getting a bearded dragon- good idea?

[imawigglyworm]

We were thinking of getting a bearded dragon and just wondering are they expensive to keep? are they ok with other pets? (we have 4 cats.) Can anyone tell me good or bad points about getting one. Whats their temperments generally?

Our friend has one and my DH is obsessed with it, I dont mind them at all and 2 oldest DS's are a bit nervous around it but surely that will come with time.

TIA

We have separate tanks for each of our lizards, they need UV, I buy long use uv globes, these can be on for up to 14 hours a day, they also need a heat source, in summer I find under tank heat mats are fine, but in winter I also get both day and night heat globes for them and cover their tanks overnight. We don't have central heating and the house gets cold overnight.
Initial set up is the big expense if you are buying a new tank, I sourced mine 2nd hand through pet shops that were upgrading their fish tanks. Feeding them isn't that expensive, ours get greens, no lettuce though it gives them the runs, but dandelions, clover, bok choy, and grated veg are fine. I also feed them live crickets and wood roaches, I buy these from the local pet shop, I will also nick a couple of worms out of the compost for them too occasionally. They will eat any bugs that go in their tanks, our little water dragon is a very good fly catcher lol.
I like daily interaction with them and will take them out side, and they are happy to sit on my shoulder while I potter around the yard.
They do hurt if they bite, which is rarely, our old girl bit DP once in all the time we had her, I reckon he deserved it ;)
Don't let your cats near it, they will hurt him, we have kept beardies and water dragons for a couple of years now and they are great pets, we even hatched a clutch of eggs which was pretty cool.

Cool - my dc's also want beardies. I was told by a local exotics shop to have 2 tho? They also said if we ended up with 2 males they would have one back. And they quoted us 179 quid for the full set up - does that seem about right?

£179 seems really good for set up, we were quoted £225 for a bearded dragon set up + cost off beardie on top.
Although visiting the reptile shop we are now more swaying towards a leopard geko. Still havent decided, Theres too many too choose from lol.
They need a smaller tank too so hopefully could be a bit cheaper for us.
Is it better to buy the tank brand new or is ebay a good idea?

we were told beardies would be better as they don't mind being handled and are more sociable than Geckos. Think probally brannd new would be better as at least you know it will all work and the reptike shop can help set it up.