Stress Marks!

Hi, I'm a new beardie owner and I've had my boy (Archie) for almost a week, it will be a week tomorrow. He has been awesome so far, he eats like a horse. His favorites are crickets and dandelion greens. He's had spots on his belly since I got him, and I can't tell if they are stress marks or just his coloring. I try to handle him once a day, and I think that might be the problem, other than the fact that my cats terrorize him. We keep them out of his room but when they do get in, his neck puffs up and he runs for his life. Additionally, his tank is glass on all sides except the back, so he can see everything that is going on and I think that might be overwhelming for him? I just want to know if I can do anything else to make him more comfortable. He has a heat lamp and a UVB lamp, as well as plenty to climb on and a hammock. I feed him twice a day and mist 3 times a day. His lamps are on from 6am to 9 pm. Help is appreciated! Thanks.

It's hard to tell what exactly about a bearded dragon's environment may be causing stress marks, even when everything's perfect. So don't stress out too much about it, but here are some tips that may help:
- Reduce handling to every other day. Juvenile beardies are generally more stressed out and tend not to handle frequent handling as well.
- Cover 3 sides of the terrarium with construction paper or thin foam insulation sheets so he doesn't feel like he's "out in the open."
- Misting really doesn't do much for bearded dragons. Offer a bowl of water and/or weekly soaks to encourage drinking.
- 6am to 9pm is a bit of a long photo period (15 hours). Try reducing it to 12-14 instead.
- Continue to keep the cats away.

That out of the way, what are your temps? (Cool side, warm side, and basking)

HylianHealeys":26t2hthu said:

It's hard to tell what exactly about a bearded dragon's environment may be causing stress marks, even when everything's perfect. So don't stress out too much about it, but here are some tips that may help:
- Reduce handling to every other day. Juvenile beardies are generally more stressed out and tend not to handle frequent handling as well.
- Cover 3 sides of the terrarium with construction paper or thin foam insulation sheets so he doesn't feel like he's "out in the open."
- Misting really doesn't do much for bearded dragons. Offer a bowl of water and/or weekly soaks to encourage drinking.
- 6am to 9pm is a bit of a long photo period (15 hours). Try reducing it to 12-14 instead.
- Continue to keep the cats away.

That out of the way, what are your temps? (Cool side, warm side, and basking)

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Basking spot (the hammock) is 110-115 on average, the lamp is exactly 8 inches away from it. Cool side is 75-80 degrees. Warm side (under the basking spot/climbing area) is 95 last time I checked the thermometer.

The dark marks are pretty common with little guys and I find the term stress marks to be misleading. While they can indicate mood, they often just come along with darkening when they are trying to bask. They tend to fade with age a bit. I would raise your basking light just a little and shoot for keeping the basking surface between 100-110 or so. Cool side temps are good and that is a nice gradient. Which UVB light are you using? How far above the basking area is it sitting?

CooperDragon":3321qzar said:

The dark marks are pretty common with little guys and I find the term stress marks to be misleading. While they can indicate mood, they often just come along with darkening when they are trying to bask. They tend to fade with age a bit. I would raise your basking light just a little and shoot for keeping the basking surface between 100-110 or so. Cool side temps are good and that is a nice gradient. Which UVB light are you using? How far above the basking area is it sitting?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! Raised the lamp up a few inches, now its probably 10 inches away from the basking spot. I used the ZooMed Reptisun UVB light, don't know if that's the exact name but it's pretty widely used.

Most of the ZooMed ReptiSun 10 bulbs are good. The long tubes are better than the compacts. The T5 bulbs are more powerful than the T8 version and need to be mounted at different distances to be effective.