I think there's something wrong with my beardie

Hi, I'm new to this and owning a bearded dragon.

I have a 6 month year old rankin's bearded dragon, he's been fine up until recently. I have been feeding him 4 crickets in the morning, kale in the afternoon and 4 more crickets in the evening. When I first got him I fed him different greens, which I can't remember what it was, but he seemed to not want to eat it anymore after a while, so I moved him onto kale. I fear that this was a mistake as I have recently read that it shouldn't be given as a daily veggie source and am freaking out. He hasn't shed in a while and is always going into his cave now. I've tried to feed him a bunch of different things recently to see what he likes such as watercress, red bell peppers, green beans, broccoli, rocket leaves, nothing has worked.

Around the same time of starting to feed him kale I also I got him all new things for his viv and changed things around, I feared he may be stressed by the change, but that was weeks ago at this point so I don't know if that could be linked to his new behaviour.

What should I do? I'm so worried and fear I may need to take him to the vet

Hi there, sorry that you got scared by the myth about kale. It's been mistakenly thought of as being high in oxaIates by some people + this incorrect info has spread for years and is hard to stamp out. So no, kale is not bad but is an excellent choice for beardies. Your baby also needs more insects per day, about twice the amount he's getting now if possible [ when he gets his appetite back ] I think the problem is more likely to be with the lighting you have. Can you list the exact type + brand lights [ especially the uvb ] because some bulbs are not good and a dragon may not show ill effects until a month or more down the road.

Pics would be very helpful too, here's how to post :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them