and preparing it with this special kit, sending it in for testing with the electron microscope, and getting the results that, yes, of course she is positive. "Occasional adeno-like virus seen." $75.
Here is an excellent food chart:
http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html
So, if you're prepared to provide all that and care for a dragon in an optimal manner, not just keep it alive, by all means, get one! Isabel has as much personality as any cat or dog. She is one of my favorite animals that I've kept in my entire life, and there have been hundreds!!!
