My new 16 week old Beardie

Hello, so I have recently got myself a baby bearded dragon, he/she is about 16 weeks. I have had him/her for about 3 days now. He does have black stress lines under his chin and belly although I've read this is normal for when rehoming a beardy and that if it last up to two weeks I should take him to the vet. Although for the most part he does seem to just enjoy lounging on his rock under the heat lamp. My issue seems to be eating though, he simply will not eat crickets, I even have caught one and held it infront of him thinking maybe he just isn't good at catching them, no luck. He does like meal worms but when I feed him those he only eats about 2-3 and than he just won't eat anymore. I left some apple, dark greened lettuce and some pepper in his food dish since the first day I got him and he hasn't touched it. I changed it today because it had been sitting in there a few days now. His hot side temp reads 87-91 and his cool side reads 77. I have read the temp needs to be higher, I have placed something on the top of the mesh to help hold the heat in better which has seemed to work although any ideas on how I can get his temp up to 99? Also any ideas on why he might not be eating much? and he hasn't pooped!

Most likely relocation stress, bad temps and possibly bad uvb.

Also stress marks is quite a misleading name and most new owners get mislead by the name sadly. It actually most of the time is just their markings, some beardies have it all the time, some dont. Most of the time they use it to try and warm up more. I have two beardies that have never ever had "stress marks", and then one beardie that has had them her entire life.

What size tank is he currently in?
What type of heat lamp do you currently use?
What UVB do you currently have?
How big is he, head to tail?
How much does he weigh in grams?
What supplements are you currently using?
What substrate do you have?
What brand of UVB do you have as well?

Also stop with the mealworms as they are one of the worst feeders for a young growing beardie. Once hes around 6+ months he can have around 5-10 a day as a treat or every other day.

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Upload a pic of him, the tank, lights and supplements.
To post them here just hit the XIMG tab at the top when replying and you should be able to select the pictures.

15 Gallon
75W Zoo Med
10.0 UVB Zoo Med
About 9 inches
Don't know how much he weighs
Calcium +D3
Eco Carpet Zoo Med 100% made from Recycled Plastic Bottles

And will do, but he won't eat crickets and I can't get him to eat veggies either. I haven't tried fruit yet though.

What are the tank dimensions? 15 gallons may work for a very small beardie but the absolute minimum for a baby beardie is 20 gallons (30x12x12).

Usually a 75 watt would get it up there pretty high, are you using a stick on temperature gauge? If so then you'll need a temp gun or a digital temperature gauge with a probe to get the actual correct surface temps. You can get both on amazon.

Is your UVB light a compact/coil bulb or a tube light?
If its not a tube light you'll need a 22-34" Reptisun T5 10.0 UVB bulb and reflective fixture to give correct uvb. Compact/coils are too weak to provide correct uvb, which without correct uvb results in loss of appetite, no growth, stunted growth, MBD, and then death.


For his supplements you'll want two others, a calcium without d3 and a multivitamin without d3. I prefer Repti-cal for these however there is other good brands.
The reason I say without d3 is because beardies dont make much use of D3 thats given in a supplement, and if given too much in a supplement can result in a D3 overdose.

A proper dusting schedule of these supplements would most likely be this,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday calcium without d3 dusted on all insect feedings.
Thursday and Friday calcium with d3 dusted on all insect feedings.
Saturday and Sunday Multivitamins without d3 dusted on all insect feedings.
However every other week or once a month for the calcium with d3 may be better.

He'll be eating around 3 feedings of 10-20 insects a day until 4 or 5 months once his appetite comes back. Once hes 4 or 5 months he'll be eating 2 feedings of 10-20 insects up until around 12 months which then goes down to one feeding, and then around 20+ months every other day for insects. Same amount of insects per feed, that being 10-20.

At around this age they dont care for veggies or anything as its not as important to them as insects are. As they age they'll need to eat more veggies however (around 12+ months).

Thank you very much, you were super helpful and I’ve learned a few more things today. I will be online tomorrow after work buying all these important things. Also will look into a 20 gallon tank but maybe wait a bit before putting him into another new tank right away. I do worry it’Ll stress him more or maybe he’d actually be happier?

Also I am using a stick on temp gauge and I believe coil. I will look into all this tomorrow. can i order all of this on amazon?

Yes you can order this all off amazon, and actually if this was a regular compact bulb you could keep it on till the proper uvb bulb arrived however with coil ones your risking blindness so you may want to turn it off.

As for switching him over, I'd keep the decor inside near the same positions as you had it before and tape construction paper to the sides and back to make him feel more secure if you do.
It may stress him out a little bit more, but with the sides blocked out it should help somewhat reduce this.

However you may just be okay with a 15 gallon for now, you'd just have to make the switch to a 40+ gallon sooner with the smaller space it has.
I'd still block out 3 sides to help him feel more secure still.