Beardy NOt Eating !

Question
QUESTION: Hi, i have aproblem with my bearded dragon, he has been fine for the first two months, he has ate a lot of black crickets, i started him off on small and upgraded a size and hes seemed to like them even more. he ate around 20-50 a day, depending on hoiw he felt, the least he has ever ate of black crickets is around 10, the max is 55. I have started to feed him a couple of locusts and brown crickets now,  a tad bigger than the bigger black crickets i have ffed him, he ate a few but not many, the firts day i got them, he ate around 5 locusts and he seemed to qolfd them down, he didnt give them chance to move, he was fast as lighting, not o much for the brown crickets though, he ate about three of them but not so fast. H edidnt eat much then but then he ate his salad which is colllards green an washed dandelions. He seemed to love all of the food he ate that day. The next day, i woke up and i went to school, come back home, he had done a rather large unpleasant suprise for me (poo) and my dad thinks that he has been sick, as the thing i seen felt hollow qwhen i picked it up nbut had a lot of legs in it, i started to get worried so i tried feeding him and he would not eat a thing, he ate one locust that i killed and left on his food dish, that was all, i thought he may have an upset tummy and leave it a day. The next day he still wouldn't eat anything but two crickets. He ate salad though. I have now stopped the salad thinking it may be a bit too much for him aswell as a bigger food size. Also, i have just been to the shop and changed him back to his small black crickets he loved before i changed and he doesnt seem interested at all, he looks away from them and continues to bask. He hasnt ate much now and i am getting really worried wiht him, he has lost a bit of weight and i wondered if you have heard of this before and could help? (P.S - he has just finished shedding about 2 days ago when i changed his food if this is any help to you, also, he is around 3 month old in 2 days bcoz the pet shop had their own babies, this is how i know his date of birth). Thank you

ANSWER: Hello Danny, so he is eating just not much? It sounds like he is having trouble digesting the food. Maybe a feeding schedule will help. Also with ANY of the food items you feed you will want it to be no bigger then the space between your beardie's eyes. Too big of food can cause him to get sick. So small food peices are very important. If he stops eating all together that is the time to get worried. Right now he is still trying to eat. Has he been defecating regularly? You will want to make sure he is not having trouble passing bowel movements. So small food items and a schedule seems like it would help.
First I have a few questions for you:
Do you have UV lighting?
Are you using a Sand like substrate?
What size tank is he in?

As for a shedule lets go with this
Sunday: Crickets (20 of them)
Monday: Salad (collared grees, dandelion greens, mustard greens etc.
Tuesday: Locusts (5)
Wednesday: Crickets (20)
Thursday: salad
Friday: Locusts
Saturday: Crickets (20)

Something like that. Is he still acting normal besides the eating part (basking, exploring, sleeping, etc.) Anything other then his eating habits changed?
Let me know the answer to the questions I asked and I can go from there on what might be wrong with him if anything at all. Good luck, I hope its nothing serious.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: o.k he ispooing very well. Sometimes twice daily,i give him a bowlofsalad each day and feedhim normally aorund 20crickets or so. I might go with the schedule. Thanks for that. I do have uv lighting yes, i have a reptiglow 10.0 for him and i have a baskinglight for him which he lovestobask inall day. I do have a sand substratealthough i feed him in a different place in a different tank seperate which has astroturf in it so he cannot digest anyhting but the cricketsand salad. The size tnk he is in is 4 foot by 1.5t width and 2 foot height, he has been acting a little strange but not much, io have a pale blue backghround on the back of hi tank and he seemsto try to walk into it sometimes, maybe bcoz he can seehim self bcoz it is glass. That is alltho.

Answer
I do not recommend using sand however if feeding in a separate container it should be ok as long as you are dusting the crickets. If not he might purposely eat the sand because it has natural calcium that he needs. So dusting the crickets will make sure he gets all the vitamins and nutrients that he needs. I don't see anything else wrong with your setup but it could just be he had a stomach ache type of problem. Is he still eating has his appetite picked up at all? The older the Bearded Dragon gets the less they will usually eat but he still seems young. Keep offering him food and always have fresh salad in the tank even if feeding crickets for that day (he gets his needed moisture from the greens) Here are a couple of sites for  you to look up and do some research. Good luck and let me know how it goes

http://www.beautifuldragons.com
http://www.anapsid.org/bearded.html