Black lines under beardies chin and belly in morning?.

Hey everyone , new Bd owner as of 5 days ago. I noticed that Otto has block lines under his chin and belly in the mornings and they get much less noticible through the day . Is this normal?
Otto is about 6-7” head to toe , I’m told a couple months old. He’s been eating frozen crickets great and even some kale and carrots I leav in his tank. He poops regularly 1-2 times a day , today in his food dish ?. At night I use a heat emitter 60w that drops the temp in his tank to about 80 on the warm side. When I turn the lights on at about 7am he’s up and at em waiting for me to bring him his first meal and eats very well. I’ve given him a couple baths , I noticed he’s in shed his head and tale skin has come off so reall the mid section left . He hasn’t hissed or anything at me he’s easy to pick up and just chill in my hand. I was just wondering about the lines is all.
*also he never goes in his hide.

Those are what most people call stress marks, my adult female usually has them all the time, sometimes not. It can be for stress or for basking purposes since darker colors i believe attract more heat. I could be wrong of course.

However frozen crickets arent staple feeders, they basically have nothing in them but the exo skeleton so hes basically not getting any healthy foods that he needs to grow properly. He needs tons of food at that age. 3 times a day and 10-20 alive bugs each feeding.
Usually i go by this
1-4 months 3 times a day 10-20 bugs each feeding, 4-12 months 2 times a day 10-20 bugs each, 12-20 months once a day 10-20 bugs each, and 20+ months every other day or 2-3 times a week 10-20 bugs each.

Kale is one of the greens to stay away from, offer collard greens, turnip greens and mustard greens if you can find them. Only offer the carrots occasionally, carrots every day wouldnt be good.

Can you tell me what your monitoring the temps with,
What the bedding/substrate is,
What size tank hes in,
What is the basking temp, and cool side temp,
What is the uvb brand,
What kind of uvb, tube, mvb (heat and uvb), compact/coil,


Please post pics of the setup as well.
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/
upload the image there and come back and hit the XIMG tab to select it.

don know how to post picks on here , but his temp on the warmer side is about 105 and 80 on the cooler side during the day , and cooler at night like 80 , using zoomed uvb bulb and fixture and a double dome zoomed basking light 100w for the day and heat coil on the other dome for night

Getting live crickets then freezing them takes away nutrients?

It takes away pretty much everything, its not like freezing a rat or mouse for a snake and then thawing it out. And anyway theres no choice but live food for lizards for the insect part. As for a snake thats going to be feeding on something that can do damage to it then freezing would be good but beardies are not snakes and their food is not mice or rats.

Is the uvb a tube light and if so what kind, t5 10.0, t5 5.0. t8 10.0 etc.
And by heat coil you mean a heat emitter correct?

So the black lines “stress lines” are normal then?

Most of the time yes, some beardies have pattering on their stomachs. However some dont or at least their very faint and then become more noticeable when stressed out you could say.

Thanks! I have live Phoenix Worms on the way and did away with the kale gonna go get some collard greens in a bit, his uvb light is a t5-5.0 11” long and the heat bulb I’m not sure I think repti sun brand I threw away the package. What about handling? Should I be leaving him alone for the first week?

Is it a tube light? I dont believe any tube lights are 11" and if it is a tube light the t5 5.0 needs to be mounted inside or your beardie gets barely any uvb with it sitting on the screen, especially if its a compact or coil one.

As for handling id just do it in a quiet non busy room and hand feed all the time. I usually get my reptiles out and watch youtube with them and sometimes they go to sleep on me.
He probably just doesnt know who you are yet.