Stress marks and dark colouring

[Novathebeardie]

I've had my beardie now for just over two weeks. He turned out to be a male and not a female as i originally thought so his name has been changed to Nova

After getting help from on here about a few other things which i am incredibly grateful for, i'm back with another issue. Nova had shed his body and head 5 days ago and since then he's had almost constant stress marks and he's always dark in colour. The only times his colour brightens and his stress marks disappear is when he's sleeping, eating, and sometimes when he has a bath. I know stress marks and darkened colour can be caused by multiple things but i can't figure out what's causing them.

He's still eating perfectly, is definitely hydrated enough. He still basks, is still active, but i do feel like he's become slightly more sluggish than before he shed and is reluctant to get up in the morning. His temps are 39-43c at the basking spot on different parts of the rock so he can decide how hot he wants to be, and his cool end is 25-26c. I've lowered his UV light a bit since i was worried it was too high, and that hasn't fixed his stress marks. I am a bit worried, since i don't know what's stressing him out so i can't fix it. Is there anything else i can do, or should i take him to my vet?

 

[AHBD]

Hi there....stress marks are really mislabeled +misunderstood in the beardie world. They can simply be from excitement or just normal every day activity. Nothing at all to worry about, Nova will be fine.

 

[Novathebeardie]

That's really good to hear. I was just a bit worried thank you so much for always helping me! Would there be much of a reason why they disappear when he does certain activities, or is that likely to be something that he just does for no specific reason?

 

[DaisyDragon123]

Stress marks really don't indicate stress. They will appear and disappear throughout the day. My dragon, DaisyDragon, had them while basking. They are nothing to worry about.

A more acurate coloration for stress is the black beard, not to be confused with the blackish lines that are seen in many dragons' beards. Dragons will get a pitch black beard when ill, angry, excited when seeing another dragon (teritorial).

Don't worry about so-called stress marks. This idea should go, along with dragons drinking water from their vent.

 

[Novathebeardie]

Thank you for your comment as well DaisyDragon I'm really happy to know that they're not usually related to stress! Thankfully he hasn't black bearded yet so that's a good sign.