Juvenile Bearded Dragon Won't Eat and Rests Most of the Day

I got the dragon about a month ago. He is around five months old now. When I brought him home, he ate normally for the first couple of weeks. He would eat about seven or eight small crickets each day, as well as a couple superworms and kale. As of about a week and a half ago, however, he stopped eating almost altogether. He would maybe eat one or two crickets per day. Now I can't get him to even look at the crickets, and he Rests,with his eyes closed most of the day.

I took him to the vet yesterday out of concern. This is my first reptile, let alone bearded dragon, so all of this is new to me. The vet said that, after testing his feces, he did not have any parasites. She also said that this is common in young bearded dragons. She gave me an antibiotic anyway, as well as reptile formula. I have to force-feed the formula to him, and I feel horrible doing it. She also told me to stop feeding him calcium with vitamin D3 and to purchase calcium without the D3 in it. Any thoughts?

I'm looking for any help I can get, and any knowledge from veteran beardie owners I believe his habitat is correct. The temperatures are as follows: basking 106.5°F, mid tank 93.2°F, and cool end 85.7°F. Humidity is usually 20% to 30%, and the bulbs are as follows: 100W white heat bulb over a raised basking spot, 12% UVB bulb mid tank, and a 60W black night bulb. On the basking end, I also have an 8W adhesive heating pad on the outer side of the tank. He sleeps on that side at night and I thought it would help keep him warm. Also, he is pretty small, so I have him in a 20L tank.

I know this is probablyTLDR, but I'm desperate for help.

Is this vet well rounded with reptiles because reptiles outside don't need D3 because of the sun but however they do need D3 inside as they don't get sun light .

Other than that I don't see any problem but the night bulb since I would recommend a CHE

Kornel: The vet is an exotic vet so I'm hoping so. But I don't know for sure. As far as the CHE, I'd like to get one, but the black light doesn't seem to be keeping him up at night. Any other thoughts?

A black light isn't really healthy for them. Kind of hard on the eyes.
How big is the dragon? This could be brumation.

Rankins":c6wb1rhx said:

A black light isn't really healthy for them. Kind of hard on the eyes.
How big is the dragon? This could be brumation.

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It doesn't seem to bother him. He sleeps through the night. We've had it since the beginning too. But I plan to get a CHE. He is about 9 inches nose to tail and about 5 months old, so I don't think it could be brumation, do you?

Yes, it could still be brumation even though the dragon is not full grown. The CHE is much better than the black light. I understand you have used it for a long time. Its still not ideal to use it.

Forgot to ask how long do you keep your daytime lights on?

Rankins":uxbpvcvo said:

Yes, it could still be brumation even though the dragon is not full grown. The CHE is much better than the black light. I understand you have used it for a long time. Its still not ideal to use it.

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I'm getting a CHE tomorrow, so hopefully that will help. I keep the daytime lights on from 9am-9pm. Thank you everyone btw for all the help!

Edit: I forgot to ask why his eyes would be closed all day, and why he'd be still doing the eye bulging even though he's been done shedding for over two weeks?

Hi YT....sorry that your baby is having trouble. I think that you should continue light dusting with D3. Can you post a few close pics of him as well as a few of his set up, showing the placement of the bulbs ? Here's how :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then hit XIMG

Oh, and how big were the superworms ?

I can't post pics of his setup as I'm out right now but his bulbs left to right are basking, UVB, and then night black. The superworms were fairly small but he hasn't eaten then in at least 4 days and he has been having regular BMs.

But here he is, Thane:

He's so cute but quite small for a 5 month old. A 100 watt bulb seems like a lot of wattage for only a 20 gallon tank. Could you fill us in on the type of thermometer you're using?

Is the 12% UVB an Arcadia bulb? What is the distance of it to your beardie while in the basking spot?

His eyes do look like they are bothering him. Could you fill us in on the type of substrate you're using?

What antibiotic was he given and for what? Did the vet suggest using a probiotic to help restore the good gut flora that the antibiotic kills off?

If you could post pics of the setup so we can see the position of the bulbs it would be helpful to see if we can suggest something to help him out.

I changed out the 100W bulb for a large blue day bulb. I'm not sure on wattage at the moment but I think it's 75. I have a probe thermometer. The UVB is a Repti Sun 10.0. It's not a coil though, which I've read can be bad for the beardie. The substrate is carpet. A felt sort of material. The vet said nothing about a probiotic. What would you suggest? I can't post a pic of the setup at the moment but I can in the morning.

Hi, that's good that you are using a lower wattage basking bulb now & that you have a probe thermometer. Please make sure you put the probe right on (touching) the basking log & that you wait about 45 min for the temp to stop rising before getting the final basking reading. Is that the way you have been doing it?

The UVB is a 10.0 fluorescent tube rather than a 12% bulb? Do you know if it is a T5 (high output) or T8 bulb? The reason I ask the size of the bulb is because if it's the T5, it has further distance requirements and if too close, it can cause eye issues.

Good to hear you are using carpet as the substrate, no worries about a loose substrate getting into the eyes from that.

For probiotics, Benebac gel made for reptiles and birds is very well liked by beardies. Mine willingly lick it right off their noses. You could also use SOY yogurt which comes in a lot of different fruit flavors. If you check here, there are multiple probiotics to pick from: http://www.bugdelite.com although you may want to pick some up now to help him out.

Will watch for some pics in the am.