Habitat for for fire bellied toads

[deranged chipmunk]

+1 there's absolutely no way to say an enclosure will cost this many $$$ (sorry, don't know how to get the pound symbol on my keyboard..lol) it is all about how much you want to spend. my suggestion is to spend the most amount of your budget on life support (filter, heating,and a very secure lid). and any extra cash to buy healthy animals. yes, the chain store down the street may be a few pence cheaper, but are they more healthy? most importantly, read the care sheet, then read it again. remember, just because you start them in one tank, doesn't mean they have to spend their entire lives in it. your enclosure can always grow as your skills and knowledge grows

[Duriel]

That's the weird thing. I've found chain stores to be MORE expensive, while providing sick/underfed/stressed animals. Case in point: Petco had gnarly, skinny bearded dragons living on sand (they like to put everything in their mouths as kids, kind of like humans... and sand can = impaction), with no veggies offered, dead meal worms all over (again impaction, and also how can you ignore something so long that ****ING WORMS die?) and no UVB light for 69.99. 30 miles down the road was a small pet store with proper care (as in, costs them more) with 2 healthy beardies for $39.99. I mean greed is greed, but you'd think the big "Walmarty" stores dealing with pets would charge less. I've seen websites with firebellied toads for 4-5$ (cheapest I've seen) that were captive bred from reputable breeders, but when you order frogs online, the only reasonable (typically the only AVAILABLE) option is overnight shipping, so you don't really save. That's why, when I almost lost my mind over how awesome red and black walking frogs were, I had to order a fair quantity (in my case 6). The shipping was $40. Yes, other sites had $20-30 shipping, but my site charged $10 per frog and all the others wanted $20+... so I think I did well. Thankfully (in my experience), firebellied toads can take petchain(tm) store abuse pretty well (another reason they make a great first frog... some species you can't even leave them alone for the weekend).

[deranged chipmunk]

Ya know, come to think of it, i do believe you are right on the money. Although around here, the chains are a bit cheaper than the independents sometimes. Although that wasn't really my point. My point was just to buy healthy animals, cost not being a factor on what animals to buy. I always try to get my animals at mom and pop pet stores. But i have been known to hit the petsmart fish sales.....lol