Will answer your questions below. Just want to emphasize to keep them housed separately, if they are not already.
Does he really "need" a UVA/UVB bulb? Without it, will he not grow full size?
Bearded dragons must have UVB lighting. This can be from florescent UVB bulbs (Repti-glo, repti-sun, special Mercury Vapor bulbs). If you live somewhere where it is warm most of the year, you can bring your dragons outside for about 5-6 hours a week (an hour a day is good) for natural sunlight.
-How many crickets a day should he be eating?
By a year old, bearded dragons should be eating about 90% greens. If he seems small, you can give him a feeding of crickets (or other good insects, such as silkworms, butterworms, hornworms, roaches) in the afternoon or mixed into his greens. By 14 months, insects should be reduced to just a few a day, or 2-3 feedings a week. Feed as many insects the dragon can eat in a 5 minute period when feeding them as a meal, greens should always be available.
-Is orange and avocado okay for him to eat?
No, both are very bad for bearded dragons. They should not get any citris fruit. It's fine to feed the crickets a slice of orange to help give them vitamins, but none to dragons at all, Avacado is extremely high fat and not good at all. For a list of good greens, veggies and fruits dragons can eat and how often to give them, look at the nutrition chart at: www.beautifuldragons.com
-Why does he get really dark and other times really light?
Bearded dragons will be dark especially in the morning, to better absorbe heat and light from their basking spot. Once they are all warmed up their color lightens up to reduce heat absorbed. Dragons will also draken their color if stressed, ill or not getting sufficient heat/light from basking and uvb bulbs.
-I never see him drink out of his water dish...so I sometimes take a dropper and try to give him water that way, but he only licks a couple drops from his mouth, is this okay? And does he get water from the pieces of orange that I give him?
Dragons rarely drink from standing water. Misting them once or twice a day is fine, or provide freshly washed or misted greens. Dragons get their water from the foods they eat. If he does look dehydrated (skin wrinkly, when pulled, won't fall back into place immediately, or constipated) you can soak them in luke warm water for about 10-15 minutes, change water if the dragon poos in it, then continue the soak. Some dragons hate bathes, so do this only to combat dehydration or to clean the dragon. If yours seems to enjoy it you can give a bath once a week. Again, no oranges or any other citrus fruits.
-How often should I mist him?
Once or twice a day is fine, if he seems to need it.
-How often should he be shedding?
This varies on growth rate. As he is nearly a year old, he may not grow to much more, however, if he continues to grow under your care, he could shed as often as once a month or a bit more. Once they reach their full growth, usually after 14 months, shedding will reduce to maybe 2-3 times a year.
-Why does he sit there with his mouth open a lot?
Gaping is how dragons regulate their body heat. If they do it all the times, especially if they are not on their basking site, check your cage temperatures, make sure the ambient temps are no more than 85F with a cool end of around 70-80F. Night time temps can drop to 65F. Basking temp should fall between 95-115F with several basking areas under the basking light with various temperatures, within or close to that range, to give the dragon a choice between a hotter basking spot and a cooler one.
It would also be a good ideal to get a fecal done on both your dragons, to make sure neither has parasites. These fecals can be done by any vet experienced with reptiles and usually they are not very much. Just bring a poop sample from each dragon (label the baggy/container the poop is in so you know which dragon it belongs to) and bring it to your local vet. Most will do teh fecals without seeing the lizard and the cost is much cheaper/ If parasites are found, then you may need to bring the affected dragon in to be weighed for proper dosage of panacur or albon (the common parasite treatment drugs).
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PHLdyPayne
