Bearded Dragon Wesson

Question
Hi! I have had my bearded dragon for about 2 months now. and lately has has been acting up. I'm not sure how old he is, but he's close to 8 inches long with his tail. Wesson, my beardie, will not eat his greens at all unless we feed them to him by hand, he has always been this way. Also, he will not drink his water out of his dish, and his dish is low enough for him to see the water inside and easily crawl into it. so we have to hand feed him his water as well. I'm assuming it's a he, i'm not sure of it's sex. He will go after crickets, but will only eat them when they crawl right in front of him. He used to be quite active, but now is pretty lethargic until we take him out of his tank, then he will crawl around a lot.   The set up we have is a 10 gallon tank, with a uva/uvb basking bulb, the temperature in his tank reaches about 95 degrees. He gets the dark stress marks often when I am around the tank, but other times he is nice and light. I also dust his crickets every day for feeding in calcium and vit d3.  

What can i do to help him not be stressed and to drink water and eat his greens? is my tank set up okay and is this normal for a beardie? I just really want him to be happy!  Thanks for your time!

Answer
Hello Donna,

Well, at 8 inches it will be practically impossible to determine the sex of your dragon.  You will have to give it a little more time.
Most of the time, they will not drink out of a water dish as they do not recognize standing water.  Do you have a screen top?  If so, you can place an ice cube over the water dish so that when it starts to melt it will drip into the water dish to stimulate movement.  Sometimes, that works, & sometimes it doesn't.  You can also try to dropper train him with a plastic dropper.  A lot will drink right from a dropper, plus, you can bond with him that way as well.

You will need to get a larger tank, as a 10 gallon is really too small to had adequate control over the temperatures.  A good size is a 30-40 gallon for younger dragons & for an adult you will need at least a 90 gallon or larger for comfort.  
What type of thermometer are you using to measure the temperatures with?  A round stick on type, a digital probe or a temp gun?  He needs a basking spot of around 95-110 range, with a cooler end of around 78-82.  The ambient temperatures should not exceed 85 or he can get overheated.  


What type of basking light are you using, is it a bright white basking light or a colored light?  Which brand of UVB are you using, a fluorescent tube bulb or a compact/coil light?
This is important because there are some really bad UVB lights.  
Eventually, as he gets older, he should be eating more greens.  The calcium should be used once daily, 5 times per week, as well.  

Let me know the brand & type of UVB light you are using, thanks!

Tracie