New Juvie Beardie Mom...Lots of questions please help

[jware2019]

Hello! I got a new bearded dragon about 3 weeks ago as a gift. He is a juvie but I do not know how old. He was gotten from petsmart and is called a "Fancy Bearded Dragon" I have a lot of questions, I just want to make sure I am doing everything the best way that I can. This is my first time asking a question on here.

1. My little guy only wants to eat live food. He won't look at any premade bearded dragon food or any vegetables. What do I do to get him to eat some?
2. My pet store does not sell live crickets. Are dead/freezedried ones okay with addition of live mealworms?
3. I bought of of those 20gal Bearded dragon Kits that zoo med sells so right now he is under a 100watt basking light for the day, a red light for night, and a UVB light for during the day is that okay lighting?
4. He will only poop in the bath. He won't go inside his tank!? What do I do for that.
5. Today I walked over to him and saw that his beard was black while he was basking and I don't know what that means? IS he cold? To hot?
6. Are his eyes sunken in? Ive heard people saying that that is bad but I truly don't know what that means? I want to attach a picture but I don't know how.

These are all the questions that I have for now and I know it is kind of a lot but any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

To post pictures go to here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ upload a pic of him, his lights, his setup, his supplements, food everything.

The red light can cause problems, eye irritation, messes up the sleep cycle, they basically cant sleep very well with a bright red bulb shining into their eyes at night. They can see all the colors we can so having that red light will effect their sleep. Take it back to the store for a refund or a CHE (ceramic heat emitter). You dont need night heat unless temps drop below 65.

Honestly this is entirely normal if he only wants to eat live food, especially at his age. Depending on how long he is i may be able to somewhat pinpoint his age in months. In fact the premade bearded dragon food is almost entirely useless except when you run out of food completely for a short amount of time.
For veggies/greens/fruits at around this age its lucky if you even have a beardie that likes them, luckily i have two beardies that enjoy eating their greens on a regular basis, though my third beardie only accepts fruit which should only be given once or twice a week so i have to trick her into eating greens most of the time even though shes a grown adult.
Things like collard greens, turnip greens and mustard greens can be given everyday, carrots can be given occasionally and fruits like blue berries, bananas, red raspberries, once or twice a week. http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html for more info. Also stay away from spinach and kale.

Its better he has all live food instead of freeze dried crickets, which are entirely pointless as they are just mostly the exoskeleton with little to no nutrition. Staple feeders are crickets, roaches (turkish roaches or dubia roaches are the common ones), silkworms, or calciworms just to name a few.
Treat feeders would be mealworms, superworms, hornworms, waxworms, and butterworms. This is because of the high fat in most of them other than the hornworms. Hornworms have a low fat content but a very high water content meaning the more your beardie has the more likely the next poop will be very watery. I recommend only giving a 2-4 max amount of hornworms, superworms, butterworms, and waxworms per feeding. And these are mostly for adult or sub adult beardies other than maybe the waxworm or hornworms. Preferably only twice a week for treat feeders, or once a week. With the mealworms you can give up to 5-10 for a juvenile, meaning 6+ months or so. With it being only that many per day.

The three temperature zones should be this
basking spot 100-110 (no more than 110 or 115)
warm side around 90-95.
cool side around 70-85.

Usually a black beard means pain or stress.

Also "fancy bearded dragon" is just the term they use as petstores have 0 idea of what actual morph they are and half the time its not even a morph and just a nice colored beardie which you pay extra for even though its just a regular beardie with high coloring. Which may or may not effect the price tag depending on the quality of coloration of said beardie.

 

[JessPets]

Hello, and welcome to the wonderful world of beardies! Unfortunately, pet stores aren't know for their great reptile care or advice, and much of your setup will have to be changed. The twenty gallon tank won't last you long, as they need a 4x2x2 as adults.

Almost all of a baby beardies diet is live food. This is VERY important, and should not be susbstituted with pre-made pellets, freeze dried insects, or anything else. Mealworms are not a good feeder, and should be stopped immediately. Better bugs like crickets, dubia roaches (not nearly as bad as they sound , black solider fly larvae (they just look like little worms), or silkworms, can easily be purchased online in bulk (and yes, you will need 1,000s of them). Feed your beardies 3x a day, with as much as he can eat in 10-15 minutes.

The basking light can stay, but you are going to need a dimmer (easily purchased on amazon for $12), and a thermometer to make sure it is the right temp (105f-110f).

What is the UV light like? It must be a ReptiSun t5 10.0. Anything else has got to go.

Pooping in the bath can be seen as a plus as well, as its easier to dump out than trying to clean out the tank.

As far as the black beard go, he is most likely stressed, probably due to the inadequate setup.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask us, and we'll do out best to answer them!

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, pics would be very helpful as the other poster mentioned . Here is the info again for posting pics :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them

Also, did he eat some of the freeze dried crickets and mealworms ? If so and he's a little guy that may be why his beard is black and eyes look sunken in. Hopefully he won't vomit, some babies do after eating the hard dried bugs and/or too many mealworms. Offer some water dripped on his snout or baby food squash in case he's having trouble digesting what he ate.

A " fancy " is often just a high colored dragon as was mentioned or possibly a leatherback or hypo.

 

[jware2019]

Okay Thanks so much! Here are some pictures.

How should I go about feeding him crickets. I think I am scared to handle them in fear they will jump out and get all around my room? Any tips?