Guys, I'm scared. My baby beardie won't eat.

My fiance and I just got two baby bearded dragons for an early Xmas present. They're about 4-6 weeks old.

I've been feeding them waxworms and small crickets like the lady at the pet store said. The tank is plenty warm. They have a warm side and a cooler side. My beardie is full of energy, loves to eat everything he sees. The other (my fiance's) doesn't want to eat much. He only ate about 3 or 4 worms yesterday, and I didn't see him eat his crickets but he may have snuck one when I wasn't looking. He ate nothing today, yet.

The one that doesn't eat much isn't lethargic. He's lazy and won't "chase" his worms or crickets. He'll only go for them when they're right beside his leg. But he isn't tired. He runs around and seems very alert. But he also is puffing his beard up and opening his mouth a bit yesterday, but not today.

The other beardie (who is a bit bigger than the one that doesn't eat) seems totally fine. Not a thing wrong with him.

My fiance's beardie has just gotten over his first shed and I heard that has something to do with his lack of eating. Also, my fiance and the baby beardie were sitting on my son's bed and my son accidentally LEANED on him! We shouted at him and he backed off right away. He doesn't seem to have anything broken, or any blood coming out of anywhere, but it scared me. It's been over 24 hours and my kids are now not allowed to even touch the beardies.

What could be up with the little one? Is he just little? Maybe being leaned on stressed him out (I can see why, poor guy). Is he stressed about his new home? Is there anything I can offer him that he might like better than the worms or crickets at such a young age?

*Note: I ruled out impaction. I gave him a warm bath because his belly looked a tad fat and he farted (bubbles) and pooped in his bath. No blood in his poop.

Please offer any advice. Help, this is my first time having beardies. I only have a snake, and he also doesn't eat much around a shed. My fiance and I are worried about the little dude. Is there anything we can do for him?

EDIT: Below is the questions in the sticky. I posted the ones I didn't already answer here. Also, in my second post is a photo of them.

What size enclosure do you have your dragon in?
10 gallon tank for now, will upgrade as they grow
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank?
Aspen's dried, fine wood shavings (heard sand causes impaction in babies)
Do you use UVB lights?
Yes
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb?
Coil.
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)?
Exo Terra ReptiGlo 10.0 for Desert Reptiles and its 150w.
How old is your UVB bulb?
Brand new, just got it a week ago.
How close can your dragon get to the UVB?
Within 8 inches.
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage? Is it a white or colored bulb?
No.
What are the basking temps?
Between 109 and 110.
What is the cool side temp?
Cool side therm says 86-90
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun?
Digital thermometer.
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps?
Longwise opposite ends of the tank.
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad?
Yes, heat pad.
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific.
Wax worms, small brown crickets, and attempting to feed calcium pellets.
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)?
2-3 times a day, usually morning and evening, within an hour of getting up and at least 3 hours before lights out.
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)?
Yes.
Do you bath your dragon? How often?
Yes, about 2 times a week.
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath?
Yes.
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done?
No, not yet.
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon?
Yes, the same dragon he was born with. They shared their enclosure at the store and he was eating fine then.

Not eating can be caused by many, many, things. Relocation stress, improper temps, stress from being dominated by another dragon, parasite infection, bad lighting, etc.

First thing is to go through and make sure your husbandry is correct.

There's a sticky at the top of the forums with a big long list of questions. Try to answer those first and we'll be able to help you much better.

One big thing - are they housed in the same cage? If so, that's usually a problem. We here on this forum are all pretty much universally against co-habitation. It tends to lead only to trouble, with the only "good" thing about it being a bit cheaper to start with (long term the initial costs are negligible anyway). There are many threads about why we don't approve of co-habitation and if you've got them together, I'd recommend that you read a few of them before making a final decision.

Other than that, try filling out the questionnaire and we'll certainly do our best to help you get a handle on things.

Okay, I edited my first post with the question page and answered those.

Also, something I didn't mention. The beardies are fed seperately. We take them each out of their tank to eat and they don't have to compete for their food.

Here's a photo of them as they appear now. Apache (the dark one) is the one that won't eat. Attila (the light one) is the one that appears perfect. Apache is smaller but appears to be more dominant. He's occasionally laying on top of Attila.

I hate to tell you this, but pretty much everything about your husbandry is wrong.

It's not your fault, but it sounds like you bought one of those pre-packaged "kits".
Those things are terrible and everything in them is the wrong stuff to use.

Please don't take the following as criticism, it's not. But I'm going to go over what you really need if you want your babies to thrive.

What size enclosure do you have your dragon in?
10 gallon tank for now, will upgrade as they grow
---
For even 1 baby, a 10 gallon is a bit small. At best he'll outgrow it inside of 2 months. For 2 babies, it's tiny (although we highly recommend not housing dragons together even as babies...see below for more). For an adult dragon, the minimum size is a 40 breeder (36" x 18" floor space). It's usually more cost effective to just immediately put them into their forever homes and not worry about trying to scale up as they grow [they grow FAST at this age].
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What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank?
Aspen's dried, fine wood shavings (heard sand causes impaction in babies)
---
Any particle type substrate is problematic, especially for babies. Dragons like to lick everything and will ingest the substrate which can lead to impaction and even death in bad cases.

We recommend that you use slate tiles (which also help keep sharp little nails filed down), newspaper, paper towels, repti-carpet (only as a last resort, it tends to hold bacteria and be stinky if not cleaned regularly), non-stick vinyl flooring. Basically anything that can be easily wiped clean or thrown out when messed on.
---

Do you use UVB lights?
Yes
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb?
Coil.
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)?
Exo Terra ReptiGlo 10.0 for Desert Reptiles and its 150w. [FYI - that bulb is 15 watts not 150]
---
The only bulbs that we recommend on this forum are the Repti-SUN 10 or the Arcadia 12 Long-Tube type florescent UV bulbs.

You do not want any kind of compact or coiled UV bulb. They have been shown to have inconsistent UV output and have been linked to eye problems with bearded dragons.

The Repti-Glo line has also had problems. We only suggest you use Repti-SUN line florescent. You want the 10.0 model (the 5.0 is for tropical species).

The UV florescent bulbs only put out light and UV - how are you providing basking heat?

Ideally what you want is a bright white heating bulb [typically a Halogen Spotlight type which is a lot cheaper than those "pet" basking bulbs] providing light and heat to the basking area which should be about 105 F at it's hottest spot. Along with the Repti-Sun 10/Arcadia 12 florescent over the same area providing UV exposure.
---

What are the basking temps?
Between 109 and 110.
What is the cool side temp?
Cool side therm says 86-90
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun?
Digital thermometer.

Do you use a heat rock or heat pad?
Yes, heat pad.
---
Don't use under tank heaters or "hot rocks". Beardies are very poor at feeling heat on their bellies and can easily burn themselves. Besides you want overhead basking heat for beardies.
---

What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific.
Wax worms, small brown crickets, and attempting to feed calcium pellets.
---
This looks OK, although I don't know what calcium pellets you are referring to. Food should be "dusted" with calcium powder 1 feeding per day, 5 days a week and "dusted" with a multivitamin powder 1 feeding per day, 2 days a week.
---

How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)?
2-3 times a day, usually morning and evening, within an hour of getting up and at least 3 hours before lights out.
---
Fine
---

Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)?
Yes.
Do you bath your dragon? How often?
Yes, about 2 times a week.
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath?
Yes.
---
This one is OK, but you might want to up the baths to every other day and skip the misting. Dragons absorb water through their vents while in the bath and from their veggies. Misting tends to just raise the humidity in the tank and can sometimes lead to respiratory infections (although some folks to prefer to mist over baths, your choice).
---

Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done?
No, not yet.
---
You'll probably need to get one. One symptom of a parasite problem is not eating. And being housed together, if one of them has parasites, both of them do.
(pinworms are an especially common problem for dragons fed on crickets).
---

Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon?
Yes, the same dragon he was born with. They shared their enclosure at the store and he was eating fine then.

---
You'll find that here on this forum we are almost universally against ever housing dragons together. Dragons are solitary creatures and neither want nor appreciate having another dragon in their territory. Even with babies you can easily end up with bitten off toes and tail tips. With bigger dragons you often end up with dead dragons.

Yes, some folks keep them in groups for years and never have a problem...until they have a problem, and then it's too late. And yes, pet stores do it. But if we did everything the pet stores do, our dragons would live about 6 months tops.

We regard it as a totally un-necessary risk to be taking that could be eliminated by just not housing them together. Please go through and read some of the co-habitation threads. [plus you've got the potential problems of unwanted breeding too].

Dragons housed together also suffer from increased stress (either the stress of being dominant or the stress of being dominated) which can lead to lowered appetite, stunted growth, illness, etc; even if you don't have any overt fighting.

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I'll add more later, but I've got to go right now. Meanwhile, there are several very good caresheets available on the forums here, and I'd recommend you go read them and compare them to what you're doing now. It will probably help with the little one quite a bit.

Again, I'm not being critical. Just trying to help you learn what's best for them.

I really, really appreciate it. Yes, I went with one of the kits and nobody told me any different. I like my little guys and I want to do anything I can, spend any amount of money I have to spend in order to keep them healthy and happy.

I plan to get them a new tank as soon as possible. After the holidays, all the good tanks go on sale. The 10 gallon is really only a temporary tank.

Would it be okay for me to get one of the big tanks and then place a partition in the middle of the tank so as to separate them? As long as I have the same amount of light and heat and whatnot in their area? My house is small and I have no room for two big tanks in different areas.

I will get a heat bulb instead of the pad. Should I put the pad under my snake's tank? There's very little way he could burn himself, being that the way his tank is set up, he couldn't lay almost directly on it. He has fake grass in the way.

I will change the substrate for them right away. That's an easy fix. I want to make their lives as healthy as I can. Hopefully the paper substrate will lessen the heat the wood holds in.

Also, I will stop dampening them and just give them baths more often. I'm hoping that he's going to be okay with all the changes.

My fiance works for a vet office, and she's going to ask her boss about the baby at work today.

Well the only snakes I really know anything about are my corns. I haven't done the research for any other snake species. However, yes, most snakes enjoy having a belly heat area to curl up on. As long as it's a regulated temperature.

Those UTH's can get very hot (I had one go to over 150 F on me ... it did burn out shortly afterwards so it was probably defective) and should always be regulated with a thermostat.

For my corns, I keep their UTH spot (with a hide sitting over the area) at 90 F [probe sitting on the glass bottom], which drops to about 85 F by the time it's filtered up through the substrate.

Other species enjoy different temps though.

As far as partitioning a larger tank goes, it would be OK provided
that the resulting floor space is enough for each dragon and the
partition is not see-through.

As I said before, an adult dragon (actually from about 1+ years size-wise)
needs a minimum floor space of 36" x 18", and bigger is always better.

So, unfortunately, to give them enough space would mean that (eventually)
you'll need a 6 foot long tank, minimum. At that point, it's really just as easy to
get 2 36x18 tanks instead of a 72x18. (Probably cheaper too, those big tanks
get really expensive quickly).

If you can afford it, you could look into a multi-level stand (ie 2 separate tanks
one sitting over the other). As long as the stand leaves enough room for the light fixtures, it can save some space.

Oh and remember to look at actual floor space, not gallons. A 55 gallon tank is "bigger" than a 40 breeder, but it's measurements are actually 48" x 12" and that's not wide enough.

FYI - PetCo and PetSmart (and probably others too) run a $1.00/gallon sale a couple of times a year. That's a great time to pick up 36x18 tanks for about $40-$45.

UPDATE:

Just to let everyone know, I followed the guide and got the babies some new stuff (a new lamp, bulb, etc) and it made a world of difference. Both of them are eating just fine now, and they seem to like chasing the crickets more than eating the worms. They have paper towel substrate, which is easier for them to hunt on. They're doing fine. They're both "waving" at me but will let me pick them up and play with them. They're growing fast, so right after Xmas, they need to be separated. Attila is already starting to show a dominant streak. Since he's almost twice his size as when I got him, it needs to be soon.

Thanks for your help. Gonna go give them a bath.

I am going to add something here...please only feed waxworms as a treat once in a great while. Waxworms are fatty and they can cause your babies to develop fatty liver disease, something you don't want..also no mealworms as the hard chitin shell is hard for them to digest. superworms should only be fed when the dragon reaches 16 inches or so as the babies have a kink in their intestines until they grow up and passing them through the kink could cause an impaction which is another thing you don't want. For greens if you feed them these please don't as KALE and SPINACH bind calcium making it almost unusable. Not critizing just trying to let you know these things can be harmful to your babies. Food should also be no larger than the space between their eyes so they can digest it without problems.

Why didn't anybody at the petshop tell me this? I could have made the babies sick feeding them worms. But luckily for me, they told me on their own by not eating them. They really like the crickets. They don't get greens yet, as they're doing really well with the crickets. I'm really happy with their growth lately. They're doing great, and I'm wondering if I should give them fruit?

They need greens offered daily even if they don't seem to eat them...I give mine turnip, collard, and mustard greens, endive, bell pepper, squash which they love, grapes cut up small, strawberry with no seedy skin on it, blackberry, raspberry, apple and pear...sometimes mango and papaya...Never citrus as it can upset their tummies and kiwi is in the citrus family so mine never get kiwi. I don't give them many carrots at all because of the vitamin a and beta carotene in them is high. banana once in a great while and they love banana.

Is puree fruit okay for them? When I try to offer them small bits of apple, they look at me like I'm on drugs.

As long as it's just fruit, yes that's fine.
Just avoid processed stuff with added sugar and chemicals.
Stage 1 baby food is often used as a food supplement for recovering dragons.
Also avoid any kind of citrus fruit, they don't digest citric acid very well.

I have the Beech Nut pure organic baby food, stage one. I will double check and see if any sugar has been added. That would be just what I need, hyperactive beardies running around crazy.