So, I'm admittedly very new here to the world of bearded dragons, but I'm curious about this "stress marks" thing. I'm a bit skeptical if "stress" is really what is going on here, at least with my new dragon. The reason I'm puzzled if "stress" is really the issue is that my new little one, about 8" long, is extremely striated and almost dark grey on her tummy while she's (she is still our best guess for now) basking on her rock under her Mega-Ray bulb. Her basking temp is 105-106 and she looks very content while basking. However, when you take her out and mess with her, and we move her to a Rubbermaid bin for cricket feeding, as we got tired of chasing uneaten crickets in her viv, within a couple of minutes, she's an almost pure creamy ivory color on her tummy. So, again, I'm skeptical about the marks really indicating "stress" because she should be much more stressed while we're messing with her and handling her than she is while she is just contentedly basking, I would think. I'm thinking her marks are more just temperature related than stress related. Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?