Why is my bearded dragon not growing

Hello! I am new to the forums as far as posting, and havent been able to find the answers im looking for by just searching through the site so any help would be appreciated! Also sorry in advance that this is so long! I have a baby beardie that Ive had for a month now. Its actually from the store I work at and from our records he is now about 3 months old give or take a few weeks. He was active in the store and seemed to be eating fine, but since getting him home he hasnt been eating much at all. He is still alert and only slightly less active, but he barely eats and isnt growing at all. He and the rest that came with him were smaller than usual to begin with but didnt immediately show signs of illness. He was about the size of my thumb (not including his tail) when I got him and now a month later he is the same and he only weighs 7-8 grams!!! Hes so tiny, it scares me.

>>>> 7g to 8g is typical of a CBD who is maybe 4 - 6 weeks old. My mob at 2mnths old Peppa (F) 24.6g Toothless (M) 20.9g Puff (M) 23g Rex (F) 23g At 3 mnths old Peppa 60.6g Toothless 51.1g Puff 42.6g Rex 50.3g At 4 mnths old Peppa 119.3g Toothless 91.1g Puff 65.7g Rex 77.5g

I was hoping that taking him out of the store environment would help him grow since hed have much more room, no competition for food, and less stress from being dominated by others, but that hasnt been the case. He barely ate the first couple weeks home and i figured it was due to relocation stress but as its continued past those two weeks I dont want to let it keep going!! He will eat at most..one or two crickets a day or a meal worm (both dusted with calcium) or two and doesnt touch his salad.

<<<< he's very tiny , so his stomache volume is tiny so do expect him to eat huge numbers of insects unless you are offering >>>pinhead size crickets or roaches or locusts >>> very small (< 5mm long) silkworms >>> very small phoenix worms >>> blowfly gents PLEASE - NO mealworms irrespective of the size of the mealworms , their exoskeleton is too hard for a very young beardie to digest and they can cause impaction because of this. Restrict his fast moving insects (crickets, roaches, locusts) to bugs no smaller than the space between his eyes (ie maybe 20day old crickets or up to 1/3 size crickets), a few at a time, he'll have to eat lots of pin heads or crickets smaller than 20day old size) to get a feed. Give then him 3 times per day a few at a time until he looses interest per meal. OK to leave some blowfly gents or phoenix worms or small (maybe 1 inch long) silkworms (on a bit of fresh mulberry leaf) in a bowl where he can pick at them as he pleases for a meal or two. Offer grated veg (sweet potato, carrot) finely chopped raw beans ( food processor chopping blade) and shredded high calcium greens daily, but don't obsess over his eating any, some will, many ignore the greens and veg unless there's a bug on it and get some in their mouth by accident.

He drinks fine when i mist him or put droplets on his head to lick off. Regardless of the water i offer him daily some days he looks so dehydrated that when i pick him up my thumb print will keep its shape on his belly so ill give him a soak for 15-20 mins and he looks a bit better. He doesnt poop often either ( im assuming bc he hasnt eaten much if anything)

<<<< not much food in ==> not much to poo , at his age if he's eating properly he'll be pooing daily

. During some of the soaks ive tried rubbing his belly in case he is impacted to see if i can help but that doesnt seem to be the case. I ordered Oxbow critical care and some pediolyte that arrived today to try and give him just To try and get something in him and to help him stay more hydrated.

<<<< good. handy to have incase you need them

I also brought him to the vet yesterday and she was not too helpful and immediately said it was probably parasites and hed likely die if thats the case without really looking much at him or offering any info on how to treat him. I dont want to just give up and assume the worst!! Ive bonded greatly with my baby and will do all i can to help him make it! Should I get a second opinion from the other exotic vet in the area? Theres only these two so i dont have much option..the one i was at was supposedly the better of the two but she was internet searching answers and using a care sheet for reference so i dont know if i trust her knowledge.

Itd also be helpful to know that most of the beardies that came with mine did get really lethargic and dehydrated and passed away before we could even make it to the vet appointment. Echo was one of the few who hadnt and seemed to stay of good health..obviously illness might take effect at different times if passed between them though, and parasites isnt an unwarrented response, but i want to look further into it since he isnt displaying many of the other symptoms the others were. In the meantime i was hoping for some insight or ideas? If it is parasites, is there really nothing i can do to bring him back to health like the vet pretty much said?!?! I know hes super small so it could be more difficult to and hes at a more critical state, but i cant accept that there is nothing i can do. He acts so happy and alert otherwise and it keeps me hopeful! Heres some info on his set up and care: Hes currently in a 40g breeder. His basking surface runs between 95 and 105 degrees (using a probe thermometer) and his cool side stays around 80 degrees.

<<<< basking spot is OK at 100-105F (NO HOTTER)

I have had to use two heat sources to get the temps up so i have the basking bulb and a ceramic heat lamp going on the same side and the uvb in the middle- reptisun 10.0 tube i am switching to the reptisun 10.0 tube light

<<<< is this a T8 or T5 HO fluorescent , a T8 even in a reflector hood will not be strong enough ==> he will not be getting enough UVA ==> lack of appetite he will not be getting enough UVB ==> unable to metabolise his dietary calcium to produce VitD3 and hence failure to thrive / grow / develop properly. The screen lid is blocking about 1/3 of the UVA and UVB produced by the t8 tube. Even if the t8 10% tube is in a reflector hood, if it's mounted on top of the a screen top he will never get enough UVA and UVB. He needs to be able to get within 6-8 inches of such a weak t8 tube.

The T8 uvb tube needs to overlap the basking light so he gets UVA and UVB while basking.
after reading up more while trying to figure out what is going in and how to help him. At night he just has the cermic heat lamp going bc the tank doesnt hold heat well so i worry about it getting a bit too cold over night. His basking branch is about 6 invhes from the lamp.

He has carpeting as his substrate. <<<< remove the carpet and lay absorbant paper sheets from your kitchen pantry --- much easier to clean up.

Hes offered water in a bowl (on top of the mist or dripping i do daily), greens with a mix if bell pepper and sometimes carrots or apples daily as well as calcium dusted mealworms that are all available all day..and ill give him calcium dusted gut loaded crickets 2x a day and since he hasnt been eating them ive only been offering a couple and he just stares at them or acts uninterested. Ive tried putting him in a smaller enclosure so he didnt have to hunt and maybe saw the movement better, ive also tried holding the mealworms up in front of him and hell lick it once but thats it. I even tried butternut squash baby food before the critical care came today and put a dab on his snout and got no response. Idk what im doing wrong, or what to do!!! Ive literally been losing sleep over this and all i do is research to try and figure it out. Any suggestions or ideas would be very much appreciated!! I really want my little guy to make it!!!

I also suspect you are perhaps running too short a photoperiod, and increasing this to 14 - 16 hrs will help.