I just wanted to say that I understand your confusion, totally, I really do. I typed out my replies above very quickly and strictly in an "informative" way because I'm concerned about your dragon as well, and I want to make sure that you are armed with all of the proper and correct husbandry information you need to have first, so if my posts seem a little "technical", that's why. Just the facts in those posts as I got out all of the serious husbandry issues you've got going on, now I can be a little more emotional here, as every active and senior member of this forum has much passion for Bearded Dragons, and most of us have owned them as pets, or parts of our families, for many, many years, decades in a lot of cases. I myself have owned Dragons for over 15 years, I currently have 4, 2 of my own that I originally got as month old babies, and then 1 rescue I got at 8 months old with severe MBD and a mealworm shell and bark substrate impaction that was causing partial paralysis in his back legs, as a result from a lot of the mistakes you have going on, and then I just adopted another male 2 weeks ago yesterday, who was found dumped outside in the Pennsylvania snow at the end of January and brought to a local pet shop who contacted me about taking him. Prior to owning Dragons I had a Green Iguana that I got as a baby when I was 10 years old and raised him and had him until I was 21 years old, when my mom said she would no longer care for him in my bedroom at home while I was in college, so I had to rehome him.
I have also worked at a Reptile and Bird Rescue for many years (volunteered rather), and I can honestly and truly tell you that 90% or more of the Bearded Dragons that are surrendered to the Rescue come in with a severe calcium deficiency that is not usually due to no
UVB light, but either an inadequate
UVB light like a compact or coil light, or having a T8 UVB tube mounted incorrectly, obstructed, and too far away, and then also not ever replaced often enough. Also, most all lizards in general that come in have digestion and bowel problems that are due to #1) Loose Substrates in pretty much every single Bearded Dragon that comes in, along with mealworm shells, and then #2) Improper temperature zones that make digestion impossible for them...
I can honestly tell you that nothing makes me more angry than seeing a sick Dragon due to Crushed Walnut Shells or Calcium Sand, because it's so unnecessary and just so pointless. We've actually had people come here for help because their dragon's are very, very sick, not eating, lethargic, bloated, or they have a horrible Upper Respiratory Infection or Skin/Scale Infection, and they are desperate for help, but when we tell them that it's due to the Crushed Walnut Shells or the Calcium Sand and they need to dump it all out immediately and disinfect the tank , then put down paper towels and use only a solid substrate, a lot of these people absolutely refuse to remove the loose substrates. Why? Because they say "I happen to like the way it looks in the tank" or they say "They come from the desert, of course they can live on sand", and they have no idea what the Australian Desert is like at all. They totally ignore our advise, and then their dragon dies. Crushed Walnut Shells are a huge problem because every little piece of that garbage has razor-sharp edges and corners, and if you looked inside your dragon's GI Tract right now you would see pieces of the stuff all through it. So obviously that stuff often causes internal bleeding in the intestinal tract and the stomach, and when these dragons are opened up during a necropsy they are absolutely FULL of the stuff. And the calcium sand literally turns into hard, cement-like rocks as soon as it gets wet, which don't cause internal bleeding, but rather bowel obstructions that they can't pass, and sometimes actually prolapse themselves while trying to pass it. Then there is the Bearded Dragon's propensity for acquiring Upper Respiratory Infections, Skin/Scale Infections, and Eye Infections and Irritations, and ALL loose substrates are breeding grounds that harbor all types of bacteria, fungi, parasites, you name it. Yellow Fungus is usually spread through a loose substrate. It's just an unnecessary risk that shouldn't be taken. And for no other reason than you're forcing them to live on something that is totally unnatural to them.
As far as the bright-white basking light goes, that should make sense to you, natural sunlight over a desert reptile requires just a few specific things: Bright-White colored light, heat,
UVB light, and UVA light, that's about it. That's why "basking" is a function of light, not heat. You "Bask in or under light"...Without any light at all and simply using a CHE to emit heat, you are literally taking away their ability to bask. And colored bulbs over a reptile that needs natural sunlight to support all it's bodily functions and literally just to live just doesn't make sense. They see in full-color...imagine living all day long, every day with red or blue or green light around you constantly, masking the natural color of everything around you, so you have no idea if it's night or day, you have no idea what insects crawling around are, or what greens and veggies are, because all you can see is that everything is red or blue. And to-boot you're a desert reptile that is literally built to live under bright-white, natural sunlight all day long.
I'm not trying to "bash" your local Reptile Store, but I also will not endorse them at all based on the horrible information that they have given you so far about
Bearded Dragon care. Maybe they are extremely knowledgeable about Tropical Reptiles, that isn't uncommon at all, as Bearded Dragons do require very specific light, temperature, and environmental husbandry that is totally opposite that of any Tropical Reptiles, and a lot of other desert reptiles. That being said, no desert reptile should be under a CHE instead of a Basking Bulb during the day, nor should they be under a red basking bulb, that's common sense. I just don't want you to think that an independently owned Reptile Shop must know what they are talking about, because they don't, no more than independent Bearded Dragon Breeders all know what they're doing. They only know how to put 2 adult Dragons together to mate (not necessarily healthy adults either), and they sell the babies at around a month old, so they really don't need to know much. We have many, many people come on this forum who have purchased baby dragons from very well-known, online Breeders that you would probably recognize by name, some of them spending hundreds or even over a thousand dollars for some exotic morph or color of baby. And when their very expensive baby arrives it has tail nips and is missing toenails or complete toes because the breeder kept the siblings together too long (and different sized babies together to save space and money on lighting), the baby arrives sickly because it has never had proper
UVB light, it's impacted due to living in improper temperatures or on sand or crushed walnut shells, and then the really awful cases arrive with Yellow Fungus or Adenovirus because these well-known, reputably breeders do not practice basic disinfecting/cleaning and do not know anything about basic Dragon husbandry or diets. It's awful.
Quick story, that local pet shop that I told you called me when someone dropped-off the male dragon that was found laying in a cemetery in central PA in the middle of a winter snow storm, well this pet shop is in my hometown and has been there since 1992, it's owned and run by a husband/wife, the husband is a genius when it comes to aquarium fish, both saltwater and freshwater set-ups, and his wife has been breeding and hand-raising parrots since she was a little girl. Those were always their things from the time they first opened when I was 13, he did aquariums and she did birds. Well I guess around 10 years she decided to stop breeding birds, so he decided to add reptiles to what he breeds, along with the fish, so the store has turned into an aquarium and reptile specialty store. Just an FYI here so you know I'm not against this couple, the wife is actually my second cousin, my dad's first cousin, and they are both awesome people. However, as far as his background in reptiles, it's pretty much all in snakes. So if you go into their shop at any given time, he's got probably between 25-30 snakes, most very young, that he breeds himself at home, and he really knows his stuff when it comes to snakes, and also with turtles and tortoise...However, he has tried to add lizards to the mix, and he started with breeding leopard geckos because he thought they'd be easy, he did this for a while, then decided to stick to snakes. So any lizards they have come from vendors he orders them from. Well, when I went in there 2 Sundays ago after he called me, and saw 2 adult Bearded Dragons, one was surrendered/sold to them by someone who could no longer care for her, and the other was the guy found in a cemetery that I rescued, he had them both on reptile bark, with Reptisun Coil UVB bulbs sitting on top of mesh lids and at least 10-12" away from the dragons. They were horrible set-ups and the poor things were getting absolutely no
UVB light, no thermometers at all, just a compact basking bulb over the opposite side of the tank from the coil
UVB bulb, etc. So I went over the husbandry issues with him and he got the dragon that I didn't bring home with me on one of the racks he has with T5 UVB tubes installed on the bottoms of the shelves above the tanks, and got him on paper towels, got the basking spots within the correct distance, got a Digital Probe Thermometer set-up and I got the lighting set-up properly over the Hot Side of the tank, and then gave him the daily diet and calcium and multivitamin dusting schedules...And when we were talking about the whole thing, about how he has owned a pet shop known for selling reptiles since 1992 but he has no idea of how to care for Bearded Dragons, his exact words to me were "Snakes are my thing, you know that. I don't know much at all about the different lizards...".