New beardie owner

Hello all. I recently got a beardie for my son for his birthday. We are inexperienced reptile owners and the pet store of course loaded us up with what I am now figuring is not all good stuff. We bought the bearded dragon 20 gallon long kit from pets mart. I'm worried the lighting that came with it is inadequate as he doesn't seem to be beasking but laying in the shade underneath the basking spot. The spot reads 105 but he doesn't use it.He also doesn't seem to be eating nearly as much as other juvie owners say their dragons eat. Only a small amount of greens and maybe 4-5 Dubia roaches or crickets per day. Which the pet store also sold me large crickets that are bigger than the space between his eyes... ? Can anyone tell me what I need to get to make this a proper happy home for my Benji please?? Thank you!" For any and all advice!

He is about 7" and I included the list of things the setup came with...

1) weigh him in grams.

2) photos of setup and of lights

3) how are you measuring the tank temperatures (are you using one of those useless round dial analog thermometers OR something else) ?

4) distance from basking light ?

5) mesh top ? lights ontop of mesh ?

6) What size crickets or roaches does the label on the tub say they are ?

The 20 gal tank is small BUT will do for a while , probably be adequate until he's about a year old. I've used 100L rearing tubs modified to become lizard tanks for all my beardies, my youngest two , Peppa and Toothless are about 16 months old and are still in their rearing tubs, they will likely be moved into their new forever homes (DIYS three level beardie apartment building) with a footprint of about 4ft x 2ft for their 2nd birthdays.
Rex and Puff were reared in the same 100L tubs , as were George and Mildren (Bluetongue Skinks) before them before I build individual stackable 4ft x 2ft x 16in tall (for the BTS) and 4ft x 2ft x 18ïn tall for the first 2 beardies. I moved them into their big tanks at about 18 months old.

Hi Benjimom, as was mentioned, pics will be helpful. Here's how to post them :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to attach pics
How long is he ? Weighing is helpful but don;t worry about that now, he's naturally going to not eat as much as he could because he'll prob. have some relocation stress. At least he's eating a few, so that's a good thing.

Sadly you probably were sold the wrong lights.....a coil or compact is not going to give him much uvb. That may also hurt his eyes , hence the hiding. You'll prob. need to make adjustments but you should be should be able to have a happy beardie after a short time.

Thank you! I have edited to attach some photos. He is about 7 inches. I just want him to have the best home. He is such a sweetie!

Well the good news is that he looks very healthy + alert with good weight on him. So that is a definite plus. The 20 gallon " kit " , though doesn't provide the right lighting. The white basking spot lamp is good but the red is unnecessary. Beardies may not sleep with a blazing red light on, so if you DO need heat at night [ only if your temp. goes below 67 at night ] then you should get a CHE [ ceramic heat emitter ] that produces heat but no light. I see that you aren't using the calcium sand , good move. They CAN cause impaction....not always but why take the chance. The set up is good + simple, keep it that way. People will tell you that he needs a hide but this is not true. I raised beardies for many years and they had basking logs + rocks but no hides. They grow to be very friendly + not skittish, always would climb right on my hand at any time. With a hide they may learn to do just that [ hide a lot ] and you can end up with a fearful dragon. If you ever need more cage decor you can get rocks from outside [ scrub with hot soapy water, then rinse ] or a nice log,driftwood or branch. Those can be popped in to a preheated 250 degree oven [ careful that the wood doesn't touch any heat elements ] and bake for 60-90 minutes depending on the thickness. I would recommend one more basking branch or rock for now.

For top of the line uvb lighting you can order the Reptisun 10.0 t5 or the Arcadia 12% long tube bulbs which require their own fixture. The compact 5.0 uvb that came with the kit only puts out a small amount of uvb which gets diffused by the screen. The baby will not get much uvb and may develop MBD [ metabolic bone disease ] So if you order the uvb bulbs I mentioned you'll get plenty of good uvb going through the screen.

If you ever need more heat you can actually get a bulb AND an aluminum reflector at Walmart, the bulb can be a halogen par38 or similar.

So how is the little guy doing ?

Thank you so much for the help!! I adjusted lighting and he ate 23! Roaches yesterday and was happily basking away!! He is such a little lovie!!