I'm not sure how much they are in a store, but we got him at the reptile expo at daytona beach (hence his name expo) for $25. My uncle in law works at the central florida zoo in the with the herps so he gave us a tour around the place and helped up pick out a young one that would die in a week (hard to tell when they're that young). He hasn't been hard to raise. Like you said, plenty of uvb rays, keep the temperature right and keep him fed on high protein stuff and greens. Ohh and of course gut loading the bugs to feed and making sure he gets plenty of calcium.