What do I do now?

[nikipop]

Ok. So this is a long story for such a short period of time so please bear with me... We got our bearded dragon from petsmart on the 24th of OCTfor a bday present for my son. We started out with the following items by the stores recommendations as I have never owned a lizard before I thought they know what they were talking about...
20l tank
Repricarpet
75 watt red night bulb for night heat
Water dish
Reptiglo compact light for heat and UVB
Rocks for basking on
Temp stickers

I was home and setting up tank not one hour later before I realized I had the wrong UVB light and mad so I turned around and went back and got basking bulb as well. The next day I realized what a hassle it was having 3 lights on top of such a small tank with one of them having to be a deep done and went back to the store and got a powersun 100watt mvb instead. I quickly realized the stick thermometers weren't working so I went to petco and got a digital thermometer. So now my setup was as such.
Repricarpet
75 watt red night bulb for night heat
Water dish
Powersun mvb 100watt 115-120 temps
20l
Digital thermometer
I think that all is well at this point. He seems to be eating good and I am throwing 5-8 crickets in morning and night he is trying squash and kale and carrots and endive right from my finger too. So I start looking at forums on The 28th and see that I should put the probe in the basking spot so I run to do that and leave it there and I watch the temp go up and up and up. It went up to 120. I freaked out. So all day I went out and exchanged all of my lighting to this...
75 watt black incadescent bulb for night heat
Water dish
Zilla 50 desert UVB
75 watt basking bulb. - 99-103 temps

He seemed fine the next day but since Sunday he has been eating less and less. He was laying on his rock only and not moving much at all by yesterday and keeping his eyes closed mostly. I scoured the forums for what might be the issue and found it might be the zilla back to the store I went yesterday. Bought the reptisun 10 installed it inside the tank with industrial strength Velcro and he perked up today. Had his eyes open. He still only ate 2 meal worms. I tried crickets first but he wasnt interested. One bit him actually. After he still wouldn't eat I went and got a 100w bulb again so now the final official is
20 l tank
Paper towels substrate ( humidity showing up to 50 so removed carpet) now 35
Basking rocks
100 w basking lamp
Reptisun 10
75w black incandescent night heat lamp
Food dish (no water dish)

My question is how in the world can I get him to eat? He has noticably lost weight. I have offered crickets,mealworms, kale, endive ,butternut squash.., zucchini , carrot ... I am worried he is about 5 1/2 inches from head to tail and I have bathed him 2 times so far. He will sit in my hand inside the tank and I only take him out to bathe him right now to reduce the chance of stress. Oh and 2 sides of tank are covered. Any suggestions would be appreciated because I am out of ideas.
Digital thermometer

 

[Ferociouscorpion]

I did the same thing. It took about 4 trips to home depot to find the light bulb that got me the correct temperature. It seems like your setup is perfect. If your beardie isn't lethargic and is active then you shouldn't really worry that much. When they are in a new environment they get stressed out and it usually takes 1-2 weeks or longer for them to settle in. They might not eat much within that period of time also. I know it took my beardie a bit over 2 weeks to finally settle in and chow down and when they do your wallet will be wishing they didn't eat so much :mrgreen: . But yea like I said if its active and seems healthy you shouldn't be worried. Also don't feed babies mealworms because they have hard shells and hard to digest so it might lead to impaction. They are also low in nutritional value. Hopefully that helps, enjoy your beardie.

 

[stangbanger]

your setup seems good but i have a few concerns

you say 99-103 in the basking spot which is good....what temp on the cool side? ideally you want about 80ish degrees on that side

the other thing - ditch the night time bulb...beardies see infrared and black light bulbs - having that light on will disturb its sleep and could affect its overall health during the day time....they like to cool down to sleep, around 70 is perfect for them to get a good night sleep, but as long as your ambient room temps do not drop below low 60s, you dont need anything on at night

if for some reason your temps in the room drop lower than 60, you can get a low wattage ceramic heat emitter and run it at night instead of the night bulbs you are using - but again, they sleep better when cool so no need to add the CHE if your room temps are above 60

also - i would cover all sides of the tank except the front viewing area....my new little one got so stressed out from her reflection that she was at one point trying to run away from it, and then stopping to arm wave and then running....she was even afraid to eat her greens, she would take a quick bite then run away, then arm wave a bit and run back and get another bite then retreat again...now theres paper up and shes still getting used to it, but not more acting crazy...her reflection in the front doesnt bother her too much - she basks facing away from it lol


other than that - i would not worry about it....just keep feeding it and leaving it alone except for tank maintenance...after a couple weeks it should perk up some as it gets used to its environment

oh, and as said above...ditch the mealworms...and live feeders no bigger than the space between their eyes

 

[nikipop]

ok so... temps on cools side range around 70 to 75 in the day and 60 to 65 at night. Today he is back to being sleepy on the rock. I tried crickets and he wasnt interested so i tried baby food and he wasnt interested. I gave him a bath and he slept in the bath attached to my finger but didnt seem to mind it. He went back to sleeping on his rock. His temps are moving on his basking spot from 113 to 108 this morning and when he pooped this morning it was runny and greyish brown with mostly liquid this is the first time that happened. Yesterday it was white at one end and black at the other. temps on the basking spot last night were 80 and the reason i have heat in there at night is becuase our house can get to 58 at night. we have the heater set to kick on at 58 but for the most part we just bundle up in the winter and sweat it out in the summer. we have a pretty big house and 2 central heating systems to run both sides of the house so we try not to run them. I only gave meal worms after i had tried everything else each time and we only have crickets and meal worms available here for someone his size... any other suggestions?

 

[stangbanger]

my only suggestion is to keep up with keeping the heat proper - it all sounds fine....but you should really get rid of that night light...get a ceramic heat emitter - if your beardie cannot sleep well at night its going to be tired during the day

also consider that its only been 2 weeks, and he has undergone several light and heat changes etc....my best advice is just leave him be and keep the temps right...dont handle him more than necessary, keep feeding him his greens (or at least making them available - some small ones dont eat many), and keep offering crickets....if you want to try worms - order some phoenix worms, those are the healthiest ...until they arrive, maybe try some silk worms....overall the only worms i like better than crickets are phoenix

but lose the night light and give him a little longer to get adjusted before worrying too much


might want to also make a trip to the vet and have a fecal examination done to check for parasites (my vet charged me $35 for this and it took 20 minutes) - always a good idea with a new pet - especially one from a pet store....those people do NOT take care of their animals, its like pet prison

 

[stangbanger]

also - walmart, sporting goods stores, and fishing bait places are all good places to find different types of worms...if you have a walmart by you, in the fishing section by the poles and tackle etc there should be a mini fridge filled with worms...see if they have silk worms....silk worms and phoenix worms are the only kind that should be fed as staples if your beardie wont eat the crickets...phoenix being preferred...once its older and larger you can switch to roaches