New Baby Bearded with constant Stress Marks

philbob200":3t35nvzn said:

I'm very new to bearded dragon care, I got my baby Bearded a little more than a week ago. After reading up on stress marks I notice that he has them almost constantly.

He is active, does have some issues with eating and drinking (some days he eats some days he doesn't, and I mist him with water in the morning and at night). Currently his diet consists of meal worms (which I have now learned are more of a treat food, and will be getting crickets ASAP) and salads that consist of Baby Bock Choy, Butternut Squash, and Endive, with Calcium dustings on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

<<< cut the meal worms , only good as occasional treats (too fatty and very hard to digest their exoskeletons ==> impaction risk until the dragon is about 12 months old and the gut straightens out somewhat (normal development).

At his age , 3 meals per day of high quality live insects are needed.

Choose from
<<< blowfly gents * (the flies are good too)
<<< black soldier fly lavae * (the flies are good too)
<<< small (about 1" long) silkworms * , the moths are good too if you have them hatching from cocoons and laying eggs)
the above do not need to be dusted AND * CAN BE LEFT in a suitable escape proof dish so are perfect for meals while you are not home.

<<< also very good staples are crickets (I'd be buying 1/5 to 1/4 size (25 day old) crickets , gut load these with veg you mentioned, and dust daily with calcium (LIGHTLY) , and on the weekends with a 50-50 mix of vitamin and calcium powder (LIGHTLY).
<<< roaches are good staple feeders too (see above , select size to suit the hatchling)
<<< locusts are good staple feeders too ( see above )
My approach is give no more than 2 or 3 crickets / roaches / locusts at a time , let the hatchling catch and eat , then repeat , when the hatchling looses interest in the bugs , stop .

Offer salad fresh daily with the last meal of insects, leave in overnight (any rogue bugs will nibble the salad rather than attacking sleeping hatchling) , if he eats any salad of his own accord at this stage , it's a bonus.

I suggest lights on 6am, first meal 7am to 8am , give the hatchling time warm up and get hungry, last meal about 2 hours before lights/heat is turned off for the night.

My general routine for my 2 x 4 months olds is
Lights on 6am
9am >> feed 1 = crickets and BSFL
2pm >> feed 2 = silkworm/s & crickets or silkworm/s & BSFL
6:30pm >> feed 3 = crickets & BSFL & salad
Lights out 9pm

My boy Caesar is 66g now , and takes large silkworms and medium crickets ( 1/3 size up to 2/3 size), not so keen on BSFL but will take them, and he loves his greens. He's good at taking insects from my fingers but prefers to catch them, and is not so keen on being picked up.
He's insatiable wrt the insects and loves his food and is real live wire.

My girl Cleopatra is 37g now (told same age as the boy but think from two different clutches and a few weeks younger) , she loves crickets and BSFL and silkworms (medium size) and am yet to see her eat any greens , she loves being handfed and having q/time.
She's the quieter smoogy one.



His cage is a 20 Gallon (with a 40 Gallon on stand by for when he is older) with temps around 70-80 on the cool side and 100-110 on basking side for the day <<< I'd reduce that to a max of 100 F

, he can get withing 6-8 inches of the lamp, the lamp is an ExoTera Solar Glo all in one light for daytime, and a Moonlite Reptile Bulb for the night time with temps around 75-85.
<<< If the Moonlight give off visible light , remove it, if your house gets colder than 21 degC over night , a Ceramic Heat Emitter is the better option .

There is no cage background (which I will be picking up soon).

I also try to keep activity in the cage to a minimum, I only stick my hands in to feed and remove his food, and have taken him out of his cage once.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

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