Sick baby Beardie. PLEASE HELP.

I bought my baby from a pet store about 6 days ago. He or she is a Hypo and (I'm guessing) is around 4-8 weeks. When we purchased him, I could tell how emaciated he was. He was extremely thin (spine, hip, shoulder, and tail bones visible), limp, and refused to eat while we were at the store. They wouldn't give me a discount (duh), but I figured I could try to save him anyways. Over the past few days I've given him many soaks in diluted electrolyte water, fed him a slurry of greens & baby food through a dropper, and have managed to get about 10 crickets in him. Any feeding is essentially "force-feeding" since there is still no interest in food, whatsoever. When fed, it looks like his body wants to reject any food but he doesn't regurgitate. And this morning I caught him opening his mouth and shaking his head strangely (not basking), but he hasn't been fed since last night. I've caught him basking once in almost a week, and it was under his UVB. Any thoughts? Am I fighting a losing battle? MBD? This is my first beardie, but not my first reptile and I've never had an issue like this.

Hi there, sorry you got such a sick baby. I know it tugged at your heart and you're a truly kind person for caring about this baby. There's no way to tell what the main problem is, and there are going to be numerous problems. MBD may come in to play but it can have other issues. Being emaciated also means it was dehydrated and could be near organ failure. It probably had no uvb and so had no proper calcium intake which is essential for all body functions, including neurological. Be VERY careful of forcing any insects in him, just use the very smallest, they need to be smaller than the space in between his eyes. The open mouth + shaking the head is almost always when they vomit, they sling their head from side to side. Be sure not to feed him at night. Offer the slurries with a bit of extra water and a pinch of calcium powder.


Can you post a few pics of him, his set up, his lights and also the size of the cricket [ put one near him in the picture ] Here's how to post pics :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them