He looks nice and big, but I'm assuming that most of his digestive issues are diet related, mostly due to the superworms. Superworms are kind of a controversial topic right now, a lot of people are starting to feed them as their beardie's main protein staple because they are easy to find and if you buy them in bulk online or from a local breeder that delivers to your house, they are very cheap, and also very filling. The problem is that #1) Superworms have a pretty high fat content in comparison to their protein, fibre, and vitamin/mineral content, and I'm afraid superworms are one of the main reasons for all these beardies recently developing fatty liver disease...#2) Superworms are giving your beardie an awful lot of hard shells, which we know can cause all kinds of digestive problems, especially if your temperature zones/gradient is off. The other issue.is that once a beardie has superworms they want no other bugs and refuse the healthy, high protein, low fat bugs like crickets, roaches, BSFL, etc. So people keep feeding them superworms even if they do try to change them to something else, because their beardies refuse the other bugs. The key to changing them over to a healthy feeder like gut-loaded crickets or roaches is to just completely stop feeding the superworms, give them their fresh greens/veggies every day and offer them the healthy live bugs every day, twice a day, even if they refuse them. And if they refuse them then just leave the fresh salad in for them and try offering the healthy bugs again later, then the next day, and so on. They will not starve themselves I promise, in fact most won't lose a gram by not eating any live bugs for a week. That's usually how long it takes, about a week of no superworms at all and daily offerings of the healthy bugs. They soon realized that they're not getting anymore Big Macs and they're going to have to eat the Skinless Chicken Breast instead, lol. But the owner has to be strong and get rid of the superworms, and not give in and offer them at all to their beardie while they're on their little hunger strike. And no other fatty "treat" bugs during this time either, like wax worms, butterworms, etc.
I'd also try to get your temperature zones/gradient tightened up a bit...Are you using stick-on thermometers, like the round ones that come in reptile kits? If so, please try to get a proper digital thermometer with a probe on a wire, they sell them at both Petco and PetSmart for $10, and they're not only extremely accurate, but you can actually take an accurate Basking Spot temperature by putting the probe right where your beardie sits to bask! Those cheap, stick-on thermometers are very, very inaccurate, most are off by 20 degrees or more, meaning you really have no idea what your temperatures are, and in addition, you cannot measure the temperature on his basking spot with one at all. So the $10 digital probe thermometer is a very inexpensive purchase that is one of the most important items you will ever buy for your beardie...
You should have 3 distinct temperatures that you check once a week to make sure they are within the correct temperature ranges, so that #1) Your beardie can properly digest his food and absorb nutrients from his food, #2) He has an area to go to at all times that is considerably cooler than his basking spot or the ambient temperature on the Hot Side of the enclosure, and #3) So that you know you're not literally "cooking" your beardie from the inside out, causing heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Those stick-on, round, guage thermometers can read 90 degrees on the Hot Side when the ambient Hot Side temperature is actually 110...Not only is this way too hot for his Hot Side Ambient temperature, but imagine how hot his basking spot is!!! So getting a proper probe thermometer and checking his enclosure temperature gradient weekly is essential to his all-around health, growth, and development.
Once you get the digital probe thermometer, make sure you've got your UVB tube right alongside the bright white basking bulb, and both are directly over his basking spot on the Hot Side of the enclosure. Put the probe on the basking spot (AFTER HIS LIGHTS HAVE BEEN ON FOR AT LEAST A COUPLE OF HOURS THAT DAY) and allow it to sit there for at least 20-30 minutes, then read his Basking Spot temperature. Then move the probe to the floor on the Hot Side, let the probe sit for 20-30 minutes, and then read the temperature. Then move the probe to the opposite Cool Side floor, let it sit for 20-30 minutes, then read the temperature. Record the temps and then you can raise or lower the basking bulb or possibly even change the wattage of the basking bulb accordingly, based on what the temps actually are...
BASKING SPOT: Should be between 98-103 degrees for a sub-adult to an adult, and for a baby to a juvenile between 105-110 degrees. 110 degrees is the absolute maximum temperature inside his enclosure.
HOT SIDE AMBIENT: Should be between 88-93 degrees, rather than "matching the basking spot temperature", as I've seen some people say recently. I think this reasoning is actually due to people using stick-on thermometers and they can't measure the basking spot temperature, so they just look at what the stick-on thermometer on the wall of the Hot Side says, and they use that as their basking spot temperature. Obviously the basking spot, which is much closer to the lights and directly under the lights is going to be considerably hotter than the surrounding Hot Side Ambient temperature, as it should be. This is a main reason for needing the digital probe thermometer. The basking spot is where your beardie goes after eating to digest his food and get both his
UVB light, UVA light, and his heat, so it better be the correct temperature.
COOL SIDE AMBIENT: Should be between 75-80 degrees MAXIMUM!!! He should always have an area to go to that is considerably cooler than the Hot Side or Basking Spot. So if the Hot Side Ambient is between 88-93, his Cool Side Ambient, where he goes to be much cooler, better be at most 80 degrees.
NIGHTTIME: This is a tough one for people to understand, mainly because there are so many "Night Bulbs" for sale for bearded dragons. They are all completely unnecessary, disruptive to their sleep, and people waste millions of dollars each year on tons of unnecessary bulbs, thinking they are doing something good for their beardies, when in fact they're actually hurting them. Bearded dragons come from the Australian desert, which is very hot during the day, and much, much cooler at night. It's also very dark at night in the desert, pitch black in fact. So just like you're trying to replicate natural sunlight and desert temperatures with his daytime lighting, you want to replicate the much cooler desert temperature at night for your beardie as well. Most people need absolutely no nighttime heat source at all because most homes are kept at 60 degrees or higher at night. Your beardie's enclosure is going to naturally be a bit warmer than your house temperature, so as long as you keep your house at 60 degrees or above at nighttime (if you don't your house is freezing at night), your beardie's enclosure will stay at 65 degrees or above at night, which means he needs no nighttime heat source. He is actually extremely comfortable at 65 degrees as a nighttime enclosure temperature. If for some reason you quite literally freeze yourself at night, keeping your house temperature below 60 degrees constantly, you still do not want to use ANY type of bulb that emits light at night...Not a red bulb, not a purple bulb or a black bulb, not a "Moonlight" bulb that looks purple, no blacklights, no light at all. Your beardie sees in full color just like we do, so he needs it to be pitch black at night...Think about it, would you want your entire bedroom filled with a glowing red or purple light all night while you're trying to sleep? Nope, and neither does your beardie...If your house is kept consistently below 60 degrees at night and this causes your beardie's enclosure to drop below 65 degrees at night (again, this is going to be a very rare situation), then instead of a night bulb that emits any type or color of light, you need to buy a VERY LOW WATTAGE Ceramic Heat Emitter (CHE), which screws into a regular lightbulb fixture but emits no light at all, it just puts out heat. Now again, your beardie likes his nighttime temperature to drop considerably cooler than his daytime temperatures, and needs no heat source at night at all if his enclosure is at 65 degrees or above...So if his tank drops to 55 or 60 degrees, you're only trying to bump the nighttime temperature inside his enclosure up by very little, usually only 5-10 degrees. So the CHE you buy only needs to emit a very small amount of heat. I see people with 50 or 75 watt CHE's and they are putting their dragon's nighttime temperature hotter than their daytime Cool Side temperatures are! So try only the lowest CHE wattage available, you really don't need much...BUT AS I'VE ALREADY SAID, 99% OF PEOPLE NEED ABSOLUTELY NO NIGHTTIME HEAT SOURCE AT ALL!
