New bearded not eatting

[kettman]

I have had adults Bearded Dragons, but never babies. I did just get a new baby bearded. At the pet store he did eat alot, but it seems that he is not eating as much when I got him home.
I thought that is could have been with the new place and my dog watching him all of the time. So I flip the tank, so the dog would not be able to see him.
At the pet store they had the green carpet in the tank, and I have the Zoo med sand. I believe that it is easy to clean with the sand. Should I remove the sand, since he is not used to it? I had notice when he eats he does get some sand in his month, but it's the sand that is okay for him to eat. He is not even eating the greens.
He also had a tank mate at the pet store
Please help, I am getting worried about him

 

[healthybeardie]

Yes, get rid of the sand! The sand heightens potential for parasites/bacteria and can cause impaction if eaten. Contrary to what pet stores or the "sand marketing people" say, sand of any kind is dangerous and should not be eaten!

This is a great site and if you do a google search, you can get a great deal of up-to-date and accurate information from experienced bearded dragon owners. Better substrate options would be paper towels, newspaper, nonadhesive shelf liner or slate tiles (good for keeping nails trimmed too!)

In order to figure out if there is another problem, can you go over what your viv set up is?

E.g.
How old is your beardie?
What do you feed him?
What type of lighting? Heat light and UVB light?
Temperatures, thermostat types?
Size of viv?
Viv furniture (hiding rocks, caves, etc)
Are all lights turned off at night?

This will help us to hopefully help your new beardie.

 

[RolandKyramere]

Not too surprising that he was eating well at the store and isn't eating at home. How many days has it been since you brought him home? Relocation stress can highly impact a beardie's eating habits. I would also ditch the sand, I used it for a while and on top of all of the other reasons, its really messy, a big pain to clean up, and stinks to high heaven after a while of use.

 

[Ellisfamily]

I purchased mine at a petstore to and had the same thing happen. After a few days of being in his new place he started eating like a pig. I think it was about the 4th day having him here he started eating 30 crickets. I'm sure you know since you have other bearded dragons, but make sure you aren't giving him crickets that are to big. I was told at the pet store to feed my tiny 6in guy large crickets!