Stressed out baby beardie

Hi, this is my first post on here so I hope I’m doing it in the right section.
This is all the basic information i know people ask about when people post
4 days ago I adopted a three legged baby bearded dragon, I’m unsure of his age but it’s probably around a month or so. I have him in a 40 gallon breaded, the hot side is normally 95-100 and his basking spot is a hammock, it used to be a log but since I got him the hammock he hasn’t left it. His basking spot is normally around 95-98. I’ve seen him with his mouth slightly open at times when he’s basking and I looked that up and it means he’s regulating his tempt so that’s okay I think? His cool side is around 75-80. At night I had a red light in the tank but the temperature was always hot at night and I looked it up that as long as it doesn’t go below 65 it’s okay to have the lights off in the tank so it’s normally high 60s or 70 at night. He eats crickets twice a day as many as he wants in a 15 minute period. I feed him in a separate tank because feeding him in the bigger one I was having trouble with and that’s how he was fed at the store I’ve gotten him at. He eats greens two to three times a day (only the purple ones though) and sometimes carrots. Ive given him calcium but his poop started turning orange so ive read that means to much calcium. I’ve been trying to handle him more and more each day som days he sits still and others he tries to run. He had problems with his reflection so I’ve taken precautions to avoid him seeing it. In his tank there’s a food bowl, water, log, two sticks, and a hammock
Anyways back to my problem, his belly when I got him had a few stress marks but it seems that they’re only getting darker now and I’m really unsure what to do. His skin hasn’t darkened either only his belly. He doesn’t get to aggressive or puffs out that much when I go to hold him. He’s just finished shedding too. I’m worried because I can’t seem to destress him, he’s my first bearded dragon and I just want to make sure he’s happy and healthy!!

It sounds like he is OK. The dark lines you are seeing are common with the little guys and they just get pronounced when they darken themselves to absorb heat/light. You might want to try increasing the basking surface temps a few degrees into the 100-110 range and see how he reacts. If he avoids it then bring the temps back down again but it's worth experimenting with a bit to find his preferences.

If the temps in the tank are high 60s low 70s overnight he should be fine with no night heat. I wouldn't use a red light anyway because that can disturb his sleep. You might need one in the winter if the house gets colder but in that case a low wattage ceramic heat emitter should do the job. Still just want to bump it to the high 60s/low 70s overnight.

Do you have a good UVB light for him? It's important for him to get adequate UVB while he's basking. It sounds like he's doing OK so far though. Can you post some photos of him? You can upload photos here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button when you reply.

thank you for the fast reply! I have a 100 watt uvb bulb in a zoomed dome for him, at the store he had I believe the same thing. This one came with a bearded dragon kit. I used a 150 watt heat lamp bulb, the 100 just wasn't getting the tank hot enough for him. I think that the uvb is good for him? if not please let me know! I hope I uploaded these right, his name is Pickle by the way.

He's a cute little guy. He looks healthy to me. Do be sure to double check temps with a temp gun or digital thermometers w/probes and not rely on those dial thermometers for accurate readings. The 100w bulb is a ZooMed Powersun? That will produce UVB and heat together. It should sit 8-12'' above the basking area for best UVB output.

If the light came with a kit then it's probably just a basking bulb producing heat. They usually provide relatively useless coil/compact UVB bulbs and a dual dome fixture. If the basking light is producing adequate surface temperatures (read with an IR temp gun or digital thermometer with a probe) then that's OK. I would definitely replace the UVB bulb with a nice high quality T5 bulb and fixture though.