Bearded dragon hides all the time, dont know what else to do

So we've had spyro for around 6 months now, she's about 8 months old. Initally, she was in a 4ft vivarium from pets at home and she never seemed happy, always dark with stress lines. We changed the substrate from sand to repti carpet but her behaviour didnt change, so we altered the temperatures, first making it hotter, then making it cooler, we changed the uv light to 10. Reptisun and still she was unhappy. Although she was dark with stress lines she ate fine (around 20-30 locusts a day) and pooped every day. Regardless, we took her to the vet to check for parasites which came back negative.

We decided to buy her a bigger, better viv thinking it would improve her mood but, if anything, its made matters worse. Shes been in the new viv for a month now and all she does is hide in her log, she refused to eat for 2 weeks and didnt poo so we went back to the vets who put it down to relocation stress. We decided to try roaches and while she will eat them, she doesnt eat too many (averaging around 8 a day). Originally we had 2x 60 watt bulbs but the temperature was waaay to high (132f) so we are currently using 1 60watt bulb with the basking temperature at 105, ambient is around 85. We tried taking the log out but she went very very black and didnt move so we gave up and put it back in.

Im at a loss, I dont know what else to do. I feel like we've tried everything and its growing increasingly frustrating each day. Im hoping someone may have experienced this before and could provide some advice, ANY advice to finally make Spyro happy.

Your temps are good. In a large tank like that are you using a T5 UVB tube? If you can provide some photos it may be helpful. You can upload photos here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button when you reply.

If you take her out of the tank does she become more active? Has she been outside in natural sunlight?

Yeah its a t5 tube with a reflector. We have a stick on temperature dial in the viv but also using a temperature gun. She is much brighter when she is out of the cage but lately seems a bit sluggish.

We have taken her outside in natural sunlight, but is very skittish, she mostly just looks up at the sky (which we expected).

We havent used repti carpet in the new viv as the viv came with a bag of wood chips (the only time she moves is to dig which she seems to like).

That looks like a pretty nice setup to me. What are the temps on top of that branch under the basking light? Is that where it's 105? I'm not crazy about the wood chips, but I don't think it's causing an issue here. It looks like there are shade zones, basking areas, and places to hide. Perhaps try some different configurations of the furniture and see how she responds to that. Hopefully others will have some thoughts on this one but it looks like a good setup to me.

The 105 is directly under his basking spot. Since taking that photo, we have cut down the large log as we thought it was a bit close to the basking light and we've also wrapped vines around the log to make it easier to climb.

Maybe she just doesnt like being in her viv.

Officially stumped.

3982oldf":24i8l0ra said:

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Please get rid of the substrate .... it's an impaction hazard. NO PARTICULATES , chips, seeds, gravel, coco fibre , shells , all very dangerous to a tasty feely lizard like a bearded dragon.

Exactly what is the T5 tube .
Brand ?
%UVB ?
Distance to basking sport ?

If you have a safe area in the house you could try setting up a basking light on a clamp lamp or hanging from a stand somewhere in the room and let her roam freely and see if she prefers that and returns to the lamp to warm up. If she didn't like it in her tank though, she'd more likely glass surf and be actively trying to get out based on what I've seen. Worth a try to see how she responds I think.