Darkening colors

[Briana1976]

i have this new beardie, I got her Friday & today I was looking in her tank, right after I cleaned it out, and she is almost black. I took her out & put her in a little warm water & it seemed to clear up a little bit but I put her back in the tank & she's back that dark color. I've read some things about it being stress & also some things about the lighting. Under the chin & stomach also have black circles. She acts fine but it scares me. Do I need to be aware of something or am I just overreacting? It was a lot darker before the bath & this was about 10 minutes after.

 

[CooperDragon]

She looks fine. They darken to absorb more heat/light. They also lighten their colors sometimes. It can indicate mood but it is more often tied to basking. I would double check your temperature gradient in the tank and your UVB light type and distance from her basking spot to make sure it's just right but I don't see a problem looking at that photo.

 

[Reptilelady]

Awe thats how she looks when my beardie wakes up in the morning. Its exactly what CooperDragon wrote. Basically they want to absorb more heat and they will flatten their body (belly) to try to get more warm. Do you know the temperature you have for the hot side and cool side?

 

[Briana1976]

Her basking spot normally stays around 105° and the cool side normally stays 85°. She stays in the middle of both unless she sees food or my cat walk by. My cat stresses her a little bit but I've fixed it to a bare minimum if any. But I'm glad to know it's just the absorbing the heat.